I was once asked "Luke I need an identity, what should I do?" Well I said, "First there are a few things that designers should know about logos or identities that they create and use." The KISS method is the biggest thing to remember when creating an identity. Keeping it simple will let the logo be used far and wide, good logos can be used anywhere, bill boards, business cards, websites, and newspapers. "But I'm only making my logo for my website." So? Don't think you'll ever use that logo for things out side of the Internet? Ever going to have promotions for your site that you may need fliers or invitations for? Then you need a good logo. Your logo should look good whether it's on your web site or it's on a flier. So here is the most important thing you need to keep in mind as you sketch out your ideas for a logo. Keep it very simple. Yup that's it. Look at some of the big name's logos. Adobe, IBM, Apple, I hate to say it, but Enron's. You can't simplify them any more. But you can take each and print it in a newspaper or put it on a website and it will look the same. You can shrink it down to an inch for a business card or blow it up to feet in height for a billboard. They still look good. See the importance of a logo being simple? "So I just come up with my logo out of the blue? Pick it out of the sky?"

Well maybe in an alternate universe. Here is how I would start. Grab a pencil and paper, and do what you did best all through high school, doodle. Sketch out ideas you have been thinking of since you decided you needed a logo. If you get a brain freeze look though other logos on the Internet or in the paper or magazines. After you decided on the best sketches, whether they are of an image or just a cool way of writing out a name, re-create them on the computer. Adobe Illustrator is great for this, but any drawing computer program will work. Use shapes to recreate images and letters to do that cool text style you came up with. DO NOT USE COLOR; if you have the logo printed in a newspaper, your logo will not have color. You may have some kind of emboss or effect that doesn't work when your logo is in black and white. Then that nasty looking logo is reflected on you, remember that people associate you with your logo. Make it look good wherever it is.

When you get the rough versions of your logo finished on the computer, take a break, then go back and pick two or three of the best versions that you like. You're going to fine-tune these. Clean them up and sharpen them. This cleaning up is going to be the final version of your new identity in its black and white form. Now when your happy with what they look like, pick one. Congratulations! You have your new Identity!

"But it's kinda blah?" I know, now you can have fun with your logo, take it to Photoshop, or which ever drawing program that you prefer, and add color to it. Add effects to it. Give it a background to rest on. Do anything that you like to it, as long as you know where that version of your logo is going to end up. Be it the Internet or an ad in a magazine. Don't throw out your black and white "blah" version! You will need it for the newspapers and for when you need your logo really tiny. So actually you don't have one logo, you have a few versions of the same base logo, each used for different reasons. Now my final thought for you would be to gather up all the versions of your logo and burn them on to a CD, heck make two. Save them as .jpg, .tiff, and .pdf if you can. This way you will always have it and you have something to give the Printers when you have your fliers printed. It will make life easier for the both of you.

There you have it, in a short while you have created an image out of an i dea that people will use to relate to you. When they see it you'll be the first thing they think of. Which is called "branding" and is for another article. - Luke "ideapuppet"