There are plenty of things to bear in mind and Nimraw has provided a lot of good advice extracted from here:
quote:OK, here we go.
As I understand things this is to be the new logo, not just a logo for online use. Correct?
Anyway, I'll base my ramblings upon that assumption.
Inspiration and getting the brain started in the right mood
Look at some of the well known big corp-logos. Don't just look at logos within the same area of business, but look everywhere. Examples range from Coca Cola, McD and Kraft to Caterpillar, Chevrolet and Hitachi. Hell, you can just open up your fridge and look at whatever is in there (not the green moldy stuff though). Try to just focus on the logos. What makes you like some of them more and other less? What do they make you feel, and why? Don't worry that you're just looking at groceries. A logo is a logo! (And just ignore your friends comments when they catch you staring at a carton of milk for 20 minutes straight).
What's the story?
Since this is a construction company, try figuring out what emotions you want to convey.
Is this a small, agile expert company you might go in the direction of something more elegant signalling awareness, expertise and exclusiveness.
If the company is bigger and more down-to-earth, you might want to go more rugged and "massive" signalling trust, "no-bullshit-approach" and solidity. "We do what we do, but we're damn good at it!"
It basicly comes down to what competitive advatages they have. The logo has to reflect the company mentality in some way.
A logo is in it's essance a promise and a compressed story. What do you want this company's customers to expect and feel when they see the logo?
Graphics, text or both?
One decision you need to make is if you want the typography to be the logo or is you want to use the name together with a pictogram (nike's swoosh, the HP superellips, or the chevy "wings").
If you're heading down pictogram lane, remember to keep it simple. The logo should work on 2*3 meter format as well as on a business card. If it's too complex, the details will blur when the logo is downsized. Pictograms are usually a real simplified interpretation of something. Look at the Burger King logo. It resembles a hamburger, but done very simple. Play around with a few shapes that signifies the company and see how much you can simplify them, without making totally unrecognisable. There's no need to keep enough detail so that you see what it is at first sight, but some resemblance is good. Associate freely about what this company is all about and write down the words. Then look them over and see what words that could be used in a graphic.
I guess many logo-designers (and especially not very experienced ones) go crazy with the pictograms, making them the prime target for the logo. Not saying that it's all wrong, but it's not necessary. Look at Compaq, WalMart and Avis.
A middle road here is to play a bit with the typography itself, creating some uniqueness from a standard type. (Dell's twisted "E", Microsofts chipped "O"). Or you can combine and go crazy, like Sun's logo where you can read sun from every angle with a bit of creative vision.
A bit about usability and vision
Don't make your logo to vertical. A high and narrow logo has some disadvantages.
First of all it's often cumbersome to use in most areas. If you're using it in an ad you need to buy a lot of adspace to get a legible size of the logo, since you'll want to keep the graphics proportional.
Second, the eye is much better at noticing wider items to some extent. (dont make it very low and wide tough). There's a good bit written about this in some book by Jack Trout I believe, but this is basic graphic common sense. Good proportions makes for greater impact.
Think sig-design!
Some basic practical guides: 1. Vector not bitmap!
Make sure you create the logo in a vector-based program such as Illustrator of Freehand. A vector/bezier logo will be scalable so that you can use the same logo-file for creating business cards and letterheads as well as posters and putting it on a big ship. Scalable is the key.
2.Multiple colours.
No I won't tell you which colours to use, but it can save you a lot of hassle afterwards if you make sure your logo is functional in three settings (mebbe four): Full colour, all black/grayscale and inverted (white/grayscale). Inverted colour is optional. By inverted colour I of course do not mean control+I, but rather a logo that works on a really dark background. You don't want your logo to blend in too much. (I'm assuming that the original logo is designed for usage on a light BG. If not, reverse what I said).
If your brother-in-law ever plan on advertising he might want to go B/W some times since that's a lot cheaper. A clear B/W-logo also comes in handy when it comes to letterheads, faxes (doesanyone still use them?) and so on.
Try out your logo on different BG-colours, and try to set guidelines for when to use which logo. You can also work in guides for usage of the logo on a cluttered bg, which most often means that the logo will rest on a solid-colour plate.
3.Colour space
Since you're designing the logo, make duplicates of it in both CMYK and RGB to cover both on-screen and print usage. Try to find CMYK-colours that exist within the wider colour range of RGB to give an as coherent approach as possible. Creating another version in PMS-colour for extra points, but in my experience they do not get used that much, except for logo-printing on merchandise etc.
OK, I've probably left out tons of info, but I hope I could help in some way. If you want more, just ask
