Are they hard to create on your own, are just something that needs a little creativity to achieve? I consider myself an intermediate user as far as building web pages... I'm not perfect.. but I can usually figure stuff out.. but a logo is a completely different thing! Last logo I made was a piece of a photograph I had taken with some type overlay... nothing fancy as far as created graphics..

What do you think works best? Simple logo, or something eye catching that you think the customer will remember?

Thanks in advance!

Shannon

A logo needs to convey a lot of things, and that all depends on your business and what you want to convey. It does take creativity and basic design knowledge, but so much more goes into a logo than just that. If you have a little bit of money to spend on a professionally done logo, there is no substitute in my humble designer opinion.

Edit: Regarding simple or eyecatching, even the simplest logo can make you go "wow!" This one is one of my recent ones, and one of my favorites!

Your logo should ideally be created in a vector format to allow for resizing without losing quality. I generally discourage photos as part of the actual logo because they are pixel-based and do not resize well.

If you think that creating your own will take too much time when you could be doing other things to build your practice, definitely outsource it! If you have the time and patience, definitely give it a go!

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Brianna Young, VA and Graphic Artist
www.virtualsolutionsadmin.com
"It's not the piano that makes beautiful music. It's the person sitting AT the piano!"

Brianna,

That logo was really nice! I like how the tag line flowed really nicely underneath and there wasn't too much "busy" going on to distract you from the main focus. Is this what you do as part of your VA business?

Shannon

I actually have both a design business and a VA practice, though I don't take VA clients very often anymore.

I'm glad you like it! I've done several logos for VAs on the forums.

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Brianna Young, VA and Graphic Artist
www.virtualsolutionsadmin.com
"It's not the piano that makes beautiful music. It's the person sitting AT the piano!"

Brianna did my logo for me and I'm still loving it! You couldnt go wrong Shannon

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office

Brianna did my logo too. I'm quite happy with it.

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Maria Quick Link Virtual Assistant Services
www.getquicklink.com
Let Quick Link be your link to today's virtual world

Brianna did my logo too! (and my site)

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

Thanks you guys! I didn't mean for this to turn into a thread about my services - I apologize Shannon! The bottom line is that there are designers out there who really care about small businesses and want to see them grow, and that's where I fit in.

Remember there is absolutely nothing wrong with creating your own logo...it may take less time when a pro takes it off your plate, but it doesn't mean that a home-grown logo is any less of a representation of a business.

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Brianna Young, VA and Graphic Artist
www.virtualsolutionsadmin.com
"It's not the piano that makes beautiful music. It's the person sitting AT the piano!"

Hi Shannon,
Bri does do great work - but if you want to try designing your own I've heard from a few members here that The Logo Creator is an affordable and easy to use software option for the novice designer.

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There are some great threads here within the forum you can read about designing your own logo. Here is one and here is another.

I am partial to Bri's work though

__________________
Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

I completely agree that if you can afford a designer, go for it...even *if* you have design skills! I say that because I have created several logos for others and am quite satisfied...but, when it comes to my own!? It takes FOREVER! I'm too close to the idea that I can't seem to get it right. I was very fortunate with creating my VA logo, in that it all snapped together very quickly and was able to design one without much fuss...however, I also have a separate photo + design business, and designing that logo was much more difficult for me.

I was going to send it out to be designed, but eventually settled on something with the help of a lot of feedback.

I agree with creating it in a Vector program, only because you will definitely find multiple uses for your logo and you will want a logo that is scalable while maintaining its quality. Branding is everything...you want your logo and business identity to represent you well.

Good luck!

- Isabel

I'm someone who adopts and learns things quickly but I have to admit, I do not have a very creative bone in my body and logo design is a different thing altogether. I have always outsourced it and have had some great logos designed for the various things I do. Remember it is part of your branding and hopefully is something that will be with you for many years so you need to be happy with it, rather than 'make do for now'.

I encourage you to pay someone to do it for you. There are heaps of logo design sites on the web or you can even try getting designers to bid for your project at guru.com - I had a book cover designed for me last year by a graphic designer in Canada I found through guru.com and I was thrilled with his work.

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Kathie M. Thomas, VA Coach
A Clayton's Secretary, VA Blog

Ah yes - it can really be fun to hire someone to do the work for you, AND you can also place an ad in our Classifieds section describing what you need and what your budget it, or asking for bids, or check for existing ads placed by designers here on the forums offering logo services

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I am more of an organizer everyone.. not too creative, so I have contracted Briana to make my logo beautiful, thank you for all of your assistance!

shannon