Deciding how to brand your business can be one of the most challenging things to do.
Whether you are deciding on the name of the company, the domain, the business structure, there are a lot of elements indeed. One of the most important however is the Image you plan on portraying through the use of a logo. If you look at some of the largest companies around, just by looking at the logo you can recognize which company it is. Take for instance Nike, they have established a worldwide brand, and anytime someone sees that trademark swoosh logo, you know its Nike. This was not always the case, just like many aspects of business, establishing a recognizable brand takes time, a global brand even more time, and it is imperative to have quality products. What good is a brand or logo if the product behind it is bad. You would not want to have negative reviews or bad press take over as you are barely starting, then you might find yourself trying to rebrand in the future just to fix the mess that was created.
The first thing you want to establish is the structure of your business. Are you planning on building a global brand or just a local brand? This will make a difference when deciding on a name and a logo, If your plan is to open up a local restaurant you may want to incorporate some local recognition into your brand. If you live in Oak Hill as an example, The city of Oak Hill may be known for its Lucius oak trees, and many outside visitors may know of Oak Hill. You may Find Oak Hill Dentistry, or Oak Hill Body Shop. That may give you an idea of branding around an already recognized name of your city, neighborhood, subdivision, etc. Once you have decided on the name and the presence and the kind of customers you will serve it is time to move on to the creation.
Once you have the name down, put it on paper and sketch some ideas. You don’t have to be an artist. This will simply get the creative juices flowing and will allow you to tap into thy our creative side and will make it easier once someone helps you with the design. Sketch out different styles you think would look well, also analyze the competition and check out how other companies logos look. Is the logo incorporated within the name like Chick-fil-A or FedEx Or the name Text and a trademark image. Write down these ideas and competitors and also write down what you don’t like about your competition. Write what you do like, and then write down how you want yours to look. Once you have some idea down it’s time to move onto the design.
Once you have a rough Idea of how you would like your logo to look, you can then leave it to a professional to do the rest. The best part of it all is you don’t have to break your bank trying to have a logo designed. Thankfully many services in the recent years websites such as freelancer.com or Upwork.com have made it possible for small business owners to outsource projects like these to talented individuals rather than hiring a company who may charge you the money you don’t have. Freelancer also has a contest feature where you can gather hundreds of ideas from Designers all over the world, the winning logo will receive the prize which is the Set Dollar amount you have decided. You can create any budget/prize amount, usually higher budgets will get a lot better ideas and entries whereas anything less than 50 dollars will be basic but useable logo concepts. If you would like to check out freelancer use this link. We will receive a credit if you decide to start a project with them.
https://www.freelancer.com/get/weblinkcapital?f=give
Once you have a final design you can refine it and work with the designer to make changes and update the logo over time, If you don’t like the logo you can always change it, in my experience it is my practice to pick my top 3 choices and check for originality, I also make sure the designers provide the Source files, get them in PSD format or AI format because if you work with merchandise or companies that will print for you, they will need a high resolution version of the logo. There is no right or wrong way to get a logo made, you may even create a free one on many websites however in my experience, I’d rather choose from hundreds of ideas for a decent budget.
