In my twenties I convinced a friend to start a small business dedicated to children, with creative workshops, themed parties and valuable lessons to be learnt just by playing right. It was an original concept, which deserved to be represented accordingly, in the most unique manner. But a start up is never a business with generous budgets.
So referring to friends was the only option. Friends who, in their early twenties also, were struggling to make a lot with less. We were bound to fail, but that never stopped us from trying. So, there was a dear friend who was just learning Photoshop and offered to help. We only knew the colours we wanted and the message to be sent.
No values, no future strategies, no higher plans. That resulted in a childish looking logo that, judging by the public of the business, should have been a good thing, but actually wasn’t, because kids don’t decide how they spend their spare time, parents do. And parents apparently thought the logo seemed unprofessional instead of a symbol of the domain and therefore doubted the quality of the services provided.
We can’t blame the logo for the failure of the business, but we can certainly conclude it had something to do with it, no doubt about it. The thing is that these little errors combined can have a bigger impact than imagined.
No matter the field you’re in, may you have a modern minimalist business or a corporation with multiple francises, you need to provide the same information so that you, in turns, are provided with the end result you desire. Decide upon the logo designer pro you find suitable to your taste and give him/her all details you can think about, in this case it is better to say too much instead of saying too little, because assumptions are dangerous and time consuming.
Ask for whatever you want, although you may seem demanding or straight mad, because an unique logo design results from an unique approach of both you, the owner, and the designer. Be courageous, be bold, be different. As this will make you stand out.
This is the main thing a logo has to do – make you visible in a positive way, so that people are curious enough to find out more and look for themselves. From that point on, it has accomplished its mission and it’s up to others to continue.
Learn from errors of other before you, this is how real progress is made.