ShopForDesigns – Logo design marketplace, website design, corporate identity design, banner design, crowdsourcing.

Designing a logo for an educational or academic institution can be a subtle task. This is because mostly educational or academic institutes are non profit organizations, yet the objective of the logo that is to be designed for them has the same motto as any other organization whether profit oriented or not. The primary objective of a successful logo is to promote a brand and establish its authority amongst its competitors. Hence the task is subtle. Let us take a look at what we need to keep in mind while developing or designing a logo for an academic institute.

A good logo design or a good corporate brand identity is instrumental in selling a product or to ascertain its legitimacy in the eyes of the prospective customer. In the graphic design world flexibility and scalability are the key factors which determine the success of a particular logo design. A logo should be beyond the barriers of cultural diversity, language, its mode of transmission media and colours. Let me elaborate on this. You might need to transmit a logo via fax or email. It might be printed in a newspaper, published in a website in black and white. So a logo has to be a timeless, durable and universal face of your brand which is scalable.

We find so many companies re-designing their logos and brand identities. It’s not for nothing. They have felt that their logo does not comply to the above guidelines and they took decisions to redesign their logos. A change in brand identity is not an easy thing to carry out. It costs the company a lot. Apart from the direct cost of designing a logo or brand identity, they have to change their letterheads, visiting cards, envelope, and any pre-printed stationery that they might have with the new logo. They also have to spend a lot in advertising by which they can let people know about the change of their brand identity. Still companies change their logos and brand identities when they find that the current logo is not good enough.

We at shopfordesigns.com have been telling our buyers that when they post a logo or graphic design contest they should regularly visit their contest page, post ratings, put comments and give directions to designers regarding what they are looking for. Every designer comes up with a concept based on what he or she thinks is right. But as a buyer, the contest holder is the best judge about the vision and mission statements of his business and the kind of artwork he or she needs.

After a design contest is live at shopfordesigns, designers start posting their concepts. Now it is on the buyer to guide the designers with the colour scheme, catchline, concept and other aspects of design.

To help our contest holders or buyers with these ratings and comment posting, one of our users have come up with an informative and exciting video. He has requested us to post the video at our blog and here it is :

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I am generally on the internet for about 14 to 16 hours a day. Various logos have been my area of interest since the last 10 years or so. I do not know if I can call myself a logo expert but people won’t object if I say that I have fair exposure in logo design.

During my quest for best logo designs, I have come across some great logos and some awefully ill designed logos that break all barriers and norms of logo design dont’s.

So in a nutshell I would like to advice you to steer clear from naive designers who claim to make great logos for peanuts for your brand. Remember my friend there is nothing called a “Free Lunch” in this world. Good things always come for a price.

So now that you have won your logo design contest what comes next is preparing the deliverables for the contest holder which you will need to upload to the website. Here a very helpful tip that we can give you is that if you want the contest holder to give you future work, and most cases we see it happen, then you need to please him with your professionalism. Sending him great deliverables could really be your first step in winning your next graphic design project.

All said and done let us get into the details of planning your deliverables folder. Well now that the battle is won and you emerge victorious still its only a journey half done until you get the client to say the real “wow” in your favour.

Here we outline the tricks and techniques that will help you do it. We would say that as a logo designer or a graphic designer it is your responsibility to get across the proper files to your contest holder even if he has not asked for it.

We at ShopForDesigns have thousands of talented designers on board but there are some who are just beginning their career and are straight out of college. They do not have so much experience in the field of designing. Logo design is one of the toughest arena in the designing world. While designing a logo you have to know where to stop. Designers generally learn from their mistakes but to save you some time and to make you learn from others’ mistakes we have compiled a list of 10 tips that might help you in a big way.

1. A logo doesn’t need to say what a company does
It is not always a good idea to put tools of the trade you are depicting into your logo. Meaning :
Don’t show a plate or food in hotel logos, doctor’s logo or a hospital logo does not necessarily need to show a stethoscope or a red cross. Just because it’s relevant, doesn’t mean you can’t do better.

Nike logo does not show a shoe neither the Mercedes logo shows a car.

2. Not every logo needs to be an artistic marvel. Simplicity speaks a lot.
Its not always true that a logo has to be an artistic marvel. Sometimes all the client needs is their logo to make a statement and identify their business. So its best to talk to your client and ask them what exactly they are looking for.

3. Two-way process
Sometimes a client may disagree with your ideas and might not like the logo you made for them at all or may reject the direction in which you are aiming. They might go as far as requesting diametrically opposite. First, give them what they want and thereafter show them what you think would work out to be a better idea. If you idea has food for thought then is highly probable they will like it and take it up. This is passive persuasion. They will definitely come back to you when they need any artwork in future knowing the potential you have.

4. Use sketches wherever possible
Sometimes a little sketch can work wonders in a logo. For a change try using a sketch and see if it goes with the theme of the company you are making the logo for. Line drawing can also be considered.

5. Under-promise, over-deliver
This applies for all kinds of design work and not just a logo design. Try to ask for more days and then deliver before time. Never ask for little time and then take more time under some plea. Its always better to ask for some more time. Design projects are like artistic work, you never know how your thought process will work.

6. Don’t be afraid to be non-conventional
Don’t blindly follow what others are doing. Stand out. Don’t be afraid to go out of the lot. If you go beyond the normal tastefully then surely your creativity will be appreciated.

7. Try out black initially
Best is to make our design in black first. If your logo looks good in black then it will definitely look good in good colours. Conversely a poorly designed logo will never stand out even if beautiful colours or gradients come to its rescue.

8. Keep in mind the mood
Designing a logo for a hospital? Forget funny approach. Be serious and try to represent wellness with colour and shape. In other words try to be appropriate and try to keep with the mood of the organization or individual. Designing for a kids school would definitely involve a lot of colours and shapes like cartoons.

9. Make it scalable
While designing a logo keep in mind that it might be printed on an envelope or a hoarding. So it should be scalable. It should be recognizable in any background or any colour. Though a logo has a particular colour but experience says that you sometimes might need to print it in grayscale or various backgrounds. So keep that in mind while designing a logo. Also remember that your logo should even be able to scale down to half an inch without total loss of detail. Look at giants like FedEx, Nike, Reebok. Their logos are simple and hence recognizable!

10. One thing to remember
Do not make a jam packed logo. Make it simple. Simple things make a long lasting impression. Give people one thing to remember in your logo design work.

Just One.