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Branding

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Sometime during the process of starting your business, the words "do logo" will appear on your to-do list, if they haven't already. It's exciting during those early days to watch your logo develop into something worthy of displaying, like a flag for your company. The question you have to ask yourself is whether that combination of artwork and typography will stand up through the years. You have to get it right the first time.

That's why we're engaging in Logo 101 here. Using the example of "Robinhood Feast," a restaurant for which I helped develop a logo several years ago, I'll walk you through the steps from A to Z of designing a powerful logo.

According to Tom Charvat, a former senior vice president at brand-marketing firm Frankel & Co. in Chicago who helped with this project, a logo is typically a combination of four elements: a brand name, typography, a brandmark (optional) and trade dress (see Step 4-trade dress involves a lockup of artwork and specific colors).

1. Your first step in the process is hopefully done: You've already selected a brand name. We've selected Robinhood Feast. This choice was driven by the business plan, which defined the business as "a restaurant established in 1992 on the shores of a Michigan lake, where the meals are served on long, planked tables with robust servings, steins of beer and wine in glazed mugs, all designed to appeal to people who enjoy the outdoors, fish and game." All those considerations are important and guide other decisions, beginning with step two: typography.

2. Different type fonts impart very definite characteristics about the brand name. "You need to select typography that fits with your brand character with an eye toward readability," says Charvat. "Remember that your logo will have to extend to various applications, from signage to stationery."

3. This step is optional: developing a brandmark. A brandmark is a symbol that complements an aspect of your business or service such as speed, quality, value or personality.

4. Step 4 begins with a combination of the selected type font with the brandmark icon to create a lockup. A good lockup must create a sense of cohesion between the elements. This lockup also will eventually become the template for the colors of your new brand identity.

One thing you need to watch out for as you explore color options is cost. "A five-color logo may look terrific on paper but can be extremely expensive to produce and will disappoint in applications that allow only one or two colors," Charvat warns.

Your logo can appear on a variety of media: signage, advertising, stationery, delivery vehicles and packaging, to name just a few. Remember that some of those applications, like black-and-white newspaper ads, have production limitations. Make sure you do a color study. Look at your logo in one-, two- and three-color versions.

Also, remember to do a trademark search and register your new trademark. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov) is a good place to start.