Logo Design Sanity Savers

By Gail Richards - Jul 07 , 2008

For most authors, a book is an extension of their core business, and when the book is about to go public, they may become acutely aware of the need to dress up some other essentials about that business, like their company logo.

The process of creating the quintessential symbol that will represent your business visually for the foreseeable future—one that will show up on everything from invoices to ball caps—can be engaging and rewarding or leave you ready to tear your hair out.
Whether working with a graphic designer or going it alone, here are some things you can do to help the process go smoothly and productively:

THE PROCESS

• Start a collection of likes and dislikes. Start accumulating ads, logos, business cards, etc. (anything visual…) that catches your eye—whether that be for positive or negative reasons. Use this collection as a point of reference in flushing out the main characteristics of your logo.
• If you will be working with a graphic designer, give yourself choices. After narrowing down the main characteristics you want in your logo, contract with at least three different designers for one hour of their time to produce rough concept sketches. This will enable you to select the one whose style is most in line with your vision, rather than trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
• If you will be choosing the logo by committee, select one person to be the point of contact for the designer. Make sure they communicate with each other on the committee, and then have the contact person capsulize the feedback that will be passed on to the designer for edits and changes.

THE DESIGN

• Colors = Cost. If you want your logo to have more than two colors (PMS printing approach), you may be raising the price considerably on many items you will need. This is not to say you should shy away from a full-color design (CMYK printing approach), but you should be aware that full color costs more to reproduce in many cases.
• Keep it simple and straightforward. Trying to have your logo “say” too much is confusing and defeats the purpose. Lots of details in a design typically detract more than they add.
• Make certain that your logo works well at large sizes and small. What looks good at 8.5×11 may be cramped beyond recognition when sized to fit on a business card.
• Use a vector-based program to execute the logo—Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, or Corel Draw, NOT a raster-based software program, such as older versions of Photoshop.
• Make certain that your logo is reproducible in one color—you will need it for faxing and copying. If there is not enough contrast, the logo will melt together, or simply show up as a black blob. There will be also other instances where it will need to be executed that way, in particular for specialty items.

THE TECHNOLOGY

• Make a list of all the places you will want to use the logo—this includes the names of every software package you use regularly to produce business documents. Know the file formats that the software can IMPORT/INSERT/PLACE or GET. This information will determine the file formats needed when creating and then saving the logo.

GRAPHIC STANDARDS

• Once your logo has been approved and produced, generate a set of guidelines for its use. This can be as simple or as complicated as you choose.

Include the following along with examples:

• PMS color numbers
• CMYK color mixes
• Names of any typefaces used in the logo
• Whether or not there is a tag line that must accompany the logo at all times

As documents are generated using the logo, you can include samples along with positioning information for logo and text, as well as, content information.

• Collaterals—business card, letterhead, envelopes
• Publications—newsletters, reports
• Signage
• Web pages

THE CHOICE

• Give yourself plenty of lead time to move through the design process. Logo design is a process of back and forth, give and take. Don’t back yourself into the corner of having to settle for a logo that just doesn’t quite hit the mark because you’ve run out of time.

When it’s right, you’ll know it.

THE FUN

Most importantly, enjoy the ride.

Regardless of how you approach the design of your logo, these pointers will help streamline the process and eliminate a few headaches along the way.

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