A logo is the heart of your business. This is not a good place to skimp. Your logo image will inevitably appear on all of your documents, advertising, your signage, your web site, your shirts and promotional items...the list goes on forever. It should be classic and stylish, reproduce well at any size, and most of all, reflect positively on your business. It is the one item almost everyone that you come in contact with will see, and many will only see it and not you! Think of your logo as your sales representative and partner.

A logo can and should be your biggest asset.

So what do you need? You need at the very least, an EPS file. This means that your file can be produced at any size without distortion. EPS files are vector drawings and can be scaled. A decent logo will be hand-drawn in a program such as Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand to produce the eps. No, you cannot use rasterized clip art...unless you want that clip art to be traced by the Electronic Prepress department the first time that you send it to the printer and need it to be enlarged. (Yes, they will charge you for the service) Ideally, logos should be produced in two-color, CMYK, and spot color for printing. Logos should also be produced as RGB jpgs or tifs at a high resolution for desktop printing. And finally, you will need transparent gifs and low resolution jpgs for web use. In addition to all of these files, you also need a standards manual which will define the usage for your logo to the many professionals who will have to work with it. This manual can be a half-page document, or a 100-page booklet, depending on your needs. It should detail at the very least your font usage and PMS (or Pantone) color codes.

Shop around, look at many designer's work. Changing a poorly designed logo can cost thousands as all printed and published material has to be reproduced with your new identity. Choose someone to do your logo armed with your new knowledge. Don't settle for less than what you need in order to save a few pennies. You will end up paying for it eventually.
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Anne Sallee Miles is the owner and award-winning Graphic Designer of Red Toad Media. A self-confessed art junkie, she holds a degree in Visual Communications from Ivy Tech State University and is also an alumnus of Ky Wesleyan College and Murray State University. She has worn many hats in her career, from designing for a national magazine to serving as a Multimedia Specialist for ProxyMed, Inc. to teaching graphic and web design at a local college. top