Who owns my company’s logo?

This is not as silly a question as you may first think. The short answer is: not necessarily you. If you created it yourself, then yes indeed you own the copyright to it (unless your design infringes the copyright of someone else). If, however, someone else created it for you, you only own it if the designer has specifically transferred the copyright to you. If no such transfer has been made then the designer still owns it, regardless of how much you paid. In this situation it is possible for a ruthless ‘designer’ to prevent you from using your ‘own’ company logo.

The solution is to make sure that ‘transfer of license’, or a similar offer is made on the quote that you get from the studio before you commission any work.

Sometimes, usually for larger organisations, final artwork will be licensed to the client for a period of time, but this is not normally the case for small or medium sized organisations. If you are in doubt just ask the studio for clarification, it should be an easy question for them to answer.

Is my company’s logo important?

Yes your logo is important, but, equally important is how it is used.

A well considered (designed) logo will not only be eye-catching, but useful too. An organisation’s logo is often the first impression that a customer/user gets. It acts as a filter, allowing people to make quick judgements as to whether they have found what they are looking for, whether they trust the organization, whether the organization is big or small, established or start-up, professional or amateur, and more.

Even if you have a great logo, well designed, that gives a little information about what you do, printing it badly, distorting it or otherwise misusing it will give a bad impression of your business. If you can’t keep your own house in order, will your customers expect you to deal with them well?

The greatest mistake in creating a logo is to try and show everything about your organisation. It’s not necessary to write an essay with your logo, just give a little information that will lead people in and allow you to tell or show them about what you do.

What is corporate identity?

A corporate identity is simply the image that an organisation expresses. It may be made up of visual material (logo, company colours, type of photography used etc.), along with less obvious things, such as the way your phone is answered and the way that your staff dress and speak.

The most common mistake is to regard a logo as a corporate identity. In the same way that you wouldn’t expect someone to really know you as a person by looking at the colour of your shoes, a logo is only going to go so far in expressing the values and attitude of your organization.

Corporate identity schemes often have a comprehensive set of guidelines designed along with them. These manuals act as a guide to the people within the organization (and external design suppliers) as to how the things that are important to your image should be done to maintain consistency.