I recently asked several designers to create logos for a new site I am developing for a client called: HomeCookRecipes.net. Each designer was made aware of my logo philosophy. Unfortunately, the logos were so good that I am having a hard time deciding. Below are the different submissions. Please feel free to let me know what your favorite (or least favorite) logos are.

Recently I was asked what made a good logo. I have a definite philosophy about logo design, and it seems that a lot of the web doesn’t agree.

I have found that a good logo has three main elements: a graphic, the name of your site, and a slogan. If you have these three key points in a logo you achieve several things.

First, and foremost, you provide a logo that sets the foundation for the rest of your website. I always try to have a design project start by having the logo designed first. By beginning with the logo you can see on a small scale the web canvass you have for the overall site.

The second thing that is achieved with a good logo focuses more on a marketing strategy.

1. The graphic within the logo design provides a symbol that can be used throughout the site layout.
2. Your name in the logo provides branding so to make it easier for your visitors to remember your name and hopefully return.
3. The logo slogan tells your visitors what your site is about. In my opinion your slogan is the most important. There’s nothing I hate more than not being able to figure out what a site is about.

With all this said, there is nothing better than real life logos to illustrate my point. Below are logos that follow these rules (Perfect), logos that followed some of the rules (Almost), and logos that defy all the rules (Bad). ~Paul W.

PERFECT

Clever way of integrating the graphic to create an “O” for the company name.

This site uses their domain name as their slogan.

You wouldn’t think that their slogan is that good but “Web Design Company” gets 40948 searches a day.

ALMOST

The funny thing is that when I snagged Alec’s logo he had just posted: Can a Logo Be Too Simple?

Is the navigation their slogan?

As stated in an earlier post, the client on this logo asked me to add a majority of the content to their site, and even after sifting through their mountains of content I had no idea what they were trying to achieve with their website.

BAD

In my opinion this was the worst logo I could find. It told me absolutely nothing about the site.

This logo is proof that you can follow all the rules and still not be a good logo.

This logo seems to me to be more a work of art than a logo.

MyFinancialPlaybook.com didn’t exist until we got a hold of it. To be completely honest, even though I spent hours putting a lot of their content onto their site I have no idea what is about (I mean other than what I can deduce from the title). The design was modified from the InfoMag 1.0 theme by Ekta Paneri.

At the core of every project I manage is internet marketing. I personally believe that this is the best approach to be taken when working on a web project. However, rarely do I see this method followed. Usually, you get a designer or programmer who puts the project together and as an after thought adds a little bit marketing to the project.

I have found that the best designers and programmers know little about the world of internet marketing. Sure, I have had several web developers tell me they know web marketing, but generally what they know is quite dated.

Good internet marketing comes from diligent study and testing. Case in point, I did a keyword analysis for a locum tenens company three months ago. My keyword research dug up the golden keyword: locum recruitment agency. The research showed that this keyword had low competition but high traffic. So, I put the keyword both in their title tag and on their home page.

Last week I decided to check where they ranked on the keywords I suggested. The company ranked #1 in Google, Yahoo, and MSN for this keyword term. I was elated, but when I checked the search traffic again I found that this term was no longer anything but a trickle of searches. Had I not checked the keywords for this site, the company would have thought they were ranking on a keyword that should of brought them large amounts of traffic.

Several points here, first if you are a somewhat decent programming or designer you should be fairly busy with programming or design. Keeping up with search engine trends will not be high on your to do list. Second, the company I did the keyword analysis for would have caught the keyword shift if their internet marketer had been watching their daily, weekly, and monthly traffic flow. The site marketer should be very interested in what keywords are bringing them traffic and what keywords are duds.

The lesson that should be taken away from this post is that you shouldn’t put all your web development with one person or team (if the teams talents all lie in one area). Quality comes from not straying from what you are good at—whether it be design, programming, or internet marketing.

Not too long ago I sold my marketing blog, MyMarketer.net. I had owned this blog since 2001 and it was difficult to give up. Yet, the price and timing was right. However, I was without a professional blog to spout my professional (and sometimes not so professional) opinions.

I have had AstonishWeb.com for quite some time. I bought it for a project a few years ago, but the idea never came to fruition. As I hunted for a domain to turn into my new blog I kept getting requests to put together web designs that were powered by the blogging software Wordpress.  So, I built these unique sites, but people kept asking if I had my own site that showcased the final production. Finally, I decided to dust off AstonishWeb and provide a home for both my blog rantings and my unique designs.

Now, I need to be clear that I am not a web artist or coder. However, over the years I have project managed the development of many websites, and that is the role I play now. I utilize several talented designers and programmers to bring about an astonishing website at decent prices. I also know enough industry jargon in each area to be able to avoid some typical land minds that come with this industry.

The niche I particularly focus on is building web entities that use a CMS (Content Management Systems). I am a firm believer that the masses no longer need to fully depend on us web geeks. A solution has been created that allows the lay person to have, maintain, and promote their website without being hindered by geek talk.

I plan to further develop AstonishWeb into a site that doesn’t look so blogish so that you can get a better idea of what I am talking about. Until that time please visit back often and enjoy the different designs I will be posting. ~Paul W.