Why is your logo so important for your business? And what is a logo exactly, anyway?
A logo is the combination of text and imagery visually telling consumers the name of your small business, representing your vision of what your company is. A well-designed logo is a visual expression that stands out amongst the crowd. Having a logo is a necessity in making your brand a successful one. You want a well-designed logo that grabs your audience’s attention, builds your brand’s foundation, gives off a great first impression, and separates your logo from the rest of the basic logos.
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The Foundation of your Brand
Your logo is the first thing potential customers see. It expresses what your business is through colors, symbols, and designs, setting the narrative on what type of story you are trying to tell. This helps build the foundation of your brand, signifying what your company is trying to sell or provide while also articulating your incentive.
Logo design for Degree Dragon
Here are two examples of a logo expressing their company’s brand. On the left is a picture of a friendly, cartoon dragon all decked out in a graduation cap and gown. By the looks of the rolled-up paper in their hand, it seems they have just graduated. This is the logo for Degree Dragon, a website to help people find the right online university/community college and online programs to fit their goals. Degree Dragon even assists with finding certain grants to further aid struggling college students. The logo does very well in telling what the company’s goal is.
On the right is our lady liberty, holding her lit torch to help guide newcomers to their new home, giving off the feeling of relief and security. This logo is for Liberty Mutual Insurance. The Statue of Library is a perfect symbol for an insurance company where their goal is to help people feel protected as if anything goes wrong with their car, home, or life.
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Grabs Audience’s Attention
It’s important to create a well-designed logo that will grab your potential customer’s attention quickly. Attention spans are unfortunately short nowadays. Due to content increasing in volume it is exhausting our attention. “[Our] urges for ‘newnesses’ causes us to collectively switch between topics more regularly.”, said Philipp Lorzen-Spreen of Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Because of customers’ short attention spans, businesses have about 8 seconds to convince potential clients that their products are worth any consideration. Within those two seconds you want to advertise your small business’ character in the most creative way.
Logo design for InsuranceSux
Some excellent examples would be the logo from Insurance Sux and this logo made by a graphic designer on Instagram. The logo for InsuranceSux grabs your attention first by making you ask yourself, “Why is it a duck?” This tactic encourages people to dig deeper into what InsuranceSux is all about. Another good attention-grabbing tactic is turning your logo into a gif. For Rain Wine, this graphic designer made it look like rain was falling down onto an umbrella while the rain droplets formed a silhouette of a wine bottle.
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Strong First Impression
There is only one chance to grab your audience’s attention and with that one chance, you want to make sure the first impression is a good one. A well-designed logo will excite the public eye, imprinting it into the minds of potential customers. This also communicates ownership to the brand, expressing the authority your company has in the professional world amongst other companies.
By sticking to your logo you are also building trust with your customers. People like consistency and consistency is the key to loyalty. But it’s also important to keep up to date with customer trends, showing you are aware of what’s popular in society. Make sure your logo works with customers in your target audience from the beginning. That way you are aware of what our audience wants without having to change your look as often.
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Separates You from the Competition
Standing out amongst the crowd will help potential customers find your small business amongst vast corporations. A good logo, of course, draws the public eye, separating you from the competition instead of blending in. When a logo is visually and aesthetically pleasing it makes that design memorable, triggering a positive reaction to your company’s name. Unfortunately, due to our short attention spans, most people will forget the name of your business, but your logo will stick in their brains as long as you make a strong enough impression.
Logos are what is seen the first time a potential customer looks at your website, your products, and your business. It is what grabs their attention and sticks in their mind longer than your company name. It is part of what distinguishes you amongst the competition, letting people know that your company is “not like other girls”. Your logo is the starting point of building your business’s foundation.
