CBD is taking the vaping market and natural healing industry to new heights. This powerful substance is changing the way people think about how they consume hemp products, and why it’s beneficial in the first place.

As a business owner operating in this realm, you definitely know a thing or two about CBD’s positive effects. But, have you done a good job of communicating this to your market?

The more of an effort you make to educate current consumers and reach out to potential CBD users, the more successful your business will be. This involves doing everything from blogging about CBD to answering user questions to even having a stronger logo than the one you do right now.

Every part of your business adds up if you want to offer the best CBD experience possible. Here are a few things a strong logo design has to do with company success.

1. Catch the Eye’s of New Users

Have you ever been driving on the highway and did a double-take of a billboard you pass by? Do you often pick up products in the grocery store or at the mall because of the interesting logo the packaging displays?

CBD consumers think in the same way. Like with any other kind of shopping, when a user sees something they like, they’re going to be intrigued by it. As such, your logo needs to be interesting enough to get their attention.

A unique, out-of-the-box design is much more likely to catch someone’s eye than a boring, typical logo will. Play with different ideas if you’re trying to reach new customers.

See what other CBD companies are doing for inspiration, like Wellspring CBD which you can click to learn more info about.

2. Increase Brand Recognition

It doesn’t matter how many new customers you get if you keep losing them. Your logo also has to help build brand recognition, which in turn supports your customer retention strategy. Good logos keep people coming back for more.

Think about the most timeless logos out there. From Nike sportswear to McDonald’s fries and Apple computers, people are sometimes drawn to certain products just because of the logo they have. Create repeat business like this and your company is practically guaranteed to do well.

3. Make People Feel Something

As much as a logo’s design keeps people coming back for a few more purchases, it’s what they feel that turns them into loyal, long-term customers. Your logo has to stand for something.

Try to incorporate brand values or some sort of personal touch in your new design. You may have to give this a few tries until you get it just right, but when you do, the results will speak for themselves.

4. Establish a Strong Connection

When you stir an emotion within someone, you open a door to create a strong connection. Over time, a stronger logo design starts to build trust with users. It’s something they can look at and know they are going to get the quality they’re looking for.

This comes in handy in case something does go wrong and you need customer service to step in. It’s also useful to have such a strong logo because all it takes is seeing the logo on social media or passing by someone else using one of your products to keep building the connection you’ve established.

5. Stand Out Against the Competition

The final way a strong logo design helps your business thrive is that it makes you stand out. Think about it: the CBD market is already growing and it’s only going to get more saturated.

You need a strong logo right now if you want to stand out and stay relevant in the future. Get this taken care of and you’ll be in good standing to keep the market share you already have and continue to grow.

Start Creating a Stronger Logo Right Now!

Although a logo design has a lot riding on it, it’s not hard to come up with something great. All you need is a little bit of time to clear your mind, some inspiration to get started, and a logo making software to get the job done.

If you want to build a stronger logo for your CBD business, click here to get started.

It only takes a customer ten seconds to form a first impression of your brand’s logo. In that ten seconds, they’re taking in everything. And while there are a number of different elements that go into creating a recognizable logo, like color, for example, all of those elements boil down to one simple rule.

That rule is simplicity.

Whether you’re working with a designer or attempting to create your own logo, you might be tempted to jazz it up with fancy designs or a lot of colors. But, in terms of creating a recognizable, trustworthy logo, that would be a mistake.

Read on to learn more about simple logo design and why it’s important for your business and your brand.

Symbolism and Recognition

Think about the Olympic Rings icon. It’s one of the oldest and best-known examples of a graphic logo. It is instantly recognizable and impossible to be mistaken for something else.

It was created in 1912 and hasn’t changed much in the 100+ years it has been around. But even though it’s simple, it’s incredibly effective. When you look at it, you know what it stands for.

There’s a use for every element in the picture, but you don’t need to know what those uses are in order to understand and relate the picture to the Olympics. It isn’t a sports-related graphic, it’s not trying to tell you what happens during the games, but you know exactly what it means when you look at it.

This is an example of how a simple logo design can take your brand from something your customers might recognize to something that they understand completely the second they look at it.

Logo Design Basics

There are a number of qualities that all good logos have. One of those qualities, and arguably the most effective, is the simplicity and clarity of a logo.

A logo is a brand’s face. As a company builds awareness of their brand, customers begin to make connections between the logo and the brand. If a logo is complicated, it makes it much harder for customers to make that association.

It’s very easy for uniqueness to get mistaken as complicated. In fact, it’s actually pretty hard to make a unique, simple logo. It’s for that reason that a lot of people opt to create complex ones instead because they’re actually much easier to design in a unique way.

But when you consider logo designs of popular companies, like McDonalds, Target, and Apple, you see how highly simplistic logos can be immensely helpful in creating brand recognition.

Make a Lasting Impression

A simple logo is much easier to absorb and understand. They’re easy to recall later on as well. They’re often easy to associate with a positive experience because it triggers memory centers in the brain and doesn’t bog the brain down with sending an unclear message, or too many messages all at once.

Sending a Clear Message

The design of a busy logo will send a convoluted message. Your customers might connect your brand and your logo, sure. But you could be seriously damaging your brand design efforts. You want to keep your logo targeted and simple.

If you do that, the message you’re sending with your logo will be clear, concise, and much more likely to be taken at face value.

Easy Recall

It’s much easier to remember one sentence than it is to remember one paragraph. The less information you’re being asked to memorize, the better your recall will be.

A complicated logo is a lot like that long paragraph. It’s filled with information and makes it harder for the average customer to remember it exactly the way you want them to.

Word of Mouth

If your logo is simple enough to commit to memory, your customer will also be able to describe it to someone else. So when they’re trying to remember the name of your company, or where you’re located, they’ll be able to tell them what the logo looks like instead.

Easily Recognizable

When your logo is simple, you can even recognize it from the corner of your eye. A much more complicated one will take a while and will require a precise line of sight in order to fully understand.

When you’re designing a logo, you know the purpose is to bring your brand to a customer’s mind right away. The quicker and easier this process is, the better it is for your brand.

Quick Emotional Reactions

Think about one of the major brands we mentioned earlier, like McDonald’s. When you imagine that logo, all of the emotions you feel should come up to the surface immediately. This is exactly the reaction you want from your customer as well.

If a logo design is complicated, your customer’s brain will spend more time trying to put together the picture of what they’re seeing rather than what they’re feeling when they see it.

Versatility

A good logo is one that can be used in all environments.

You’ll want to put your logo everywhere. You’ll want it in print, on a t-shirt, on business cards, on the web, on ink stamps, on signs, on promotional gifts, and more. You’ll want to make sure it looks good in color and black and white. It should translate well when it’s large and when it’s small.

Simple designs are best for this purpose as well. When there’s less to see, less gets lost in translation.

Harder to Counterfeit

When your logo is full of colors and complicated design, it’s much easier for other brands to copy it. A simple change is enough to consider it fair game for them to use and steal your status and followers.

If you stick to a few colors and a simple design with minimal details, it’s much harder to fool an unsuspecting customer with a counterfeit.

How to Design a Simple Logo

Trying to create a simple, effective logo can be a lot harder than you’d expect. But when you sit down and try to come up with a strategy, you can actually understand your business better.

Think about the elements that relate to your business and simplify them. Keep it fresh, modern, and unique. You’ll surely have your own process for creating your logo, but when you keep simplicity in mind, you’ll create something effective.

Your unique taste should leave a mark and no matter what it looks like in the end, your goal is to create something that’s focused on your brand.

Keep it Simple

A simple logo design doesn’t mean a simple business. It has no sway in what your business model or message is. In fact, it actually passes along a message of awareness and understanding to your customer. You want that first ten seconds that your logo is making an impression on your customer to deliver the message that you know what they want and how to deliver it to them.

For more information on logo development, visit us today.

Branding is the best way to get your company noticed. It’s what you could call the summation of your marketing campaign, or even the face your company. What image you choose to project can make or break your business.

One of the biggest aspects of branding is your logo. Your chosen graphic becomes the figurehead for your company and makes your first impression.

Flashy logos project a different brand vision than subdued, text-only logos. It’s up to you what type of logo you want to project to consumers; just ensure it’s unique and representative of your vision.

However, despite the enormous variety in logo making, there are some hard and fast rules that good logos should follow. Deviate from the standard too much and you’ll send customers running in the opposite direction.

To help you get started we’re breaking down 7 rules for logo making that every business should follow. Let’s get started.

Logo Making 101

Logos are more important today than ever to represent your company. The explosion of the internet and web-enabled devices mean we’re becoming more and more visually oriented. U.S. adults spend over 10 hours per day looking at screens, and thus inevitably looking at logos.

Think tech companies for a second. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You’re probably picturing either the website itself or its logo. They’re one excellent example of the capitalizing on screen-time with memorable logos.

So it all begs the question, what goes into a successful logo? What do you need to succeed? How do you create a logo as ubiquitous as Facebook’s or Twitter’s?

Well…

Hire a Professional

First and foremost, it’s best to consult a professional. This doesn’t mean you can’t have control over the creative process. In fact, it’s important that you do remain in control over most aspects of your logo.

However, complete control doesn’t mean shutting down suggestions from the people who design logos day in and day out. Professional logo designers know what works and what doesn’t.

Plus, they have the expertise in actually creating your logo. Chances are your staff doesn’t have an in-house graphics professional. Logo design programs like InDesign and Illustrator take years to learn, and even longer to master.

Unique to Your Brand

Though just because you need to find a professional doesn’t mean you can’t start brainstorming in the interim. As we touched on above, keeping your logo unique is priority number one when it comes to initial design.

Think of it this way. You want your logo to remind people about your company. If it’s too similar to another company’s logo, the entire premise is gone before it started.

If you’re selling cars you want people to think of your dealership when they see tour logo. Not your dealership and the one right down the road. You need to capture as much consumer attention as possible.

Balance

So how do you keep your logo unique? Balance makes a good starting point. By balance, we mean keeping the elements of your logo proportional to one another. You don’t want the text to overpower the graphics, and vice versa.

Likewise, you don’t want color to overtake your entire design. Too much color can actually distract from parts of the logo. If someone only sees florescent yellow they might miss the text-based branding.

Scaling

After balance you’ll want to take into account how your logo scales. By scaling, we’re referring to how it looks in small, medium, and large formats. It’s almost certain that you’ll use your logos across different mediums that require different logo sizes.

The key to creating something that scales well is two-fold. First, you need to ensure the logo elements scale. This means text that doesn’t become unreadable and graphics that still look reasonable, small or large.

Second, ensure the logo gets created in the vector file format. Vector graphics use mathematical designs to create your image, and also so don’t distort when scaled.

Typography Matters

We already mentioned text several times above. While we are talking about text (again) we’re focusing this time specifically on the font. The font you choose can make or break your overall design, including your scaling.

Always strike a balance between eye-catching and readable. You want to draw in consumers but also ensure your writing is legible no matter the logo’s size or the consumer’s distance from the logo.

Match Your Brand

You can have a unique, scaling, balanced, logo with high-quality typography but still find it’s worth nothing if the logo doesn’t match your brand. After all, your chosen design needs to represent your brand in the eyes of the consumer.

The way you choose to make this happen is entirely up to your creative team and the professional you’ve hired. Twitter’s logo reminds people they’re “tweeting” with a small bird.

Facebook’s logo consists of just a blue styled “F”. It’s less direct than Twitter, but still invokes the same universal thought, “Oh, that’s Facebook.” Google, on the other hand, takes the most direct approach. Their logo is simply “Google.”

The variance in some of the most prominent logos shows that despite your choice, it’s all about capturing your brand image. Google doesn’t need much of an image, while Twitter keeps it whimsical with their bird.

Keep it Simple

Finally, just keep it simple. People need to think about your company when they see or remember your logo. You want to stay memorable, but not as the brand that has that one cool logo.

Why? While it does sound great that you’re memorable, chances are nearly 100 percent (ok, they’re 100 percent) that your company doesn’t sell logos.

Choosing a Logo Maker

Choosing a professional logo maker means finding someone known for high-quality work who has the time, experience, and resources to make sure your logo fits your vision. Logo making is time-consuming; let a professional do the work while you focus on other parts of your business.

Would you like to know how to trademark a logo?

A logo that you create is central to your brand’s image. It’s also one of the most valuable assets you have in your business.

Think of it this way, what would Nike be worth if it wasn’t instantly recognizable by the swoosh? Well, that mark is worth about $13 billion.

When you trademark a logo, you’re protecting your most valuable asset and you’re setting your company apart from the competition.

Read on to learn what it takes to trademark a logo.

Why Trademark a Logo?

The main advantage that comes with a trademark is the legal protection.

By having an official, federally registered trademark, your company is the only one that can use it. You’re protected under the law.

PayPal has filed suit against music provider Pandora for trademark infringement because they look too similar, according to PayPal.

TRX, the fitness company known for its suspension trainer, successfully won a multi-million dollar judgment against a company that created a knock-off product. It was an infringement of the brand and the product. It has a great product, a strong brand, and a great fitness logo.

This kind of protection would not have been possible if TRX didn’t have the trademark protections in place.

There are some instances where it doesn’t make sense to have a trademark.

It doesn’t make sense to register your logo if you don’t know how long you’ll be in business. You might also decide to change your logo after a few years.

How to Trademark a Logo

The first thing to know about how to trademark a logo is that it’s a long process. It takes a lot of time and it takes about 10 months to go through the trademark process.

State vs. National Trademarks

Depending on your business, you can register the trademark in your state. If you’re a local business with one location and no intention to expand, this might make sense for you. In this case, you’ll want to register your trademark with your state’s secretary of state’s office.

However, if you’re an online business with a national presence, you’ll want to be sure to register your business nationally. That means you’ll have to file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Do Your Research

As you start thinking about whether or not to trademark a logo, start by doing research. You have to ensure that your logo isn’t used by anyone else or it’s not similar to a trademark already in use by another company.

Just about every trademark lawsuit is avoidable with good research.

To research logos and designs, you’ll need to start by visiting the USPTO’s search database.

You need to look at your logo and note all of the design elements that are there and match them with the right code in the USPTO Design Search Code Manual.

You’ll also want to note any keywords, phrases, goods, and services, that your business falls under. You’ll also need to check the international class to make sure that there are no additional conflicts.

There are a few criteria to use when doing your research. Your logo must not:

• Be similar to another logo that’s already in use
• Cannot be offensive or misleading
• Cannot cause confusion in the marketplace

If your logo meets these criteria, then you can proceed.

Use the Logo

If did your research and found that no one is using a logo that’s similar to yours, start to use your logo. This will give you some protection under the law, but you won’t be fully protected.

File the Application

One thing to remember is that you may have a tagline or business name as part of the logo. These must be filed separately, so you’ll have one application for the logo, and another for the business name.

Your application must be complete and meet the USPTO’s strict guidelines. A large percentage of applications that were declined was due to incomplete applications.

You would have to resubmit your application and pay another filing fee.

After you’ve filed your application and it’s been approved, you can then keep an eye out to make sure that no one else is using it or anything that resembles it.

There are trademark watch companies such as CompuMark that specializes in trademark protection. They take the time to do the research so you don’t have to.

Should You File the Application Yourself?

One question you’ll have to answer early on in the process is whether or not you do it yourself, use an online service, or hire an attorney.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each. The main concern for most people who want to trademark a logo is the cost.

At an absolute minimum, it’s $225 for the filing fee for a single class. It also depends on how many classes you want to trademark in and how complex your filing is. You will be responsible for doing the research yourself and filling out the application properly.

On average, online services like Legal Zoom charge about $500. They’ll give you basic research and if there are issues with your application, you’re either on your own or you’ll have to pay more money to have it completed.

An attorney will cost between $1500 – $2000.

Yes, that can be cost prohibitive, but you can increase the likelihood of your application being accepted. It’s been found that attorneys that submit the application are 50% more likely to have them approved than if you do it yourself.

That’s because they will do incredibly thorough research, ensure that the application is complete, and ensure the scope of the trademark isn’t too narrow or too broad.

Your Logo is the Key to Your Success

Your logo is a gateway to connect with your customers. It’s real value, however, gets more powerful over time.

That’s because your customers have had more good experiences with your company, and those positive feelings become associated with your logo.

And that’s also why you want to protect it.

When you know how to trademark a logo, you’re sure to protect your company’s most valuable asset.

If you’d like more great logo tips, check out our blog today.