Hi there, I'm wondering what the importance of logos are? I can't really see the importance if the site name is catchy and the site is a directory for example... Anyone tell me? Cheers Dan
Graphical identity (logo/photo/style etc) will help your visitors remember your website more easily. Logo is very important when you are developing a brand and/or you want people to easily recognize and identify your website at some other website/magazine/video that displays your logo. A good logo (and quality website design) will make your site look more professional, thus trusted, even if it is used only on your own website and nowhere else. The easiest way to make your website name into a logo is use some quality font face without an extra graphical element.
Thanks for the reply, much appriciated. That does give me a better idea really - I could even use the logo as my avatar on forums etc as well as sig. links. Will look into it more and have a go. Thanks for your help! Any other pros to using logos?
You don't need graphical logo for every product or service. Your product name itself (if unique and easily remembered) will function as logo (brand).
if you have a well designed logo you may attract customers or visitors attention and keep your product - website name in their name (memorizing attractive graphical shape would be easier than just a normal typed word like any word), that's what i think.
I think it's very important. If you have a terrible logo/site design then the entire thing looks bad. It's not just a catchy name IMO
Yes, a logo helps a great deal! The customer will remember a picture before a name in most cases. Pictures stick to the human brain faster than words. We changed our logo recently and our readers went from 300 to over 700 in less than 3 weeks. A logo seperates your company from another, it's your business' identity.
you almost hit it right on the head hpginc. A logo is a website, product, company or service's identity, and a well designed logo can REALLY help a brand. A logo is the most blatantly visual elements of branding, and if you don't understand the importance of branding, you don't really understand anything. A good logo isn't just a symbol that represents a word or name, it's a design problem that has a solution. the solution communicates certain things to the viewer. A well designed logo is SUPPOSED to give a good first impression that lets you know what you're dealing with, and what those people/products are like. For example. IBM. The first three words I think of are Big. Solid. Strong. Now for a company who makes international business machines, those are 3 VERY good things to communicate at first glance. Had they done the letters IBM ins some girlish cursive writing I doubt they would still exist. The IBM logo has been used like that for over 40 years, and there's a reason. Good logos are simple. The more complex the logo is, think of one of the most successful BRANDS in the world: Apple. The logo is so ubiquitous and obvious that they no longer even print 'Apple' underneath it because it's inherent in the mark itself. Why do products/websites/companies/services have names? I mean we COULD in theory simply walk around referring to everything as reference codes. Why have URL's when we could just as easily remember every IP address to the servers where we wanted to go. Why give each other names when I could just call you sa978w-we2? The answer is to be human-friendly. Googlebot doesn't care if you've got a logo, but most people sure do. there are different types of learners, some are visual and they'll forget your name, but remember your logo until the day they die. Maybe you're not, maybe logos don't mean much to you, but trying to make a product/site/service/company without a logo is essentially like writing a book without using words. Best of luck, there are TONS of design blogs related to logo design, branding and corporate identity. Go check them out (if you're still not understading it all). A bad logo can severely hurt you too, as I pointed out. Having a misleading or weak logo can make people turn away because it inherently communicates something - so please DO hire a professional to make you a logo, it's something that really requires skill, and not just technical skills to execute the idea, it takes a thorough knowledge of branding and design to make a good one. I suggest, most web design companies will have a designer or two on staff. They have the skills to make logos (for clients who need sites but don't have one) but this isn't where they make their money. If you're looking for a cheap but good logo, you'll get FAR more quality for the same price hiring a web-design firm graphic designer to do a cheap logo, than to hire a cheap designer at regular price. So think about it, clarify what you want to communicate to the people. If you could narrow your entire first impression to 3 words what would they be? Like first impression keywords. Then once you've got the feel of the logo thought about, go ahead and call up that local web design shop! Best of luck, it's time for me to go back to my branding work now
Just think how Google would look without a logo, or any other brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and so on ...
Wow thanks for the replies guys. Cheers innovati, much appriciated. That really has cleared it up for me - I understand the importance now and I better get one done! Thanks again!
Your logo is the key to your business. It will appear on signs, business cards, t-shirts, magazine ads and other promotional material. It will help you bring in more sales, show trust. Certain colors in the logo will do certain effects to the brain.