Don’t waste your time on getting a terrible logo made.
People come to me all the time to help them with something that will not improve their business. A logo for a small company is the best example of this. I will not accept payment for any job that doesn’t return payment to my clients.
The point of a logo is identity thru repetition
The reason for a company to have a logo is so that it sticks out visually instantly from other brands. This works because people see the logo over and over again. The ones you recognize above – that don’t have words in them -are recognized because you’ve seen them so many times.
The reason these companies can get you to see their logo so many times is because they have a lot of money for advertising.
The benefit of a logo is tiny trust
After they hit the same potential customers over and over again with the same logo, then they start reaping the benefits. The benefits of logo recognition are not huge, but big companies with big profit margins don’t need huge results. They benefit from intellectual property protection (like a soda with a Coke logo is probably made by Coke) as well as brand trust for repeat customers.
It’s expensive to make a good logo
A good logo expresses a brand promise in a simple form. The Nike logo is not about a goddess, or a shoe. It’s about enhanced physical performance. To come up with a way to state your brand meaning with a few lines is very difficult. To make that logo mark stand out from all other logo marks in your domain is insanely hard. Companies pay a dirt-ton of cash to get the simplest logo designed. Logos are supposed to have a shelf-life of a century.
A small business identity is important only as a one-off
The only defining reason for a small business to show identity is to express that there’s something there. I think this is why most people want a logo. They think, “We’ve gotta stand up for ourselves and show we’re not the same… that we’re legit.
This makes sense, but this is why you need simply a type treatment.
When someone sees that film strip, they’re not going to know it’s your company. When someone sees either of these, they probably won’t be sure they’ve seen it laid out like that before. That doesn’t matter. You want people to know your company. Make it clear what your company is. With the top one, you’re gonna really squeeze that logo mark down in order to fit it on a website. With the bottom one, it will be legible at all sizes and doesn’t take up any unnecessary real estate.
You might pay a designer to make you a type treatment
… but you don’t have to pick something awesome and it doesn’t have to last very long. All you have to do is make sure it doesn’t clash with your brand. You can make a new one next year. Easy.
Spend a few hours getting your type treatment done, move on to things that will actually help your business… like returning that one email!