Before you embark on having a freelancer create a logo for you – you need to understand what a logo is and what a logo is not. A logo represents your company. It is a symbol. Over time, it becomes a recognizable mark that people associate with your brand. A logo is not, however, an artistic representation of everything your company does, or anything your company does.
The logos we are most familiar with mean little to nothing in of themselves. Most are word-marks – that is, a stylized version of a letter, group of letters or the name itself. Some logos, like the Apple logo on the right, do symbolize the word “Apple” – but this logo has nothing about it that indicates that it represents a company that makes computers, iPhones or any type of technology.
The Nike logo, that we all recognize instantly, means nothing. It is a symbol that over time, we have learned to associate with an athletic company. The McDonald’s logo, known by description as the golden arches, also means nothing. The original McDonald’s location, had a couple of arches adorning its restaurant. Later incarnations of the logo morphed into the letter “M” to form a word-mark – but nothing about the logo itself lends itself to the notion of burgers, fries or shakes.
So, when you embark on this journey to get a logo, your expectations need to be properly set. Your logo needs to be able to be reproduced in black and white for various printing applications (business cards, letterhead and signage). If your logo relies on drop-shadows, embossed edges or other Photoshop tricks to be effective, then it is not effective. The best logo is simple. Once your logo starts getting complex, it starts to resemble a family crest or coat of arms. When you’re driving down the highway at 60 mph, you can see a McDonald’s logo out of the corner of your eye and know exactly what it is. You don’t have to stop or slow down to examine it. It’s simple and very instantly recognizable – because it is used consistently and never altered.
We innately know this, but don’t accept it for our own personal logos. We want bells, whistles, kitchen sinks. We don’t want to show the logo to colleagues, employees or even our friends and family and have them wrinkle our foreheads and say, “what does that mean?” It means you are beginning a new journey with your business. That’s what it means. Anytime you doubt yourself – look at the simple – very simple – logos of successful businesses you respect. They are not ‘busy.’
Now – when you pay for a logo, it should belong to you, not to the freelancer or the company that made it for you. Just as in the days of film photography – you want to own the negatives. The ‘negatives’ for a logo would be a vector file. This is something you should be asking for from the get-go. Even if you don’t have the software to open up an Adobe Illustrator file or an EPS – you still want this file. Any service bureau or even an online printer like VistaPrint will print the 
highest quality business cards with a vector file. You can also request an Illustrator PDF, which will be viewable by you using Acrobat Reader, but can also be used to print your business cards. A good freelancer will be creating your logo in Illustrator, or another vector graphics software package, and can easily provide the vector file as well as .png, .gif, and .jpg files for you. When you know what you should be expecting, you know what to ask for in writing while negotiating with your freelancer.
