Logo advice

[bryan555]

I recommend all my small business clients to put their logo at the very bottom of any marketing material as it's the least important part of it. Get the offer copy right and people will read to the bottom and see it, stick some logo they've never seen before at the top and they've lost interest before they've started.

But like I said, I wouldn't expect a designer to agree.

As a small business, that is a load of crap, (I am not a designer) yes get the copy right first of all, but isn't the idea of a logo to catch the eye to get you to stop so you want to read the copy ? but if a company has a logo I don't like, I don't read the copy, and a logo down at the bottom of the page makes me think what are they hiding, or do they not believe in themselves, two reasons not to deal with them.

technodup, Can I ask what you do ?

I help businesses actually make money by improving their marketing approaches.

Yeah, but what do you do?

 

[stewlewis]

I'm going to be Alloa Cycle Repairs and I want a logo to have on my business cards, personal and work vehicles, headed paper and stickers etc.

A bike related shape or 2 incorporating the workshop name would be cool but maybe too common. I come up with the idea of something using a thistle made up of a wheel or chainring as centre part with workshop name as top, crank as stem if chainring or bars as stem if wheel. Not sure what to use to represent the leaves so left it at that. The thistle symbol is fairly relevant to old Alloa.

As long as it's not too complicated I thought it wouldn't need colour to define it and would work in different sizes. The only bad thing I can think of is I was hoping to tie in the logo colours with the colours I painted the workshop surfaces and I don't want purple and green. Play on the traditional thistle colours to suit my needs ? Red and black rule in my world.

Michael

Regarding the name, are you solely doing repairs, and in the future? Would you ever build bikes or brand generic kit as your own?

Have you narrowed down your ideas, do you have a pic of your sketches?
You're right in saying a logo shouldn't need colour, most definite for a small startup to keep your printing costs down.

Without seeing any of your ideas, colour favourites, font favourites etc and just going off your post I knocked up this logo. A portrait format logo would probably be best as it's going to be wrapped around tubes.

 

[bryan555]

I'm going to be Alloa Cycle Repairs and I want a logo to have on my business cards, personal and work vehicles, headed paper and stickers etc.

A bike related shape or 2 incorporating the workshop name would be cool but maybe too common. I come up with the idea of something using a thistle made up of a wheel or chainring as centre part with workshop name as top, crank as stem if chainring or bars as stem if wheel. Not sure what to use to represent the leaves so left it at that. The thistle symbol is fairly relevant to old Alloa.

As long as it's not too complicated I thought it wouldn't need colour to define it and would work in different sizes. The only bad thing I can think of is I was hoping to tie in the logo colours with the colours I painted the workshop surfaces and I don't want purple and green. Play on the traditional thistle colours to suit my needs ? Red and black rule in my world.

Michael

Regarding the name, are you solely doing repairs, and in the future? Would you ever build bikes or brand generic kit as your own?

Have you narrowed down your ideas, do you have a pic of your sketches?
You're right in saying a logo shouldn't need colour, most definite for a small startup to keep your printing costs down.

Without seeing any of your ideas, colour favourites, font favourites etc and just going off your post I knocked up this logo. A portrait format logo would probably be best as it's going to be wrapped around tubes.

Nice work!

<my2pence>I guess you could wrap 'cycle repairs' under the thistle forming a circle round the bottom. The Alloa could be a little larger and bolder and still represent the flower.</my2pence>

 

[8690q]

That is excellent Stewie. If you change it to Alloa Cycle Repairs as the top part then that is pretty much what I had in mind.

How much am I due you so far ? If nothing then I'm certainly going to make sure you know I appreciate your effort.

 

[8690q]

Would what you've posted work in Inkscape and how would I get it there ? Would love to have go at messing about with it myself.

 

[stewlewis]

Variations:

The pic on this forum is just a bitmap, no use for editing.
I have put the files here:

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=37f1732b ... tion=Share

You should be able to open the .SVG, and possibly the .AI files in Inkscape, I've not used Inkscape but SVG is a standard format.

This is of course a draft from your brief brief on the forum, the crankset is just a trace and not symmetrical or refined. The font was Bookman Old Style and chosen for the serifs as it reflects the history of the thistle, that would be your choice obviously. I've copied the TTF (font) files into the share too in case it isn't on your PC.

The text doesn't scale too well on screen as shown, it may need some tweaking for print purposes on small items, bus. card and frame stickers etc.


I'm not due anything pal, like I said it's just a hobby and I like to play with graphics packages. You got lucky I was working from home, infront of the PC all day with not much work coming in.


As far as the designer debate goes, I'm not a designer, and from start to finish reading this thread, updating the thread and coming up with the design from the information given I'd say this took about 2hrs.
Now is that of benefit to Michael, would he have had to pay a designer, I don't know. Would he have earned in 2 hours enough to pay someone else what it may have taken him a lot longer to learn?

Will it make his business profitable and expand exponentially overnight? * Of course not, but it nice to be consistent with any advertising and correspondence.

* For this you need an ultra modern business card:

Don't worry Michael, it says enough. They'll find you. After all you're worth finding aren't you. You. Are somebody. Say it with me Michael, "I Am, Somebody". The name says it all and you only need to hand this card to a potential client and the quality and feel of the card will speak volumes, hell you need not even say a word, hand the card and walk away.
They will find you Michael, if they don't they are not the type of fools you want to do business with.
This card will, like a great man once said, "Will find them for 3, but will catch them, and kill them, for 10"

So I ask you Michael, is 10 thousand too much to pay for this card and your business image and the guarantees it will bring for great white size clients!


Or, you could always ask the friendly bunch at Retrobike for a helping hand, it usually works.