8 ms·
Startup logo design
- zht 14y agodoes anyone really use Microsoft Word or clip art to design their logos?
- dbot 14y agoHaving just gone through the process, I would completely agree with the advice here. We are really pleased with our logo from an eLance designer (www.crowdshelf.com), but it lacks an independent graphic, which I quickly realized was something that would be really useful for stuff like favicons, Twitter and Facebook pages, etc.
- BryanB55 14y agoAgreed. I think that is the strongest point about designing a logo. I just finished creating a new one and having an "icon" is incredibly helpful. Favicons, iphone apps, social media pages, etc.. can all be branded much easier.
- mrkmcknz 14y agoWhenever I want to showcase bad logo design I always search some random location based business service. Such as bouncy castle hire in Manchester: http://www.jalmacleisure.co.uk/ http://www.jalmacleisure.co.uk/ http://www.castleempire.com/images/Castle%20Empire.jpg http://www.castleempire.com/images/Castle%20Empire.jpg http://www.king-of-the-castles.com/ http://www.king-of-the-castles.com/ I often wonder what people think when they look at a logo as bad as some of the above. Personally I think it just shows a lack of effort, you see this in the startup game also. But clip art. Come on.
- harlanlewis 14y agoIs web design a differentiator for bounce houses? If it's not, skip it. I'm not sure if I'm being sarcastic or not.
- gendron1 14y ago4. Give credit to the author of the font you used.. http://www.dafont.com/harabara.font?text=goparti&psize=l http://www.dafont.com/harabara.font?text=goparti&psize=l
- Danieru 14y agoThe author did not specify that in their license: http://www.dafont.com/font-comment.php?file=harabara&psize=l&text=goparti http://www.dafont.com/font-comment.php?file=harabara&psi... (scroll down, two people emailed the author for clarification) So I do not see a reason why the font author should have been included in the article. The article was not about THIS logo but about logos in general. When I saw your comment I thought you might be pointing out that he was violating the license. Since he is not, I am not sure what to make of your comment.
- ryanackley 14y agoSlightly off-topic. If you have a startup and you have a blog like this, why not have a very big obvious link to your main website?(i.e. mystartup.com instead of blog.mystartup.com). It seems like a no-brainer to me. It's great marketing for your product or service. I've come to your site to read your blog and I'm curious about your business now.
- rashw9 14y agoThanks for the advice. That's something we didn't notice but we will be making this addition immediately.
- Mohnish 14y agoWe weren't going too much for the hard sell, but we'll definitely make sure to put a visible call to action on the blog, it makes sense. Thanks for your interest man, we hope you love it!
- vnchr 14y agoI do some advising for the GoParti guys. I'll hassle them about that :-) Hopefully Rasheed (author of above article) will get to these comments soon and jump in.
- paulgb 14y agoTiny nitpick: when you re-size vector text, make sure the straight edges don't straddle pixels. Notice the difference between the top and bottom versions? http://imgur.com/JlNin http://imgur.com/JlNin
- phwd 14y agoWhat's the difference between "startup logo design" and "logo design"? Just call it logo design.
- vnchr 14y agoOdd enough, I had a different title than the one above when I first submitted... Can mods of HN change it? I liked how Rasheed focused on how they approached logo design as a startup and made the process relatable to others with the same set of resources.
- Mohnish 14y agoI'm Mohnish Soundararajan, who wrote the article haha. For startups, the process of logo design is attacked from a totally different mindset. We were driving at the guys who are bootstrapping it, not a definitive guide to design in general. When GoParti was starting, these were the concerns.
- vnchr 14y agoSorry Mohnish! Great job, sorry, I thought Rasheed wrote it.
- ctdonath 14y agoPlease tell me that paint program UI picture is for real (as a UI) and is not just a cute photo.
- stan_rogers 14y agoSorry -- it's just a promotional piece for a software retailer (software-asli.com); the Photoshop CS4 UI done with real-world tools and materials. The text menu is Letraset rub-down sheets, the swatches are watercolour half-pans, the visibility markers for the layers are loupes, and so on. Good concept, construction and photo, though.
- dylanrw 14y agoHitting up 99 Designs is like throwing spaghetti at a wall in hopes that something sticks, well that's an almost apt description. I guess the biggest difference is that you are hiring N-'designers' who probably aren't very skilled at their craft so they have to lock into gladiatorial combat for mere dollars to each make a noodle and throw it at the wall for you. They won't care about your identity, and the quality of what you get will largely depend on how good you happen to be at scoping an illustration project and wrangling amateurs to get results. With this method you will have some sort of graphic to slap on a site or slather on a t-shirt, but you will be extremely lucky if it stands the test of time or even stands out in your market. A good logo is one thing that sets apart the amateurs from the professionals. Facebook knew this and that's why they went to Cuban Council (http://www.cubancouncil.com/ http://www.cubancouncil.com/). You could just find a designer/firm who's work you admire, see if they do identity work, speak with them about your brand, and collaborate with them (they will guide you if they are any good at what they do, and they will always have your best interest at heart) to create something everyone (including your customers) will love. Sadly, OP's description of "Startup" logo design is what is currently popular, and many people don't realize that this is not how the best logotypes/icons are made.
- dylanrw 14y agoOn a side note if you'd like some legitimate logo design advice, read here: http://www.davidairey.com/ http://www.davidairey.com/ He blogs about the process, the concepts of branding, what to expect etc. In general David has been a good source of logo design info for the past several years.
- oz 14y agoI'm gonna go out on a limb here and commit heresy: Logos are not that important. And I say this as someone who used to do graphic design professionally. If you're a startup, the most important thing is that the logo is professionally done - typefaces properly chosen and kerned etc, proper colour choices etc. There's no need to navel gaze for months on end about how the company values are or are not represented by a particular shade of blue. You have much more important things to worry about. This goes for design in general. There is a lot of mental masturbation in the design community. Just ensure that your design comes off as professional, and that will usually be more than enough. As for 99Designs et al, I'm all for it. For a smallish fee, you get tons of concepts, which you can refine till you're satisfied. Done. Now, back to building your business. (Sure a lot of them will be crap, but the sheer numbers usually makes up for it - A single designer will NOT have that many concepts.
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