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How to Pick a Logo

There’s not a lot of debate about the validity of having a strong logo to represent your business. When small businesses have a stand out logo, it looks more professional, capable, and stable. Marketing materials, web design, and other communication pieces with a great logo not only help your audience pick you out from the competition, but it also creates a cohesive work environment and a strong sense of employee loyalty.

So, how do you get started with your logo design? Here are a few tips to get you through the process so you end up picking a fabulous logo for your business.

Start on the right foot

It’s important that you understand a few fundamentals about your future business before you get started. Hopefully you’ve developed some sort of business plan. In that plan, you should define your audience, services and products, and some basic marketing and sales strategies. This information is crucial for your graphic designer. In addition, you’ll want to be able to discuss with your designer what makes your business different. What’s the defining characteristic, service, or innovation that will make sure business is successful?

If you have trouble clarifying any of these areas, no fear. You can seek out professional help from a marketing strategist or start-up business consultant. Hot Dog Marketing partners with a local start-up consultant, RSE Consulting, that specializes in new business branding. Check them out if you’re struggling with your new enterprise.

Trust your initial reactions

Your designer should give you more than one option to consider. When you look at your logo choices, trust that gut reaction. Your audience will only have a few seconds to make a judgement about your business based on the logo, so your first few seconds with your concept choices are important ones.

Look at the font, colors, and symbols and how they play with each other in the space. Are the colors striking the right chord with you? Are the fonts appropriate? Do you like the orientation? These are all helpful questions to consider when you first receive your initial concepts. If you are working with a coach or consultant, getting his or her initial reactions could be helpful in picking which concept you want to tinker with in the upcoming drafts.

Here’s more information about the Hot Dog Marketing logo process:

Getting other people’s opinions

Beyond your trusted coach, adviser or consultant, should you ask for other people’s opinions? Absolutely! But realize you cannot and will not please everyone. You’re bound to get a mixed bag of opinions. Your best friend, your spouse and your mom will probably all like different concepts. Ultimately, the decision is yours to make. You’ll face a lot of decisions as a business owner and this will be one of the first tough ones you’ll need to make – alone. Don’t let other people’s opinions cloud your judgement too much. You know your business better than anyone else.

Trust your designer

If you have questions while you’re going through the process, reach out to your designer. Hopefully you’ve chosen a designer you trust, with plenty of experience, and who can help you every step of the way. Your designer should be able to explain his/her choices with each concept to help you better understand. If you get frazzled with the decision, be open with your designer. Your instinct might be telling you that none of the choices are quite right. Your designer should be able to extract that from you to help find the proper direction. Working with a consultant can ensure you never reach that frazzled state.

Choosing your logo can be scary, but when you pick the right one, you should be filled with a new sense of excitement about your business. Choosing a logo should be fun! Once you have that under your belt, you’ll be ready to get business cards, design your website, and start marketing your business like a real professional!