$100 Logos (plus 500 Business Cards)

Create Your Own Logo for Under $100 – that’s right, for less than one Benjamin, we have all the tools to scale out your own logo, color palette and even printing your first 500 cards - for your starting business.  And no, it won’t be the same quality as a pro-shop, but it will be a lot better than clip art or most “friendly freelance” efforts.

 A large part of getting the most out of your logo and your new company id is to create a color palette that works well for your business, your product, your brand and your clientele.  So, how the heck can someone without a lot of experience begin?  What if, like many small business owners, you left corporate
America in part due to not wanting to pick out suits, shirts and ties that matched?

Adobe has developed kuler - and in doing so has taken a huge step in allowing online sharing of created color palettes for businesses to use.  It is fun, easy to use, and anyone who wants to learn and experiement with combining colors or creating a color palette is welcome.  Kuler is tapping into the social networking idea that top color consultant talents are now present on a “as you need it” basis – and many of the top designs are really superb blendings of colors and generate the feel you want for your logo, backgrounds, accents and more.  Now you, the small business owner can tap into these skills and conquer, for free, one of the formerly unbeatable challenges in logo design (at least not until you paid big money.)  Cool work Adobe!

Now, let’s move onto Logo Maker where you can create your own logo for free, share it with friends for feedback and then download and use it in a variety of formats for just $49.  In just a few minutes, you can be working on a logo that is professional in design and can be enough to get you through to the next level as you begin a business.  Not what a pro-shop can pull off, but then again, nowhere near the cost, either.  Coupled with Kuler, this is perfect for small startup businesses that can’t afford to hire an agency or firm.

To double check yourself on the logo you create and the color shades you use, check out Color Palette Generator - a very amazing tool to use in conjunction with Kuler and Logo Maker. 

Ok, so now you have the logo, and the color palettes.  From there, you can take the designs you have created and upload them to Vista Print for fast, inexpensive and solid printing and quick delivery.

A few other words about logo, color palette and design.  Colors that are your favorites are not the ones you want to pick.  No matter how much they please you, as the owner, they need to resonate with your customer and client.  If the clients aren’t feeling warm fuzzies about it, you won’t hear the register ring and those initial warm fuzzies you had will go away faster than a lead against Tiger Woods on the back 9 at Augusta.

Happy logo-ing!