What's a logo for?

Businesses have been using logos since before ordinary people new how to read. They have used visual images to get their name or message across quickly and simply to the buying public. English pub signs, barbershop poles, pawnshop balls and red lights are classic examples.

The word logo comes from the Greek logos, which means an expression of a thought - not just a name or word, but the actual concept or idea. Likewise business logos express thoughts, concepts or ideas such as elegance, cold, exotic, young, fun and fast. They can quickly express what the business does - plumbing, scientific research, veterinarying, fashion design or gardening.

A well thought out and properly designed which is pleasing to the eye will help your business or name be remembered over that of your competition. That's why the most successful companies in the world spend megabucks developing their logos and promoting them in public. They know a logo will get their message or idea across in a glance. How long does it take you to recognize a Shell petrol station, an Apple computer (Colin! What about IBM? ), a Westpac bank or a Coca Cola outlet?

The sad thing is that every logo has a message, whether it is good or bad. The basic rule is that you can't say something good, don't say anything at all. If your logo is untidy or confusing, you're better off just getting your name set in a simple tidy typeface - at least you won't be doing any damage to your image.

Never the less, a logo doesn't have to be complicated, or expensive, or come from a West Perth advertising agency. There are enough good graphic designers around who will charge between $150 and $500 for an effective logo. For that money you should initially get a page or so of very rough ideas, you then choose one or two to be refined before making a final choice to go to the "finished art" which you will be able to take anywhere for printing in one or more colours.

For that price it won't be extensively researched, and you won't get it engraved on a plaque for your office and you probably won't get lunch at a top city restaurant, but you will get a symbol that positively sums up your business at a glance. And that's what a logo is for.

Colin Norris
Kingdom Artroom