Sandra J. Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler®

Last month we talked about naming a business.  This month we'll discuss your logo.  Your logo could be used in different media: business cards, letterhead, brochures, flyers, website, newspaper and magazine ads.  The first thing you have to determine is where you'll use your logo.  If you are going to have a website, you will want an eye catching logo, probably with color.  If you're going to print a lot of flyers, you may want to keep your costs down with black ink, possibly printed on colored paper.  Keep in mind that any color combination can look high end, even black and white.  It all depends on the design. 

There is a huge price difference between black/white printing and color printing.  This is particularly true on brochures, flyers and   print ads.  A local copy center offers black and white letter size copies at .07 a side; color copies are .89 a side.  The price difference is mitigated somewhat in business cards.  Here you can go with standard black and white, 1 color (red, blue or green), or full color printing.  You can get 250 full color business cards for 24.00-35.00 depending on card stock. 

I always select a color logo that will also look good in black and white.  Look at the beading times logo here on the top of this page.  The red beading string adds an extra oomph to the design.  Still, the logo holds up printed with black ink on white paper for a flyer. 

A good logo or design can simply be stylized text or a combination of text and a graphic.  The key is that the elements all work together to enhance your company image. 

You can create your own logo or hire a professional at a reasonable cost.  There is help out there if you want to create your own logo.  A website called cooltext.com will allow you to customize several different fonts and type styles to create your own logo or website button.  Want to add a picture?  Search google.com for images in the public domain  or take a digital picture of one of your own jewelry designs.  Prefer to leave it up to a professional?  There are many good logo designers out there.  Be sure to see samples of their work before hiring them.  We'd appreciate it if you'd consider our sponsor, Holliday Smith, a lampworker and jewelry designer, who specializes in graphic designs for jewelers.  Click here to email Holli and tell her the Beading Times sent you.

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