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What's Your Sign?

Featured Author:

Mike Lenhart

After spending almost 15 years in the corporate, sales and marketing area of the hospitality industry, Mike Lenhart decided to pursue his passion for visual creativity and make a jump to graphic design and visual communications. Founder and Principal of ML Designs, a freelance-based and outsourced graphic design company and also Founder and Director of Creative Core, a graphic design collaborative, Mike can now use his business and marketing acumen in solving design problems for his clients. He also likes to write about the interesting, unusual, and sometimes irritating happenings in the graphic design world.

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• Tips for Design Grads During Hard Times
• Fall Back, Give Thanks, and Promote Yourself
• A Refresher Course for Graphic Designers

What’s Your Sign?

Let’s talk about logos. We all see them, and love many of them. What are the types of identifying marks out there and what are some tips to design them? Let me give you some thoughts.

Logos Defined

A logo is an identifying mark that communicates a great deal about a product, service, or organization. A logo has to be designed appropriately in terms of style, type, shapes, and symbols. A lot of research has to go into this part and a lot of questions need to be asked of your client in order to go in the right direction. A logo needs to be created that will stand up to the test of time in terms of the current style and trends.

Different Kinds of Logo Configurations

*Logotype – the name of the product, service, or organization spelled out in unique typography

*Initials – the first letters of the name

*Pictorial Visual – representation of objects that symbolize the item

*Adbstract Visual – non-pictorial visual forms

*Combination – Duh, any combination of the above

So, what do you do to ensure the design of a good logo?

Here are some suggestions culled from an old design textbook I have.

*Design clear and legible type

*Create a distinctive look for your client

*Create an appropriate logo for your client

*Create graphic impact

*Make it consistent with the design principles of balance and unity

*Design a logo that looks good and works in black-and-white as well as color reproduction – this is very important

*Design a logo that reproduces well when reduced and enlarged – also, very important

Logo design is fun and you can use your noodle to produce some great results. Remember, you don’t have to be spot on right from the first concept or sketch. It takes a while to get these visuals to work and to please your client. As with anything, the more practice you get, the better you’ll get. Logos will never go away – let’s keep them on a cutting edge.

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