Logo Design

Ellis Graphics has been providing Austin logo design services for over 30 years.

A logo is the cornerstone visual element of a brand. The immediate effect of a successful logo is brand recognition. The secondary effect is communication about the primary value offering of a product, service or program. That is, that which makes the offering worth consideration over other offerings. Recognition is often about a marriage of the familiar and the new. A successful logo must offer a logical representation while doing it in a unique way. Our catch phrase at Ellis Graphics for this concept is “the same, but different” — the same, to provide recognition, and different, to provide the uniqueness required to generate fresh interest.

Our logo design experience has allowed us the opportunity to create identity work for clients from single-product entrepreneurs, small and mid-sized growth companies to large corporations. We’ve produced logos for a wide range of businesses including automotive aftermarket, fashion, legal and accounting services, retailers, manufacturers and too many more, frankly, for us to possibly list. Our work is always focused on communicating well: first, to the market a business serves and second, to the clients themselves. Captivating a target audience is the most critical effect of a logo, but clients must use the work proudly to infuse the values of the brand into the logo’s market impression.

Here are some basic rules about good logo design which we follow at Ellis Graphics:

1. A good logo must first function well in black only: If a logo can communicate well in black only, it will perform the job even better in color. If a logo depends upon color to succeed, it will not be flexible enough to suit all applications such as the lesser quality printing of small newspaper ads, the still existing need to periodically fax, and many other applications that may not even be predictable at the outset of a company, product, or program. Even in tech-savvy Austin, graphic designers still must create something that works for every possible application a client might need, not just what looks good on the web.
2. A good logo should be great to look at AND communicate a strong concept, feeling, or “essence.” Sometimes, the most successful logos do this by multiple levels of interpretation. Dual meanings are helpful in creating resonance and equity with the viewer.
3. A good logo design should be appropriate to the subject: Beautiful but inappropriate logos can fail at the most basic branding function of recognition.
4. Logo design should be a process: A proper logo design process must yield enough great solutions to provide for a valid field of possibility. There are always multiple ways to design a strong and effective logo. Choice is the most effective way to achieve some certainty within the logo design process.
5. Good logos must be scalable and applicable: A good logo should not include high levels of detail that may be lost at smaller sizes.
6. Finished logos should be in vector format: Good finished logo work should be completed as Adobe Illustrator-style vector artwork so the finished image is scalable and communicates at many sizes.

Call us today to discuss your graphic design (Austin area code): 512-371-1997