Some designers will offer different logo design packages based on the quantity of different variations they provide to you. Here’s what happens, they spend the most time on the first rendition and then quickly throw together a few extras based on a similar concept. It’s easy to hide the one they want you to pick in the mix of a few bad ones, and the worst part is you’ll think it was your idea when picking “the right one”. Find a company, or designer, that will offer you a solid design and keep working at it until it’s right. Your logo is the most important part of your new venture, get it right the first time!
Gradients Are Forbidden
Don’t get caught up in fancy gradient fades, color transitions, or drop shadows. Focus on solid colors and crisp edges and curves. Gradients can cause a world of headaches you may not know you’ll encounter until it’s too late. The first will be that if you don’t get the right formats when it’s done, and we’ll talk about that later, you’ll have a heck of a time scaling the logo upwards without degrading it’s quality. The second is when you decide to have it embroidered, screen printed, or printed on an off-set press; these guys charge per color and more often than not cannot reproduce a gradient as nicely as you saw it on screen that fateful day you selected the logo with the gradient.
Demand Your Logo Be Designed Correctly
With modern software, technology, and schooling, there’s no excuse why a designer wouldn’t design your logo in vector format. Vector format is a format of image that is designed to scale infinitely without loosing image quality. When getting your logo designed ask how they’ll be designing the logo and what programs they’ll be using. What you’re looking for is “vector format” and “Adobe Illustrator”. The embroidery, screen printing, and off-set press guys we mentioned earlier will love you if you provide them with your logo in vector format and you’ll love the price and turnout even more.
Price Isn’t Everything
You can have a logo designed from anywhere between ten bucks and upwards of a thousand dollars. While it’s important for a new business to have a great logo, it’s equally important not to go broke doing so. When looking to have your logo designed, be sure that you are looking for the things mentioned in this piece as well as the price. This is one investment you shouldn’t hesitate to consider thoroughly, your logo is the first thing people see about your business!
Get The Right Formats When It’s Done
More often then not the last thing you’re thinking about when having your logo designed is how many people will need to use it in the future to help you with other things. Your website designers will need it, your shirt embroidery guys will need it, and your business card printers will need it. If you’re working with quality companies they’ll more than likely ask for a source file and you can bet they are crossing their fingers for what we mentioned earlier, vector format from Adobe Illustrator. Providing your third-party vendors with a quality version of your logo is important, you want to give them what they need to continue making your business look great. We provide clients with an Adobe Illustrator (.AI) source file, transparent .PNG, RGB .JPG, and CMYK .JPG. You may not know what all of those formats mean or how they work but your vendors will and they’ll appreciate that you have them available when needed.
When making the decision to have a logo designed for your new business or an older logo redesigned for your existing business, look for the things listed above from the company/individual you choose to do the job. If you’ve already had a logo designed but missed a few of the things above, get in touch with us and we’ll do what we can to help you get what you need.
Looking to have a new logo designed? Need help with an existing logo? Check out some of our Graphic Design services and send us a note, we can’t wait to meet you!
