This article kicks off a multi-author series on how to build a better website (or weblog). There are four key elements, VICA, that we’ll focus on, as shown in the diagram at right and the bullet list below. (All definitions are for this site, so they may vary slightly from other definitions.) The series will include tutorials and video screencasts, when appropriate.

1. Visual Design.
   Visual design includes elements such as page templates/ themes, logos, page banners, fonts, headings, leading (line spacing), color, icons. My favorite weblog that applies these elements well is Chris Pearson’s Pearsonified. There are also numerous “CSS gallery” sites that we’ll cover here in the future.
2. Infographics.
   Infographics is part of data visualization and also part of overal visual design. However, it requires applying different techniques than the elements mentioned above in Visual Design. If you have data set, how can you represent it with some sort of diagram to make it more appealing and easier to absorb that a table or chart? Some great sites to check out are Infosthetics, David Armano’s Logic+Emotion, and Idagram. Make sure you go through all the pages on each of these sites. Another recent phenomenon is Edward Tufte’s Sparklines, which offer a convenient, easy to follow way to visualize numeric data. The diagram at right is a simple example of an infographic.
3. Content Formatting.
   Content formatting is an extension of visual design, but does not necessarily require any illustration or CSS code tweaking, but may require a bit of HTML. For example, taking a long article and using a numbered bullet list makes the content easier to follow and absorb. So do using HTML headings.
4. Analysis & Promotion.
   If you build it, will they come? That’s the question thousands of business owners ask about their websites. Unfortuately, the answer is probably “no”. So another aspect of improving your business website is to analyze what it offers readers, what they take away, and what you can do it improve their experience, including how to help them find you.

You’ve decided that your business website should have a blog. You’ve never blogged before, or have only had a personal blog on a hosted service such as Blogspot. Here are a few things you shouldn’t do, or think twice about before doing.

1. Post paid reviews.
If you are a business selling products, it just seems cheap to be pimping yourself out for someone else’s products. Feel free to mention other products, if they’re relevant to your blog’s topic set. Also, if your business is small (number of employees), it’s a matter of personal preference whether or not to use an Amazon affiliate code if you occasionally mention a book you highly recommend.

2. Run advertising.
Okay, let’s qualify that. Many webware (web application) sites that give away free access often have Google AdSense ads present. That’s their sole source of income, until they get purchased or find VC capital. Small businesses that sell their other companies’ products also occasionally have advertising, both graphic and pay-per-click. But if you are selling only your own products, think twice about publishing ads. Companies selling services, on the other hand, seem to be able to get away with sometimes selling ads. Ultimately, it’s a personl decision.

3. Fake your comments.
Don’t be like Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who repeatedly insulted a competitor in web forums under the pseudonym “Rahodeb”. This sort of thing applies to your business blog as well. Coach employees to also be transparent about their commenting, if they are representing you.

4. Get angry at insulting comments.
You can decide to turn off comments and allow only trackbacks, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be subject to insults. The Internet has become the great leveller of society in many ways, and that means that people free to be insulting online at anything they don’t agree with - something they might never do in person. You are not going to change that. Be diplomatic in your responses, or hire a professional writer to do the blogging for you.

5. Skip attribution.
The blogosphere is all about forming relationships. That means that if you are borrowing a concept or idea from someone, you should give them attribution by linking back to a specific URL on their site. Even if you came up with something on your own, it doesn’t hurt to pick a couple of articles on other sites where they’ve discussed something similar recently. Linking out is actually a good idea. In a similar vein, don’t steal content. It’s just wrong in so many ways.

The most important aspect of the logo design creation process is collecting input from the client. It also happens to be one of the trickiest. In fact some times it is more tricky than the actual conceptualization.

We have created 100s of logos over the years and might have worked with clients of every kind. Most often than not, we deal with clients who take their branding seriously and would have put some thought into how their logo should look before approaching a company like ours. But occassionally we do encounter clients who consider the logo design process as a black box and there are several logo design related myths that you might have to debunk.

Such clients do not usually have any input to provide the designer in terms of style or substance. They come with the hope that armed with the company name and the nature of the business the logo designer will be able to come up with a stunning logo that is eye catching, full of impact, cutting edge, modern and memorable (in short a great logo design).

So as a logo designer it is very important that you get as much input from the client as possible. I have listed the top 10 questions to ask the client. You should also explain clearly how you work and what the process is so that the client’s expectations are clear. Please post a comment below if you have any other questions that you think should not be missed.

1. What is the exact text of the logo?

It is very important that you establish the exact that the client would like to see in the logo. You will have to explain to the client that changes to the wording could have an effect on the concepts and therefore the client would need to nail down the exact words in the logo before any design work begins.

2. Any Slogan or Tag line?

It is also vital to find out if the client wants to see a slogan or tag line in the logo and the level of integration they are hoping for. Some client prefer to see the tag line as a seperate entity and placed some where below the actual logo design. Yet others might want the tag incorporated into the design itself.

3. What is the Nature of the business, service or product?

This is a more usual question that all designers would be made aware of but I included it here for sake of completeness.

4. Who is the Target Market?

This is a very important piece of information and would help the logo designer understand who this logo would most likely be exposed. This would then help the designer try and envision the kind of message that might be appropriate to that target audience.

For example, if you have two companies called “Black Hawks Construction“ and one caters to the residential market and the other to the commercial market, the two logos would have to be quite different in terms of the usuage of colors, fonts. icons and the layout. A corporate looking logo with possibly an iconic representation of a hawk might be appropriate to the commercial market whereas a more friendly version with an icon representing a house or a tree or perhaps even line art of a construction worker or a construction hat might be more appropriate to the domestic market.

5. Any Competitors?

It is useful to find out who the client thinks are their direct competitors. Of course a logo designer would also have to conduct their own research in terms of looking at as many corporate identities as possible in the same market to understand what the current trends are.

6. Any Creative strategy?

This is the tricky bit. A lot of clients might not have thought about their logo at all and would not be in a position to tell the designer what they are looking for. Often they might shrug their shoulders and say “I am not a designer! That is why I have come to you”.

Fair enough. However often we obeserve that after a few concepts are presented to the same client, they would then come back saying that they had actually expected some thing else. It is better to find out before hand what that “some thing else” is. You should explain to the client that it would help a lot to understand what look and feel or logo style the client might prefer. Or they could perhaps tell the designer what kind of images or icon they believe might look good. This leads to the next point.

7. Any examples of logos the client likes?

Following on from the last point, it would be very useful to find out what logos your client likes. This could be from your portfolio or perhaps from out there. Invite the client to spend some time on the web and list a few logos that they fancy. This help the designer understand the style the client prefers.

There are many styles of logos our there. You have the simple iconic logos, the illustrative logos, text based logos, line art logos, 3D logos, web 2.0 logos and more.

8. Any examples of logos the client does NOT like?

Knowing what the client does not like is a good way to prevent working on styles that might ultimately get thrown out by the client. However the logo designer must also use his or her judgement and not be afraid to show an concept which might use an icon or image the client said they did not like. Perhaps with the proper treatment, the designer could show the client a new angle or perspective and help the client understand how that particular image or icon might actually help the brand.

9. What are the Preferred colors?

It is also important the client has some idea of the colors that they would like to see in the logo concepts. Agreed, the client might not be in a position to appreciate the importance of the various colors in terms of how people or consumers might respond or behave towards, but it would help if they indicate a preference to a few colors.

10. Where will the logo be most used?

It is also quite important to find out where the client is most likely going to use their logo. The medium of usuage helps in making decisions regarding the use of gradients, defining the layout and more.

Your logo design is the storefront of your business. You want your logo design to be unique, professional and represent your business as a reliable and dependable business.  Unless you are a professional graphic designer, do you feel you have the knowledge to design the logo of your business?  The answer is probably not; otherwise you would probably have your own logo design business.  So, why would you trust that you would be able to use free logo design service to develop the storefront of your business?

The fact of the matter is that a free logo design service designs logos that are very “cookie cutter.”  If you use free logo design software and your neighbor uses the same free logo design software, the chances are that your logos are going to look the same are very high.  Be leery of such software or services as you will not be able to design the professional and unique look that you desire.  You want to advertise yourself as professional, so it is best to use a professional logo service that knows the industry.  Just as you would hire a plumber to fix your toilet, you should hire a professional graphic artist for your logo design.

Online services that offer free logo design should be examined carefully.  Many services offer free logo design with website hosting packages or the purchase of other products.  Some of these businesses may be professionals and they may provide your professional services. Or may be not. You should investigate the service and see what they offer.  Most professional logo design services offer multiple revisions or packages with a set number of revisions and cost money.  Free logo design services may only offer you one or two ideas and you have to select from those.  They may not offer you multiple revisions and the first two may not capture the idea that you are trying to portray.

Remember to ask yourself a few questions when looking at free services.  Ask yourself why they would be offering it for free?  Most free softwares only offers a few fonts and pictures.  This results in all logo designs looking alike.  Also, you may want to research any services offering free logo design.  Are they offering this service because they’re a nice company or person or are they offering it because they are just getting started?  If they are offering free logo design because they are just starting their business ask to see a portfolio or at least a few samples.  This will give you an idea as to what their work looks like and if it appears professional or not.

Remember, if you want a professional logo design go to a company that specializes in logo design.  You may have to pay for the logo but it will be well worth the money that you pay and will give your business a professional appearance.

Online logo design has become a main stream business now. Like any other business you find the honest and the not-so-honest participants in the online logo design industry. With so many suppliers out there, it becomes difficult for customers to understand the nature of this service works and what is real and what is not.

I have therefore decided to list a few of the myths related to this industry and then give my opinion on the pros and cons of each of them in series of posts. So here goes.

Myth #1: Logos can be created in a matter of hours.

This is a very common issue that you see on a lot of the online logo design companies who offer to design logos in hours and some even under and hour. Now if you think about it, a logo design is essentially a company’s face to the world. It tries to form an impression on the target audience. It also tries to explain what the company is about. To be able to this effectively a logo design has to communicate very clear and distinct messages about the company. Of course the company should have a clear message to communicate to start with.

Communicating a clear message about a company can be the most difficult thing to do. In fact it is even more so if your are trying to do that with a simple graphic. Because every market is so saturated with brands, it is essential that the message is communicated effectively, clearly and with impact.

So how can a designer create concepts that do this job effectively in a few hours? How about under an hour? Yes, granted that there might be geniuses out there that get creative ideas spontaneously and with in seconds. But how can they offer their service for so low rates?

Myth #2: Logos are about great graphics.

Most customers and lot of designers believe that logo design is just about great looking graphics. I must disagree with that opinion and so would those who understand how branding works.

How about research? How about understanding the clients target market? How about talking to the client? If a designer does not understand what the target market is and what kind of message the company is trying to communicate then the resulting logo design will be ineffective. When customers or prospective clients see the company’s logo, they are not motivated to do business with them.

It is not simply about creating great graphics. It is not about using clipart for logos. It is about using graphics to tell the company’s story. Some times we see multinational corporations using very simple logos. They have the money and the resources to come up with mind blowing graphics but they don’t. Why? Because they are more interested in connecting with their target audience than having dazzling graphics.

Myth #3: The more illustrative a logo, the better.

Since we are in the market of small to medium sized businesses wanting logo designs, I can safely say that most of the customers feel the more illustrative a logo, the better it is. Granted, some markets require really illustrative logos and some times the customer is right about this direction. However the decision to use or not use illustration in a logo should be based on thorough market research and not simply assumptions by the client or the designer.

The other day I was talking to a client who wanted fantastic graphics, brilliant colors and other effects such as 3D, shadows etc. The theme the client was that of a Texas country side. He was suggesting some thing like a fence, a gate with the company’s name on it, a couple of trees in the background, a cow boy hat some where etc.  The company sells medical uniforms specially targeted at the female staff in large hospitals. I may be wrong but I believe the target market (females in the 20-40 age group) working in large hospitals might not be comfortable with a brash and loud image.

We researched this a little bit and came up with a very simple and elegant iconic treatment.

On another occassion we actually recommended a highly illustrative treatment for a highlands real estate logo design.

I will listing more myths in future posts in this series. Stay tuned. Read one of our previous posts for an example of a real life case study of a logo design.