Choosing a professional graphic designer for your logo can be a daunting task. There’s so much to know, and no one wants their logo to be a dud.
Let’s shed some light on the types of logos, and some key points that you should understand when selecting someone to create your logo.
What kinds of logos are there?
There are three basic types of logos:
1. Iconic Logo or Symbolic Logo
A simple icon or symbol can convey the literal or abstract about your company. This option is less direct than text, and leaves interpretation to the viewer (this can be a good or bad thing).
2. Logotype Logo or Wordmark Logo
A logotype or wordmark is your company or brand name. With millions of fonts to choose from, or even creating your own font face, the options here are endless. However, legibility should be one of your primary concerns with the wordmark logo.
3. Combination Mark Logo
Combination marks include text and an icon. There are two types of combination marks: the integrated combination mark, which has the text as part of the graphic, and the stand-alone combination mark, which has the icon beside the text.
The combination mark logo is a hybrid and can allow you the flexibility of a stand-alone iconic logo in the right situations.
Quality over quantity
Less is more and more is less. If you’re being presented with dozens of logo options, which are often subtle variations on a theme, then you’re not getting the best from the designer and you will get bogged down in option overload.
We always start off with three distinctly different, but top-shelf, logo ideas, because we believe you should be choosing from the best options. Design & Develop can do this thanks to our initial interview process, in which we get to the heart of your logo ideas and wishes.
A logo designer who hands you a dozen logos to choose from is diluting the pool. The initial design concept is not the point where you get into red vs. blue variations, or six different font faces.
Formats and variations
When you’ve selected your logo and the design process is finished, you should be provided with a final package providing a variety of file formats and color options intended for different reproduction purposes.
The file formats that should be included in your logo package:
- EPS
- JPG
- PNG
When the final payment is made the source artwork files should be handed off along with a release of any intellectual property rights. You might not be able to open and view the final formats since they may have been produced in applications like Adobe Illustrator (.AI) or CorelDraw (.CDR). These files are intended to be kept safe and dusted off when another designer or agency needs to work with your logo.
Guides, not just for scaling Everest
You should receive a document commonly referred to as a Logo Guide. It covers the basics: typefaces, colours, white space margins around the logo, and minimum sizing.
This document should travel with your logo files so that those working with your identity mark know what the rules are.
Make sure you own your logo
According to our understanding of Canadian copyright laws, informed by a few lawyer friends, ownership of a logo ultimately resides with the creator of the logo, until such time as money and documentation indicates a change of ownership.
All of Design & Develop’s logo invoices include a $1 line item for the transfer of ownership to our clients.
Are you ready?
Hopefully you now feel more prepared to jump in and start working with a graphic designer on your logo.
Did we miss anything? Leave us a comment and ask!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the logo series on how to choose a logo.
