Before the credit crunch and recession, the troubles of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the collapse of IndyMac,  the woes of Goldman Sachs and the warnings that banks such as Bank of America, Citibank, Wachovia, HSBC Bank USA and RBC Citizens are still vulnerable to financial problems months after the $700 billion federal bailout, these institutions represented solidity, security and trust.

Logo design reflected that, often being throwbacks to designs or symbols developed hundreds of years ago.    In these uncertain times, a logo for any company in finance still has to reflect those properties and attributes.Time is the best way to cement any identifying symbol in your customers’ consciousness, but most companies don’t have a couple of hundred years to wait while the link between them and a symbol is firmly established in the public’s mind.  The US financial world has also changed rapidly.  Most banks and financial institutions have lost the esteem and regard in which they were once held.The market for financial services is also far more competitive and much more trans-national than it was even a decade ago.

Choosing a style and color for a custom logo design for the financial sector is challenging and precise.Practically speaking, strong, sober, colors work best and although restrained or muted is the mood of the moment, it is still possible to be dynamic enough to be remembered.The tried and trusted approach was to place the company name below the symbol, but in important non-English speaking markets, inside and outside the USA, this may not be meaningful or relevant.Logos for finance need to be conservative enough in image for a business that deals with money, stocks and financial matters but also present an image that’s attractive while being steady, reliable, transparent and trustworthy.  A tall, but not an insurmountable order!

Wherever you go in the world, whether it be trekking through the Sahara Dessert, exploring the Jungles of Cambodua, in a taxi in the centre of New York City or on a luxury crusieliner in the mid-Atlantic, a logo will never be far away, most of which we will recognize due to the reach of globalization and worldwide marketing. Well-known Company Logos and brand monikers include those of McDonalds, IBM, Coca Cola, Ford and Nike as popular examples.

Various large businesses throughout the United States have sought design from a well known Custom Logo Design firm or Company that has produced an outstanding portfolio of Blue Chip clients and often comes by recommendation. Logo design is an important area for a business, as this is the first image a customer/client will see on when viewing your product.

The cost for Logo Design implementation can be extremly costly depending on the Graphic Design Company and how intricate the design is. The colours scheme of a Logo is considered important to the recognition of the company and can often reflect the type of business on offer. For example many garden centres and landscape gardening businesses use the color green in there logos, which is often associated with plants and outdoor matter.

Using too many colors in your logo can also be costly as you must remember that it will have to be carried through into all aspects of your brand communication strategy, including stationery design, advertising, packaging and online marketing. Most Logo Designers will consult with their clients on this matter as selecting the right colour can be a time consuming task as well as them relaying this information to the printer.

So the best advice is to draw up several logo designs yourself and to choose a series of colours you think could represent your company best.

With so many new design and illustration tools on the market these days it is easy and quick for anyone to knock up their own moniker Logo at the house or in the office. With access to the internet for fresh ideas on fonts, images and color charts to download, this can offer any company the chance to attract new business and save money on expensive design fees.

The function of a logo is to create a memorable impression in the mind of a potential client or customer. It’s the very core of your organization’ s corporate identity and a crucial way to establish yourself as unique in the marketplace.

Your Custom Logo Design and the messages it carries is an key component of your business identity and will always be remembered by clients, this can depend on whether you have just a company name or image or maybe even both, it is said that an Ideogram which is the term for icon, sign or image may be more effective than just a company name, especially if you are a looking to trade in foreign territories, as this is where a translation may be required.
By re-assessing your Logo Design you need to look at whether this emphasises to the client what your company has to offer and if the colors you have used stand out with what you are trying to communicate. In the United States the combination of red, blue and white¦ alike there very own flag, are used by companies that want to project patriotic feelings for example the logos of the National Baseball League and NASCAR.

Company Logos that are green have connotations of evironmental awareness. So having a brief discussion with your local Logo Designers could lead to a boost in your business and recognition in the market.

All businesses need an identity including a logo design, but what is it that makes a logo good for your business?

A well-designed logo will get the attention of potential customers and make people feel instantly good about your business, but whether you decide to go with a cheap template logo or a more sophisticated custom logo design, there are a few things that used to look out for:

1.    Focus on the name of your brand

The primary aim of a logo is to make your company look great, and to promote your business name.  Your brand name must therefore appear clearly and create a striking focus of your design.

2.    Appeal to your target customers

Along with brand naming, your logo design is one of the most essential aspects of your brand design and will form the basis of all your visual marketing.  It is therefore essential that your logo is designed specifically to appeal to your desired market, using typography, colour and graphics that they will both notice and love.

3.    Stand out from the crowd

Aswell as a design that appeals to your target market, you also needs to be easily recognizable and memorable so you should ensure that you stand out from your main competitors in terms of colour and imagery.

4.    Don’t overcomplicate it

The best logo designs stand the test of time, but it can be very difficult to know how a logo design will look in 5 or 10 years time.  The most reliable way to ensure that your design does not go out of fashion is to keep it simple.  Try to avoid fancy frills and clutter, avoid unusual textures and shading effects, and do use bold simple fonts and shapes.

5.    Scalability

Your logo will be used in many different applications, from your business stationery and packaging up to your company signage and billboard adverts.  Your logo therefore needs to display perfectly at any size.  To make sure that your logo looks good at a small size, avoid lots of small details in the design because these could be lost in many applications.

To ensure that it looks great at a large-scale,  you must ensure that your logo is supplied as a vector graphic, meaning that it can be shrunk or enlarged to any size without ever pixelating or blurring.

There is hardly a business or organisation out there without one. That simple graphic is seen on everything connected to the brand, and has a power which goes beyond words, limits and even time. A good logo design is essential to establishing and reinforcing brand recognition and can speak volumes without any text being added at all. An effective logo is little more than a memory tool. The saying  “a picture is worth a thousand words” still holds true, especially in the marketing arena, and human beings respond to visual cues far quicker and better than plain text alone. A properly created logo gives existing and potential customers something to remember the brand by, and recall you to mind when they see it.

In the consumer arena, a recognisable logo establishes instant communication between the brand and its consumers. Seeing a familiar logo on a product means you know what you’re getting and can trust in the quality, even when shopping in a foreign country. The logo needs to be able to communicate all the information about the brand, which would take forever to say in words. This is obviously more effective if the brand has already been seen to stand the test of time. Kellogg, Hoover, Apple etc all have the power of age behind them. But there is another common factor with these logos: they are all simple, effective and work well across all different media. The Nike tick is probably the best example of just how visually simple and basic a custom logo design can go and still be effective. For many, the London 2012 Olympics logo is an example of how obscure and expensive the entire process can be.

When deciding on the perfect logo for your brand, you first need to be sure of how you want it to be percieved and presented. A logo that looks great on a poster may not have the same impact on an A4 letterhead, still less on a business card, and the same is true in reverse. An effective logo allows a company to present a professional, polished look. The cleaner, simpler and more stylish a logo is, the more likely it is to stand out from the competition and help boost sales.

Designing a logo which works for a brand across many platforms has to be one of the most difficult tasks in graphic design. The simple device has to encapsulate all you need to know about an organisation – its purpose, attitude and values. That task isn’t going to be right first time round, so insist on seeing some sample logos before deciding on the final visual expression of your brand.