Logo design is one of the first considerations for a founding team of a new company. It’s also a carefully navigated quagmire for an aging brand that needs a refresh.
We’ve consulted a panel of web design and logo experts about the basics and not-so-basics of creating a great logo for new and not-so-new web-based companies. In this three-part series, we’ll share their insights on trends, hiring designers, typography and more.
Our panel includes UK logo designer Graham Smith, designer and logo design blogger Jacob Cass, and Raj Abhyanker, CEO of Trademarkia, a firm specializing in trademarks and logos.
Read on for their advice, and designers, please share your own experiences and opinions in the comments section.
Biggest Challenges for Startups
Cass says that one of the most difficult aspects of logo creation for startups is finding a logo designer whose work is good and who is still within a startup’s meager budget. If you don’t have a stellar logo designer on your founding team, and if your product needs more than a bare-bones logotype, hiring this kind of talent on a shoestring budget can be a challenge.
Smith echoes this concern, stating that startups’ main challenge is “to not look like they have purposefully spent all their money on coffee and code and have not put aside any funds for things like the logo design and other marketing avenues.
“They of course may have limited funds, but unfortunately this will reflect badly on them regardless. Some of these companies just look lazy and uninterested in how their visual identity might fair with the punters.”
As far as a “lazy” logo goes, Smith cites the “classic Beta mode” as a repeat offender in startup identity, calling it cheap and uninspiring. And, he continues, “A truly dire and unremarkable logo can have some kind of festering negative outcome.”
Also, Cass says startups should should think about… READ MORE