To develop your business identity, an integrated look will help create an indelible impression of your company. This means that everything that represents your company visually - your letterhead and business cards, your web site, your invoices, labels and packaging - should reiterate the logo and the overall look and feel of your company's graphic design.
The logo will set the tone for everything else that follows. Hence, it is the most important graphic element in the campaign to establish your business identity.
But the logo does not stand alone. And it's not enough merely to plop a logo on a sheet of paper and call it well-designed letterhead.
Take a look at the following samples and consider how they work together. In each sample, the card, letterhead and envelope echo the same logo, although the elements may not be arranged in the same way. Click on any image to open a larger view in a separate window. (Addresses and phones have been disguised.)
Jumping Jax has a distinctive green and blue "x" as the central visual element in its identity package. Its placement on the piece varies, and the letterhead includes the additional element of using the "x" as a faint watermark in the background.
The alternate version of the Jumping Jax stationery draws from the basic logo - the "jumping" M and the distinctive red dot - and emphasizes that design with a line using a bump just below the jumped elements. This gives the overall impression of motion, while being very crisp and clean with the clear white background.
Perfect Petals uses color effectively, starting with a light lavender paper. The embossed initials and shadowed leaf convey the idea of a florist without being overly fussy and frilly. The stylized logo has a modern, almost iconic look, suggesting that this is not just a traditional florist but one specializing in more modern and eclectic arrangements.
New Dawn Healthcare also illustrated complete integration of the logo in its stationery suite. One mark of a well-designed logo is that it can be readily used in black and white, when needed. When office documents are photocopied, color will no longer be an element. Here the shape of the stylized sun does not need the aqua color to be readily identified.
Whatever scheme you choose, it pays to have a coordinated scheme, and to anticipate future business needs. A coordinated, integrated look can reinforce your business identity and help establish your company in your customers' minds.
Pocono Graphic Design will help you in designing a logo and a full suite of business stationery - and help you bring that same design to the web.