What do you look at first when you see a new company? It could be the profile picture on Facebook or your freshly launched website, but whatever it is, the logo of your startup business will be the first impression that sticks with your visitor.
A great logo for startups stands out without being too difficult to change and modify as you grow and become a larger company. In other cases, you may come up with an iconic idea that you want to keep forever.
Your company logo should enhance what your brand stands for, allowing your customers and clients to see exactly why they follow you without too much analysis. A good logo is easy to read, share, and explain visually to your followers.
Typically, logos also speak to what your company or products are as well. For example, Nike’s swoosh is an iconic expression of the brand’s athleticism. Apple’s logo is also quite literal and iconic.
You can look at logos online to see what makes sense for your brand. If you are a small business, you may want to look at Intuit or Quickbooks Online for an idea.
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So how to create the perfect logo for startup business? Let’s Start with Logo Types for Small Business
There are a number of logo styles to choose from, but most of them follow the same three formats. Some of these logos speak to a particular industry and have customizations that make it easier to understand for customers. Do you have a business like Quickbooks Online? You may want to pay attention to how these can be fitted to your business.
Fonts and Letters
In some cases, you may want to keep your logo simple and reflect just the letters of your company name. For example, with an accounting software company, you may want to look at thick fonts and symbols to build a quick logo.
Symbols and Designs
Is your brand all about a certain animal, service, product, or something else you can feature in a logo? You can illustrate what your company does with the company logo. For example, you may have a business like Intuit and want to speak to services that revolve around finances, money, stocks, and taxes. There are a few other accounting software symbols that you may want to incorporate into your logo. There are some clear symbols you can use to illustrate your services such as money signs, positive symbols, and cash symbols.
Iconic Designs
There are some designs that you just have to do yourself. Nike based its entire brand on an abstract swoosh that could illustrate anything it wanted. For these types of designs, you probably want to hire a designer to help you communicate your brand through the design.
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Preparing Your Logo Ideas
Before you start to sketch out an idea for a logo, you should do your research on what others are doing in our industry. You can try writing out a slogan or a short mission statement that should showcase the most important aspects of your business. These are some other ways that you can start to craft your logo with:
Competitor Logos
You probably want to do something completely different to set you apart, but if you don’t know what your competitors are doing, how do you know that you’ll be iconic? You have to look at competitors to ensure that your icon is both recognizable but also fits into the industry that you are marketing to.
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Focus on the Message
Once you write out the mission statement, you should have a better idea of what you want your brand to be about. With startups, you have to be careful to pick something that’s edited and speaks to the brand so that others can understand the company’s perspective but also services and products.
Business Names & Logos
Not all business names will be good enough to go with logos, but you should keep your business name with the logo to make it better for your customers until they recognize your brand. It also helps if you have bright colors that complement each other.
Don’t Use Clip Art or Copy Other Styles
You can purchase designs online for a very little price, but you want to make sure that these designs can stand on their own without using any sort of stock icons or clip art. You should have a logo style that is particular to your brand.
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Watch the Colors You Use
The colors in your logo will define the color palette for your brand. You should pick the types of colors that will speak to your followers while also standing out. In addition, there are issues with printing multiple colors at once for a logo, especially if you have more than three colors. While you may not be thinking about print, you will eventually have to send something in the mail if you have a dynamic marketing campaign. This is why you need a logo that is iconic and simple to create. For example, if you plan to use for bookkeeping, then you may want colors that are more trustworthy and promote financial wisdom.
You can use online color wheels and color studies to ensure that you pick the right colors for your logo.
Find a Graphic Designer
A designer has a great mind and eye for colors, symbols, styles, and fresh looks. Startups that are serious about marketing their brand online will hire a designer to create something that will be iconic and easily shareable. While designers do not know what to create for bookkeeping, your services, products, and messaging should help the design pick out what to do. You can hire hundreds of graphic designers by launching a logo contest. Read my review of 99designs logos and experience of getting a logo made with crowdsourcing.
You can work with a design to create a logo for your startup that conveys your company’s mission at a glance while also standing out from your competitors. You can also expect that a graphic designer can make logos into every type of file you need, whether it’s a .PNG or .SVG for web purposes.
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Protect Your New Logo
As you startups your brand, you should copyright and protect your logo so that no one can steal it. You can apply for a US trademark at the US Patent and Trademark Office Website.
With a new company, you really have to think about how your brand is represented online. If you have a variety of images for your website, social media profiles, and press kits, then you will want a professional logo that people can look at in a glance and start following. Most startups pick a simple design that they can customize with colors and use for app icons, but these designs can also be changed quickly.