The company logo is often the result of hours of planning and intense graphic design. This tiny piece of art represents your company and is one of the most recognizable features of any webpage. This means a logo plays a very large role in your overall website design and your overall marketing campaign.
Your logo can dictate the look of the website
Your logo often contains the microcosm of your product's branding: this means it has the colors you want to use and often features art that represents your company. The logo can dictate your color palette. Your web design company can choose to complement the color scheme used in the original design or build a website that contrasts it.
Depending on the design, logos often contain one or more of the following elements: the company name, art representing the company and/or the brand motto.
Your website can also dictate the look of the logo
Unless your logo has been in use for many years, often times a little tweak or two is needed when creating a website for an established brand. This can simply mean rotating the logo or increasing the contrast. In other cases, it may call for a redesign if the logo does not test well with your target market. Many successful companies have benefited from a logo redesign -- and their websites have benefited too.
Updating logos are a tricky business however -- you risk alienating established customers. But logos can and will change to reflect changing brand or company values. Your website design should reflect this as well.
Your logo should be visible
Convention dictates that the logo be placed front and center, or on the upper right corner of the website where it can easily be seen by visitors. Why? Because this type of spatial placing works. It serves as a subtle reminder, a gentle nudge and as an advertisement on your own page.
It also works as a link
Customers often use logos and headers as a giant "home" link. They click on it and expect to return to the home page. This means your logo will be on every page of your website. This means that your logo is a central element of your website designs. It should be visible on every page and will be an easily recognizable, if not central design element of your webpage.
Logos are especially important if you choose not to use a header -- this creates a simpler website navigation platform that allows your customers to return to the home page whenever they want.
Your logo will dominate your online/offline ads and links, not just your website
When creating effective links and banner ads, your copy should be short and sweet and your logo should be visible. Sometimes, your logo alone will work, especially if your brand is one its way to becoming recognizable. The logo itself then becomes a valuable marketing tool for your website. Using it can create a sense of cohesion no matter which affiliate website or ad your target market sees. A great web design company will know this and help you blend your strategies into a unified whole.
Creating a sense of cohesion is the goal of your overall marketing strategy, both online and offline. This does not necessarily mean that all your materials have to look exactly alike, but that they possess the same feel.
Evoking this sort of feeling makes your logo and your brand a snap to recognize. This means that it does not matter if your target market sees a print ad, a brochure or lands on your site by accident. What matters it they instantly know what you are.
Do you need to update your logo?
Yes, if your logo looks blurry or does not load properly on the page. This requires your web design company or graphic design team to recreate the logo, usually as a vector. Vectors retain their sharpness even when they are resized and keep their proportions regardless of how they are used.
If your research indicates that your logo is not representing your brand correctly, a logo (and website) redesign may be necessary too.
Logo design is not just about simply throwing art and words together. It merits careful consideration because it represents the soul of your brand -- and can help dictate future design decisions, like your website.
