Corporate identity is the face of a company. It is the colour scheme, style brand name and image that is used by the company. The most important part of a companies corporate identity is their logo. The logo is a form of self promotion and companies will put it on everything from website banners to letterheads, from business cards to T-shirts, from mugs to vehicles. Therefore a company puts a lot of time, thought and money into the design of a logo as it represents them and what they stand for. An example of the sort of money that can be spent is the recent logo design for the 2012 Olympic games. The logo cost taxpayers £400,000 to design! (Click logo to go to their site) When launched, the Olympics council hailed it as ‘the vision at the very heart of our brand’, but it was met by the public with mixed feelings. Many people thought it was simply rubbish, but as time goes by and people get used to it, it will probably get more and more acceptable.   Logos generally fall into three main types: An illustrative representation of what a company does like the World Wildlife Fund’s panda. (Click logo to go to their site) An abstract iconic image like Apple, or any car manufacturer or sportswear brand. (Click logo to go to their site) A Font based logo with a unique typeface like Google, Yahoo, or Coca Cola. (Click logo to go to their site) (Click logo to go to their site) (Click logo to go to their site) At a basic level, your logo should achieve the following: The logo type used should reflect the nature of a business’ industry and appeal to its target audience. It should be describable so people can easily interpret what it represents. It needs to be memorable so people will recognise it and associate it with the business. It has to be effective without colour in case it’s printed in black and white It shouldn't be too complicated and must be able to be scaled up or down, so it’s legible even when small enough to fit on a business card. It should have fairly equal dimensions. People prefer logos which are square or circular, rather than tall and thin or short and fat. Whichever type of logo you design, it’s sensible to keep graphic and text elements (e.g. your company name or slogan) separate. Designing these elements independently gives you more scope and flexibility in how they’re used in the future. For example, when a company becomes rich and famous it might want to drop the company slogan altogether, and let its logo spell out their brand message on its own. The Nike logo is a good example of this. It can be split apart to have different words with it, or with just the symbol alone. (Click logo to go to their site) The Nike ‘Swoosh’, a simple yet effective representation of the wing of Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory. Created by a graphic design student in 1971 for a mere $35, the Swoosh was partnered with the ‘Just Do It’ slogan to brilliantly symbolise a lifestyle choice for millions of athletes and casual sports fans worldwide.     CLICK HERE FOR LOGO INFORMATION on www.technologystudent.com