Up to this point both I and other members of our team here at REM have discussed branding, design and logo principles. We have offered tips, ideas and our expertise to help guide our clients and other blog visitors. That being said, I don’t want to (for lack of a better term) "kick a dead horse" here however, I’d like to offer some additional tips when it comes to developing your logo:
Avoid Clipart!
Although the web, Microsoft Office and fonts like (web-dings) offer some fun and useful imagery for your presentations and documents, these cannot be considered custom professional imagery to be used as part of your logo/brand. Not only will your logo not be “original”, there may be licensing issues with using someone else’s art in your logo without permission/payment.
Avoid Templates!
I know it is tempting. You perform a search in Google and a ton of options come up for online logo design templates “starting at $20!”. But, like most things, you get what you pay for! In most cases you are re-using a logo design that may be used by hundreds of other companies which, in theory, is the complete opposite of the whole reason of having a logo – individual branding!
Avoid using Stock imagery/illustrations!
For many of the same reasons mentioned above, I suggest you not use stock imagery/illustrations as part of a logo. Not only does this wipe all individuality from your logo but it can also take away some of your company’s legitimacy as the symbol used in your logo is a stock, not custom image. Also, the most important reason to not use stock imagery for your logo – licensing issues!
Most stock images are available to use in certain media/applications. In some cases you can buy the outright ownership of the license for an image but the cost to do this would most likely be more than the cost to have a custom image/icon designed for you!
