Every start-up company and website must distinguish itself from the crowd aesthetically. The most important way of doing this is to accomplish the great feat of creating a unique logo for yourself. This is no small job and it’s importance is immense.

A logo is the key to setting you apart while keeping you from being lost in the torrents of new start-up companies. Your logo must be recognizable and distinguishable while memorable enough to a person that he or she will automatically associate that logo with your company or website. It should, more importantly, be associated with quality. You’re not just creating content, you are creating a brand. It makes no difference if your product is sports shoes or technology reviews, you are still a brand.

Let’s discuss the current trend of new internet companies and web apps today. It’s labeled as “Web 2.0″ which means many things (the “re-birth” of dotcoms, Ajax enables web apps etc. etc.), but one thing that all web 2.0 companies have in common is design. While they all are somewhat similar, each are unique in many ways. You can recognize their logo as being “web 2.0″ but you also recognize its unique real estate within the crowd of this emerging trend. We are going to take a note of these designs as we discuss techniques of creating unique logos, logotypes, and typefaces.

The Logo’s of Web 2.0

While you can’t exactly define the style of Web 2.0 there are certainly some similarities…

(Click to enlarge)I don’t remember where i heard it said, but it was said best that the mainstream design of Web 2.0 is best accomplished by re-visiting your childhood… opening up a box of crayons and doing what comes natural. Its easily seen that the design usually consists of bright matching colors with stark contrast and a bit of detail. We have ditched the small text for big bold fonts and added more gradients and gloss than most likely needed.

The New Age of Typefaces

Typefaces are the most important feature of a logo and website. They should collaborate with the visual presentation of your content. Note that we are using the term “typeface” in place of “font”… The distinction between font and typeface is a font’s status as a discrete commodity with legal restrictions, while typeface designates a visual appearance or style not immediately reducible to any one foundry’s production or proprietary control. [Wikipedia, “Logotypes”]. As for fonts, there are many readily available to download and use for your logo if you are not willing to go down the path of creating your own. Below are some examples for download-able web 2.0 style fonts:

Delicious

Fontin Sans

FF Clanâ„¢

NewMedia

Union

JustOldFashion

The typefaces of today are bigger, bolder, and are usually high contrast. With some added brightness in color, some detail you can create a very unique and outstanding logo. Try some gradient overlays and add some gloss.

Detail Detail Detail

What do all great logos have in common? Detail. You don’t have to go overboard… in fact this is more of a practice in minimalism. One single detail in position to your typeface can really make your logo stand out. Contrast is key. Take this logo for instance:

Simple elegant typeface, detailed logo. Not too complex but care was given to each aspect.
Like i said Contrast is important. Make the difference of foreground from the background really stand out. Also, define lines. By this i mean highlight any curves you may use, bring shapes forward. I think you get the idea. Also as a side note to the logo above: it is a great logo for web use only but would you be able to scale it down? Turned into a vector graphic (and minus the gradient background) it could be a powerful logo for any use (see next paragraph).

Vector?… Raster?… Resolution???

A common question in logo creation is whether to create you logo as a vector graphic, or a raster graphic. There are multiple answers to this question. It depends on where and how you are going to use the graphic. Creating a Vector based graphic in a program like Adobe Illustrator or InkScape will usually be the better choice as it can be resized and printed always with its quality intact and without having to worry about resolution. They are also a little more daunting to create for many people, and if you are only going to use this logo on the web then using a raster based program like Adobe Photoshop is perfectly fine.

When is vector not a good choice? When your graphic contains photograph like imagery. Vector images cannot display the detail as pixel-based or raster graphics can. For logos, this is usually not a problem since most logos do not have a photograph of a house in the background and so otherwise Vector is the right way to go. The best practice for any logo is to make a Vector “master” graphic (in case you need it resized for business cards, letterheads etc.) and just save them in web style (.png/.gif) for use on your website.

Still going with raster? What about resolution? Well if you are going to create a master logo in a raster/pixel based program like Photoshop and you still plan on printing and using this logo outside of the web then it’s resolution becomes a factor. When creating an image in Photoshop (and most raster based paint programs) the default setting is 72 ppi (pixels per inch), which is perfectly fine for display on a monitor… but not on paper. When opening a new document, make sure you set the resolution to somewhere between 225 – 300 ppi. All printers are different and referring to the manual is always a good way to find exactly what ppi setting to use. Also note that the higher the ppi/dpi, the larger the file and the more memory it takes just handling the file.

The Process of Logo Creation

Don’t get frustrated if you cannot create or even think of the perfect logo right away. This usually takes some time. The best process is to first use a pencil and paper (remember those???) and draw out some sketches or ideas. Start small, start with the font/typeface then work your way to adding an icon and then throw in some detail. Sign up for an account at LogoPond and upload your work-in-progress… you will get some help and constructive criticism. Most importantly, if you get “Designers Block”… get off your computer, go outside, take a drive… do anything away from your monitor and you will see how quickly it will come to you.

Good Luck, and i hope this article helped you get a better understanding of the daunting task of logo creation! Check some of the resources below for some ideas and inspiration…

More resources:
LogoPond – Identity Inspiration
Thinking With Type
Brand of the World
InkScape
Miš i Pile: Logo Design Portfolio

Works cited:

“Typeface.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 16 Mar 2007, 09:40 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 21 Mar 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Typeface&oldid=115521101>.