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Johnson S
06-11-2016, 10:24 AM
I'm just thinking about starting my own small business. I was considering online web site builder to create page that will represent stuff that I'm doing but so many people tell me that it could be extremely profitable on this step to think about foundation of brand. According to the information based on my research, there's design agencies that create identity design. All the visual's that represent a company including web sites. My question is, is it reasonable to use this service now? There's a meaning that it could increase future sales. Thank you.

turboguy
06-11-2016, 10:32 AM
Perhaps I am misunderstanding your question but it sounds to me like you are asking about what we would call a logo. That is a good thing to do but there are other steps you should take first.

Your first step should be to decide on your business legal format. The choices are

1. Sole Proprietorship. That is the fastest and easiest. You would need to file for what is called a fictitious name unless you are using your own name for the business (something like S Johnson) If you called it Johnson sales or Super Duper services that is a fictitious name.

2. Other choices would be an LLC, S Corp, C corp or partnership if you have partners.

You may likely have to file to collect sales tax depending on your business.

You may need to check with your municipality to see if they have any legal requirements.

At that point you might think about a logo or having one made for you.

Johnson S
06-11-2016, 10:40 AM
Oh thank you, this is absolutely right, and my solutions of this questions are on the way.
But my question was not so wide.
I wanna see the difference between online site building(making logo by myself a.o..) and identity design agencies. Importance of this choice for hypothetical company. Because online builders now have many features, but people choose designers for that.

Brian Altenhofel
06-11-2016, 08:09 PM
For logos, I tell people to always hire a reputable professional, especially if their market is larger than their local neighborhood. Those online DIY logo designer tools that feature design elements are basically providing you with clip art that someone else may be using. In some cases, the elements may be derived from someone else's logo, and that's bad.

There's a lot that goes into design if it's done right. Design is about visually conveying the message that you want your business to convey. To really be effective, it must be tailored to your target market as well as the medium where it is being used.

For example, I've seen many logos self-designed by auto or tattoo artists that showed off an artist's skill when viewed at a reasonably close distance but looked like a Rorschach inkblot when viewed from the highway. A well designed logo will be recognizable almost anywhere without the viewer needing to see the details to know whose logo it is as long as they have been previously introduced to it.

You might like a certain set of colors, but how will your market react? Different colors tend to cause certain feelings in certain cultures, and a good designer knows those things. A mistake that is often made with colors is assuming that a shade of blue on your computer monitor will appear the same on another and on print, and that is often not the case. A good designer will understand what the differences will be in the real world.

For example, I had a client a while back who had a set of print materials made by a relatively inexpensive designer. The designer did provide Pantone colors, which is a good thing because that helps with ensuring consistency. However, the shade of green they used as a major element was almost blinding when viewed on a cheap LCD screen with contrast and brightness settings at the usual 100% that consumers tend to use. Another more experienced and highly recommended designer was able to fix that.

For a website, I normally tell those who are just starting and only need a presence to find a theme or template they like that can be adapted to their color scheme unless they have the budget to go custom. If you're on a shoestring, presence and exposure are more valuable than consistency. If you actually have a reasonable budget, then consistency is very important.

There are some "identity design" agencies that are really print or web designers that think that those skills easily transfer over to other disciplines of design. Then there are agencies that tend to be significantly more expensive that have designers that specialize in certain areas like logos, typography, print, web, etc. It's definitely an area where "you get what you pay for" generally applies.

You can always revise or redo your branding later, by the way. There's just extra expenses incurred each time you do. Even Fortune 500 companies do it. Most will even do minor tweaks every few years to keep up with their market's culture that people don't really notice unless they are looking. Some even have variations depending on the vertical, geographic, or demographic market.