This isn’t a simple – yes or no – question.

Your logo is your brand, your image… it’s what represents you, so you want  your logo to be recognizable and consistent.

Unfortunately, especially in small towns like the one I grew up in, that doesn’t always happen. I know a lot of businesses that don’t even use a logo! They just type of the name of their company and use a different font each time (which makes a graphic designer, like myself, cringe at the thought).

Here are a few questions that might help you decide if you need a logo redesign:

Did a professional design my logo? – Sometimes you can get away with creating your own logo but I suggest having a professional who understands more than just typing out the name of your business with an Arial font and using a ClipArt photo (see below) to help create your logo. If you plan on getting signage, shirts or other marketing material in the future chances are you are going to need your logo in vector (Adobe Illustrator) format, which a graphic designer will provide you with after creating your logo. Save yourself the hassle and just hire a professional from the start!

You don’t want something designed in Microsoft Word as your logo. Trust me.

Do people recognize my logo easily? – If it’s a hard no, then you definitely should consider. You also may want to consider marketing your business a little more with different forms of advertising but that’s another topic.

Example – Are you trying to get me to vote for Great American Pizza for President or actually sell me pizza? It’s hard to tell with this logo.

Is my logo simplistic? – You don’t want a “busy” logo. I cringe at this one the most when I see a logo with 5 lines of text. Sadly, it happens more often than I’d like to see. Your logo should not be a magazine ad or billboard.

This isn’t even the worst example I could find. But it’s bad enough.

This are just a few suggestions. I could go on forever with this topic and it’s hard to say without knowing your actual story. If you are thinking about a redesign, contact me and let me know. I’ll be happy to go over ideas and offer a free quote.