How DIY Logo Design and Clip-Art Can Hurt Your Business

Logo design is one of those absolute necessities that are a large part of building a brand. There are many elements that go into creating a logo – including color and layout choice, considering who you want to appeal to and why, and figuring out the best way to graphically represent your business’s mission statement. Since a logo is representative of your company, and is likely the one thing people will remember (hopefully) when they first think of your industry, you’ll want to create a graphic that is both aesthetically pleasing and effective when it comes to generating business.

Since a logo is a vital element of your branding, trusting yourself or someone else in your business with minimal design experience could end up hurting your company immensely. The concept of designing and creating a logo made with clip art and WordArt may be tempting to you as a business manager or owner. If you are a small business owner, you’re probably looking for any available way to cut costs – and creating your own logo knocks out significant costs that tend to be associated with hiring professional logo designers. However, is cutting costs worth risking your whole business? Because that’s what DIY logo design can lead to. One day, you’re spending hours on Microsoft Word coming up with a way to graphically represent your company, and the next you are looking for ways to salvage whatever is left of that company.

Don’t take the risk of losing brand equity. So, how could a poorly designed logo negatively affect your business so much? Mostly, having an unimpressive and ineffective logo would affect the power and equity attributed to your brand. When using clip art and DIY design cost you more than just money, you will look back and wonder why you ever scoffed at the comparatively minimal cost of professional logo design. Further, if you’re creating your own logo and using clip art, your competition may be doing the same. Then, you both look like generic, cookie-cutter graphics. What if a well-designed logo is all it took to crush your competition and come out on top? That chance alone would be worth the costs associated with professional logo design.

What’s so important about logo design anyway? Logo design is so important because it represents your business: a logo, after all, is the identifying marker of your company. It is a graphically impressive mark that reflects what you do, your business’ values and how hard you work all at one time. In one glance, a customer or potential customer can get a bird’s eye view of all your business has to offer. Do you really want a potential customer to gloss over your logo and not spare it a glance because of its lack of sophistication and aesthetic appeal? If you think of companies such as Apple and Nike, you likely think of a white apple with a bite out of it, or you think of a check mark, because these are the logos that have become synonymous with these brands and have come to define them globally.

What does a logo designer do differently? If and when you come to your senses and realize that undertaking DIY logo design and utilizing free tools such as clip art are not only not beneficial to your business, but also may actually be harmful, you should enlist the help of a logo designer. This artist understands the best and most effective uses of colors, form, function, positive and negative space, and abstraction, among other design elements. When the perfect elements are chosen and put together in your logo, the result is a graphically powerful, aesthetically pleasing and effective representation of your brand. Whether your business thrives or falls behind the competition is up to you. At the very root of your company’s branding is the logo that represents your mission and your values as a business.

This is a guest blog post by Cono Fusco, founder of Deluxe Logo Design. He has helped develop and launch more than 45,000 brands worldwide with clients ranging from small home businesses to Hollywood celebrities.