Apr 20, 2011
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So you’re starting a new business, and you’re looking for a way to keep your start-up costs down. You should:
- Work out of the basement to avoid paying rent
- Build a staff consisting of all of your children, Aunt Martha and the town drunk
- Skimp on a logo
Answer: None of these are recommended, but if you have to choose, DON’T SKIMP ON THE LOGO! Consider the following:
- A good logo must be easily recognizable, inspire trust, admiration, loyalty and superiority
- Your logo will be the most prominent element on your signs, business cards, website, advertisements, letterhead, envelopes, business forms and product labels.
- Every time a person sees your logo, they will think of your company. So what do you want them to think about it?
A good logo is probably the most under-rated asset a business can have. It is at least as important as your company name. Would you hand $30 to your nephew and ask him to name your business?
Attention all Nike Fans
One of the most easily recognizable logos ever created is the Nike “swoosh.” It was created by a graphic design student at Portland State University who was paid $2 per hour for a total of $35! Chances are, the neighbor kid could easily duplicate the Nike swoosh in 10 seconds with a pencil and paper. $35 is pretty good pay for 10 seconds of drawing! But the value of the Nike logo is not in its rendering – it is in what that simple shape represents.
The logo is a symbol abstracted from the winged Goddess of victory known to the Greeks as “Nike. “ The Romans knew her as “Victoria.” Victory seems like a pretty good concept to associate with a sports shoe company, don’t you think? Fortunately for Phil Knight, founder of the giant sports shoe company, Carolyn Davidson was right on target with her concept and design. Fortunately for Carolyn Davidson, Knight learned to understand the value of her work, and rewarded her a few years later with a gold ring and an envelope filled with Nike stock. Knight may have under-estimated the value of a logo in the beginning, but he recognizes his logo today as the symbol of his empire. The Nike logo has become so recognizable that the company name is usually not even included in the design!
You are not likely to find a good graphic designer for $2 per hour. Chances are, you will pay at least $750 for a quality logo, although large corporations often pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have their business properly “branded.” Thinking about getting a professionally designed logo for your business? My advice would be “just do it!”