Designing a Logo for Your Business

Too often I see small services businesses - not just pressure washing - overlook the power and value of a good logo and corporate indentity. I don't believe in names like, "Johnny's pressure washing" or "Steve's Mobile Detailing" - as in most cases these names are dead giveaways that you are a small, semi-professional operation. Now I know there are lots of very professional businesses using that type of name - but much of the public is under-estimating them based on their name.

Unless you are some sort of celebrity who's name is already a house hold name then I suggest giving your business a name of it's own.

No matter what you name your business - it needs a logo. Some people pay way too much for their logo (sometimes in the millions) service businesses like ours tend to over look it too much. When a child is learning to read they are not just shown the word, "ball" - but instead "ball" and a picture of a ball. Why do you think that is? The object association identifies and commits to memory. That's all you are trying to do with your logo - give off some sort of identity and hope it sticks.

Here are some basic tips you may want to follow in choosing and designing a logo for your business.

• Colors... Find your top comeptitor and choose a very different color than them. If they use Red and Blue - consider using something in green or another very different color.
• Colors... try to stick with a 2 or 3 color scheme max. Too many colors can be confusing and unattractive.
• Shape... Lots of great logos are all shapes - but the mind's eye is a horizontal box - just like a car windshield. I prefer logos that are this shape so they will fit perfectly and use 100% of the space in the mind's eye.
• Nothing too fancy! I don't think any logo should be overly complicated, but certainly not in our business. Something simple and clean that will be easy to have printed on shirts, decals for trucks and tanks, forms, etc.
• Get Real Logo Files! - Lots of people can create catchy looking logos but not all create a set of truly professional files that you can later hand off to printers to produce professional quality reproductions of your file. When you have printing done - whether it be postcards or truck decals you want to be able to provide a printers quality, high resolution file of your logo. Most any professional logo service is going to provide these files either via download or on a CD.

Here are some good places to have your logo created online.

LogoWorks LogoWorks offering some very nice logo design and corporate identity work for as little as $299. ( This link saves you $20 off that. )

LogoMaker This is a do-it-yourself service that lets you piece together great looking logos. You can try the service for free and if you like the logo buy it for $99. They have some good looking samples on their website.