A logo forms the basis of your business design. Virtually every published aspect of your business will have your logo in it, ie:
- website, social media, emails
- business cards, flyers, brochures
- workwear, signage, posters
- adverts, promo material
So where is your logo right now?
Hopefully you have it files in a safe place in it’s original design format with some export files you can send to contractors for any of the listed uses above
More likely, you have a friendly designer who looks after it for you but – what if he disappears? ceases trading? falls out with you?
Do you own the copyright?
When you completed the design did you ask for your logo copyright to be assigned to you so you can use it whenever/wherever and by whoever in the future? Just because you paid the invoice docent mean you own the right to use.
Example: business owner uses the daughters boyfriend to create a a logo, they split up, several years later the business goes multi-national. The boyfriend returns and asks for more money. “Go forth” screams the dad, “see you in court” says the ex.
To avoid these dilemmas..
- find a professional design
- create a vector based design
- pre-agree use and assignment
- pre-agree delivery of the original and export files
- make sure you pay in full and archive the transaction
- file safely and archive a copy off-site
It’s important that you logo is ‘original’, this is also important if you then decide to register it as a Trade Mark: www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark
Avoid conflict
Carefully research your design so as not to copy an established brand and DO NOT use any of these:
- library images
- Google (or any other search engine) images
- clip art
- branded colors (like Harrods green)
In fact avoid images all together, they cause a lot of reproduction issues especially when using large format processes
A logo is not just for Christmas, they need planning, research and consideration for future use
OHM director Nigel Stevenson has over 40 years logo design experience, give him a call, see: www.nigelstevenson.co.uk
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