What is the key to most successful businesses? Marketing. After all, you can have the best product in the world, but if no one hears about it, it is not going to matter. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to put a 30 second spot on the Super Bowl. That is where commercial color printing comes in to play.
A brand is a business’s identity. It establishes credibility, and a quick walk through the supermarket will confirm that people are willing to pay more for brands. The first step in developing a brand for your business is to know who you are. Are you an upscale restaurant or a dollar store?
When you pick a name the two things to look at are how memorable it is and how easy it is to spell. Some companies pay up to $35 000 to research the correct name. Choose wisely--remember that this name is going to be on everything from business cards to radio ads.
Next, you are going to want a logo, something simple and memorable. Think of a popular restaurant and odds are the first thing that pops into your head is the logo. If you see two golden arches, you assume that a McDonalds is there.
So, you have a name and a logo, now you’re going to want to decide which colors to use. There are different advantages to each color and you should not pick your favorites. For example, red and orange are both known to stimulate appetite. How many fast food restaurants do you know that have at least one of those colors? Almost every single one. That is not a coincidence, nor should your use of color be.
When you are building a new business one of the keys to survival is knowing your competition. Many would-be successful businesses take this too lightly. You should know everything you can about anyone in the area who provides anything remotely similar to what your business does. You need to know about more than their product though. You should know what they are doing for advertising, how long they have been in business, what worked for them when they were starting out--essentially anything, you can find.
Building a business is not easy, and it never will be. Most businesses fail, usually because someone looked over a small detail. Maybe the market was poorly evaluated, maybe the product was rushed--do not let those be your excuses. Understand your market, and use the information you have gathered to attack it. That is the key to building a business.
Kaye Z. Marks is a writer and an observer. She is continuously fascinated with the developments in commercial color printing technologies, which greatly help in the marketing and advertising campaigns of small to medium businesses.
Kaye Z. Marks is a writer and an observer. She is continuously fascinated with the developments in commercial color printing technologies, which greatly help in the marketing and advertising campaigns of small to medium businesses. Visit http://www.justprint.com for information.
Find the Right Balance in Logo Creation
by Kaye Z. Marks
keyword: commercial color printing
Words: 730
In a business, logo creation is as crucial as setting up a business plan. It is not as easy as going to a designer and having him create a cool, modern symbol with a ripped off tagline. Unfortunately, it goes beyond “cool”. It goes beyond what you think is the hype. Instead, it requires a deeper understanding of your business, how it can be best represented, the overall impression it leaves on its viewers and if it is sticky enough to be retained in the minds of your market.
Your logo’s every curve and color must exist for a reason. All elements should come together to contribute to an overall powerful and clear message easily conveyed to anyone who sees it.
Color Selection
Let us start with color. Colors mean something. Some colors make you mad, some make you calm and some make you agitated and so on. Every color has a psychological impact on people and a good mastery of such knowledge will prove to be very useful in creating your logo.
Composition of Elements
Selecting the right images shapes for your logo and arranging them also requires a good amount of thought. Overdone logos with a lot of curves and circles might leave you confused and overwhelmed. At the same time, some are too simple that it leaves you unimpressed with no clear idea what the business behind that logo wants to say. Investing time and effort on trial-and-error tests on your logo might seem a tedious task, but once overcome, you will reap the rewards with more response and more results from your viewers.
Getting It All Together
Before we think of what color or shape, at the base of our minds is what your logo should symbolize. The “what” comes first before the “how”. From the base sketch, to the colors, to the shapes, always check if every addition gives more value to your logo in association with your brand. In addition to the value of the parts of your logo, another thing you should keep a keen eye out for is the overall balance of your design. You must think about how to balance your logo design well enough that each stroke is where it should be and everything taken in its totality equates to a clear message so that people can understand:
- What your business does and what it believes in
- The products and services you provide
- The advantage of choosing your products and services over others
Going over some popular logos very familiar to us, we notice the use of small fonts, use of the color red and arches. Let us dissect these elements for a minute.
Big companies use small fonts to convey that despite the enormous size and spread of their organization, people from all walks of life, even the less prestigious, can still make business with them. A small type makes people less daunted and rather more at ease in approaching the company.
The color red, not only grabs our attention, but it also communicates a sense of professionalism, passion and stability. That’s why it‘s no surprise that several financial or banking companies make use of this shade like Mastercard, WellsFargo, and HSBC.
Now let us go to the use of arches. Arches can be used in a variety of ways and in conjunction other elements or letters in your logo. When used overhead, the arch can represent an umbrella to convey protection. Alternatively, in the same sense, when used under the text, an arch can convey reliability like a net catches circus acrobats when they fall. With lines arched in different directions, it is very possible that you can communicate a sense of protection, confidence and trust.
It goes to show that there is no need for too much incorporation of lines and shapes to convey a message to the people. Going overboard with symbols and colors in a logo can create too many elements that people will only add fuss instead of value.
Double check your designs and before you have your professional color printing company work on your logo, make sure that you have created it properly and have thought it out well. You must achieved the proper balance of using symbols that mean something akin to your company and keep them as simple and neat enough as possible. Balanced and uncluttered, remember that.
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