Webmaster Articles > Logo Design and Corporate Image
Analyze or create a new logo that suites your business well.
Whether your company is a start-up, medium-sized, or a large corporation, you will eventually confront the issue of your company's self-image. How are you perceived by your customers? How are you perceived by the general public? How does your company come across to potential customers? How do you compare to your competition? The answer lies within any marketing communication material that represents your company, ranging from your business cards to a promotional brochure, to a nationally broadcast commercial. Above all, you might need a logo with sophistication, elegance, and impact. A graphic designer can help you with a solution for your logo.
Essentially, all logos can be organized in four separate categories: glyph, alpha-glyph, alphanumeric or a combination thereof. What exactly the logo will be for you depends upon a myriad of factors too numerous to list them all here. Again, a professional designer who is experienced should be hired for the logo design process.
Glyphs: A glyph, or symbol, icon, pictograph, etc., is a graphic representation of your company, such as logos for Shell, Apple, and American Greetings (the rose). These are most widely used not for company marks, but for secondary communication devices, such as the recycle logo, all Olympic event icons, and instructional devices, like a broken wine glass on a box to signify the contents in the box is fragile. Glyphs, by themselves, are the least used types of logos, but, if done correctly, can provide the most impact and establish a sophisticated, intellectual corporate identity. Creating a glyph for a logo requires experience and talent and, if done by a non-professional, might look amateurish, unattractive and may even take away from your company's credibility. BEWARE!!!!
Alpha-Glyphs: An alpha-glyph is similar to a glyph, but uses a letter or letters from the name of a company in a graphical way to convey what the company does, but sometimes a letter designed in a particular style may be sufficient. Many auto makers use these types of logos, such as Honda, Accura, Mazda, and Hyundai. One of the most popular and recognized logos in the history of the 20th century is this type of logo: IBM. Other examples of this type include GM, Adobe Systems, Moen, and America On-Line. This type of logo is the second least-used logo, that, as with a glyph, if done correctly, can greatly raise the taste level of your company. However, it also shares a glyph's downfall where, if done haphazardly, can appear unprofessional and might provoke laughter rather than sales.
Alphanumeric: This type of mark is the most widely-used logo and we are bombarded with them where ever we go in practically whatever we see. An alphanumeric logo is the name of your company or brand spelled out, literally, but the treatment of the typography is usually unique unto the name itself and can therefore be trademarked and be treated as a logo. To name a mere fraction of all the examples that exist in the world: Kellogg's, FedEx, Microsoft, Sony, Ford, and the list goes on and on. This is the "safe" logo and the easiest to create (by an amateur's standards). A designer, though, will spend as much time tweaking an alphanumeric logo as he or she will with a glyph or alphaglyph. Letter-spacing, color, font choice, word relationships and other factors play into the creation of an alphanumeric logo.
