You’ve made up your mind to change your company logo…have decided on the color changes, and the new designs too. But wait a minute; how much have you budgeted for the big change? Just the graphic designer’s fee? "Think again".

Many brand managers and business owners believe that when they choose to redesign logos, the graphic designer’s fee will be all the expense they’ll be paying up. Some lucky ones may even get the services for free or for a pleasant discount if the designer happens to be a generous and helpful friend. But you may be signing up for some additional costs when you decide to do the redesigning deed.

Paying the Graphic Designer:

Firstly, the choice of the designer itself can be quite a task, both for you and your wallet! Succumbing to the services of an amateur designer to save a few bucks may not be an ideal practice. A seasoned designer will be better able to understand the message your previous logo had been portraying, and will be able to work with you redesign your logo such that the identity of the brand is preserved while the brand logo gets a breath of fresh air with some innovative changes. The designer’s experience will be working wonders here.

Repackaging and Reprinting Costs:

Besides your choice of designer, did you realize you’ll have to introduce the redesigned logo in all communication and marketing materials of your product? If you’re selling a packaged product, this means that all the previous packing material, leaflets, promotional flyers, etc will be rendered obsolete and there will be quite a lot of reprinting costs involved.

And if your business is service-oriented, while you may end up saving on packaging costs, the reprinting costs of marketing and promotional materials will still be there, just like for other businesses choosing to redesign logos. Some food for thought, indeed.

Promoting the New Logo Design:

Let’s suppose you’re a well-organized brand manager and had an idea of these costs. But there’s something else that may be taking a peek at your pocket: creating awareness about the redesigned logo. Just introducing redesigned logo out of the blue may confuse customers who might start doubting the authenticity of your brand. Unless, of course, you make an effort to publicize and popularize the new change you’ve been working on by posting ads on various print and electronic media. But that effort means you’ll be needing more than just loose change to advertise the wonderful new face of your brand.

The RISK!!

But what’s more worrisome than all of these costs is that by the end of the day, even if you’ve budgeted for any wildest expense that might come your way, the customers may not take a fancy for the new logo. Take the case of Pepsi: the brand logo was redesigned recently in 2008, only to be criticized extensively by consumers and critics who believed the previous Pepsi logo was ‘timeless’ and ‘chic’.

All these costs and considerations need to be kept in mind when you redesign logos. Remember, any redesigned logo that you make will stick with your brand and your business for several years. It will become the new face of your brand and will be an investment that will pay off in multitudes.

Logo design acts as the nucleus of a brand identity system. Its core function is to communicate the meaning and purpose of the company in a graphical manner. But in some cases, the symbol isn’t enough to reveal the corporate identity. In order to extend the meaning within a brand, a tagline is employed. Taglines or slogans are short, precise description of the firm and usually consist of 3-5 words.

Creating logos with taglines helps a designer incorporate an extended meaning into the design. It also helps the target audience in remembering the brand. For instance, people recognize McDonald’s (read history of McDonald’s logo) mostly because of its famous slogan “I’m Lovin It”. Similarly, BMW explains its corporate identity through the tagline “Ultimate Driving Machine”.

For you inspiration, here is a collecting of 20 creative logos that use taglines to enlighten the company message:

Roof shield	Evolv Communication

Steadyhold Company	Milk

Robinson Forestry Management	GreenCollar

Boj Games	End Movies Piracy

Fleet Connections	Cssmania

Enhanced Aim	Tenant View

William Bloomer	BYG

Digital Voodoo	Synergy Golf

YW	Spectacular Aquarium Products

Going the Extra Mile	Curry Financial Partners

For every professional, it is a known reality that projects don’t just fall from the skies. Being a logo designer, it isn’t easy to earn a livelihood if you don’t know how to generate client leads. Especially when you are starting your career as a logo designer, clients are hard to come by. But once you have established your clientele base, then life becomes easier. By the time you have a well-reputed website, with an amazing search engines positions, you need to learn the traditional way of obtaining clients.

Concept of Lead Generation – Defined:

Before you learn the ways of generating client leads, you must know what the concept actually means. Lead generation involves development of inquisitiveness or query of potential customers towards products/services of a company. As logo designers, lead generation means that potential clients are interested in your artwork and inquire about your design services.

1. List in Yellow Pages:

One of the most admired ways of generating client leads is to list your services on directories like Yellow pages. This is nice way of targeting local clients for leads because Yellow Pages don’t list names alphabetically but categorically. Since a logo designer’s domain is mostly online, listing in the Yellow Pages enable them to be found by potential clients online as well as offline.

2. Participate in Logo Contests:

Some people might disagree with this, but participating in logo design contests is a great way to generate client leads. There are various sites out there like MycroBurst, which offer logo designers the platforms to expose their talent and skills. By taking part in these contests, you will come across various clients who you can impress and add in your list of clientele.

3. Hand Out Business Cards:

This might be an old fashioned way of promotion, but it is highly effective in generating client leads. Whether you are out on a social gathering or a public event, you can greet people and hand out your business cards. This will let the local people known of your logo design services and may contact you for further work and projects. Also, don’t forget to hand out business cards to present clients and ask them to refer you to others.

4. Be Active on the Blogosphere:

As mentioned earlier, a logo designer’s work domain is mostly online. Thus in order to remain active on the internet, you must employ blogging techniques. Create your own weblog where you can write about interesting stuff related to logo designing. Share your professional experience and discuss on current events with the general public. This creates a favorable impact on the potential viewers who will be impressed by your expertise and knowledge and may consider you for a project.

5. Engage on Social Media platforms:

Just a few days ago, Facebook crossed the 900 Million mark with registered users. This significant number shows how important it is for a professional to be active on social media platforms. As a logo designer, you must engage on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This will enable you to market your services across the general public and generate client leads. You never know how many people are actively seeking the services of a professional designer on these social networking sites. Time and again, there are several jobs posted on these platforms.

6. Giveaways and Promos:

Another unique method of catching the attention of potential customers is to provide giveaways for no cost or discounts using a promotion code. For instance, logo designers can offer a free business card design along with every logo design service. Or they could share a promo code that gives potential customers a valued discount on your services. This will enable new clients to try your services and get the feel of your talent and expertise. Once they will get impressed with your work, they will be coming back with more projects.

Proverbs are noteworthy sayings or repeatedly expressed metaphors that relate to a factual reality of life. They are mostly based on experience of mankind and have a figurative but concrete message. A logo design also has somewhat similar functions. Using metaphorical and abstract symbols, they aim to convey the company message to the target audience.

Did you know that you could create a logo design based on a famous proverb? Since most of us are familiar with idioms and proverbs, logo designers can create a visual identity derived from proverbial sayings. Today’s post features 22 of the most creative logos that were inspired by famous idioms and phrases.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.	A friend in need is a friend indeed

Actions speak louder than words.	Laughter is the best medicine

Like father, like son	Love is blind

An apple a day keeps the doctor away	Prevention is better than cure

The early bird catches the worm	There’s a black sheep in every flock

Once in a blue moon	To call a spade a spade

It takes two to tango.	The pen is mightier than the sword

If God had wanted man to fly, He would have given him wings	Time flies

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade	Let sleeping dogs lie

Cry Over Spilt Milk	Curiosity Killed The Cat

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch	Have an Axe to Grind

The structure and layout of a logo design has to be premeditated and carefully planned in advance. This is because your company logo will be employed across all various platforms of promotion such as electronic media, print, billboards and website. While most logo designers keep conventional modes of logo advertising into perspective, they overlook the online appearance of the brand identity design.

In this day and age, having a website is of extreme value in providing your customers with reach and convenience. For online companies, a website is the sole place where their company logo design will be displayed. That is why it is crucial for designers to take into consideration all the factors in creating a website-friendly logo.
For the logo designers who take up a design project for online firms, here are 5 easy tips for developing a website-friendly logo and for better synchronization between logo and webs design.

1. Complementing Colors:

While selecting the colors of an online business logo, the designer must take into account the color scheme of the company’s website. The color spectrum of your logo must complement the website. For instance, if the website header is in a dark shade, your logo must be in a lighter tone so that it is visible to the target audience.

2. Consistency of Placement:

A website is a collection of web pages where each page is as crucial as the other. You need to balance the elements of your website with consistency and uniformity. Since a logo design is generally placed on a website header, it must be consistent along all the pother sub pages of the website so that the target audience can link every page to your brand.

3. Evocative of the Products/Services:

The job of a logo designer is to create a logo design that can easily convey the company message to the target audience. In the case of an online company, the logo design must be evocative of its products and services. The customers should easily identify from the homepage as to what the website has to offer.

4. Keep a Unique Layout:

There are literally thousands of websites providing online services. By following web logo design trends, you cannot expect anyone to stop and consider your website for their needs. For one, you must keep a unique layout of the logo and website. For instance, you can find a unique way of displaying your logo design that hasn’t been employed by any other site on the internet. This will make your logo design prominent and memorable for the internet users.

5. Plan for Future:

In today’s world, no website or blog can afford to remain static. A website redesign is always on the cards sooner or later. For that purpose, the logo designers must ensure that the logo they develop must be compatible on any type of website design. For instance, if the website is redesigned from a darker shade to a lighter tone, the visibility of the logo must not be affected.

It isn’t easy for a logo designer to find the right balance between a logo and web design. However, by following the above described tips, you can strike equilibrium between your brand identity and website design.

It seems like Olympics logo evolution is destined to go from bad to worse. Following the ongoing controversy of this year’s Olympics logo, another one has wedged up in a hullabaloo of its own. Yes folks, I’m talking about the Madrid 2020 Olympics logo that has caused quite a stir in the local and international community.

• Designer of Madrid 2020 Olympics Logo:

The identity was the result of a logo design contest organized by the Spanish Olympic Committee and won by 22-year-old Luis Peiret, a graphic design student from Zaragoza. According to reports, the youngster Luis won the national competition to rack in €6,000 for his design. He created the typography to spell out M20, but as reported by some news agencies, a Spanish company named TAPSA considerably altered the design. They incorporated an inaccurate accent on the ‘i’ of Madrid and changed the colors which made the logo appear ‘20020’.

• Copied From Doll Company Logo:

If you think London 2012 Olympics logo was the most controversial logo in history of Olympics, think again. Macaisa, a company that manufactures gay pet dolls alleged that Madrid 2020 has copied the logo and a feature from their dolls. Upon close inspection hair of the dolls named Gayskelly and Spaggayti vaguely resembles the shape and colors to the Madrid 2020 Olympic logo.

The company management said in an official statement:

• Your Verdict:

Do you think that the similarity between Madrid 2020 logo and Macaisa logo was intentional? Or was it purely coincidental?