The right business logo is arguably the most important element available to represent a business, especially in today's online world, where first impressions are everything. Designing the right business logo is often the first step in properly branding a company and its products.
The company logo becomes an integral, indelible aspect of a company's identity within its markets. A company's logo creates the first impression people will have of the business. It's the most important graphic image a company owns, one that summarizes and represents the business - to employees, partners and most importantly of all, to customers. A well designed business logo is an unmistakable sign of a company's strength, its self-image, the scope of its services and the kind of products it offers.
A logo is a typographical mark intended to convey not only the name of a company, but also its character and its values. It typically consists of a high-quality graphic image that will be used to represent the company in most everything that it does throughout most of the company's life (since companies rarely change or update their logos).
While spending a lot on developing and testing a new business logo is something large companies have invested in heavily for many years, you don't have to spend a lot to get a commodity, "custom logo" designed these days. In fact, anything above $500 dollars for a business logo is probably considered having paid too much - assuming you already know fundamentally what you need that logo to say about your company...
On the other hand, if you want to add the full complement of value to your logo, you'd better plan on hiring someone to do more up-front planning and analysis, then do the graphic design part last.
A great business logo is a small investment for the ability to convey such an important, powerful message about your company, its values and what it stands for, quickly and succinctly. However, what matters most in a logo's design is determining how best to represent your company, and what kind of activities you want that logo to spawn within your viewer's mind.
There are lots of options to choose from in terms of logo graphic design elements, but it's critically important for you to think carefully about what you want to emphasize most through your company logo. Once this has been adequately examined and is well understood, only then are you truly ready to consider graphic representation options for the logo.
