Much of marketing is concerned with a company's image, both on an individual product level and for the corporation as a whole. One way businesses do this is through their logo and their corporate identity. Every company and every branded product or service needs a logo for this purpose. Your logo should mean something to your customers; it should convey a message about your company and your offerings.

Obviously, establishing a logo is not a trivial thing; it serves to give your customers instant identification with your brand, and it is not an overstatement to say that it can literally make or break your business.
Of course, the art of the logo is one of the most important areas of corporate branding and graphic design; many years, millions of dollars, and reams of market research are devoted by businesses of all size to the creation of the perfect logo. In reality businesses do not necessarily need to spend millions to come up with a pleasing, powerful graphic flourish that defines their business.

The cheapest way to create a strong logo is to adapt an existing graphic that your business already own or to select one from a clip art catalogue online. Businesses can also create their own custom logo by using a professional design tool such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, a challenge to those without artistic gifts but not impossible if a company has an employee with a bit of computer knowledge and design skill. Companies could also work with an outside graphic designer to create a custom logo for their business. This is a more expensive proposition but can be the best way to get a memorable logo that set your business apart from competitors. 

When designing a logo, graphic designers try to present a company's values visually. To get the most of the design process businesses should be prepared to discuss their company's values and key value propositions as this will help the designer develop an accurate logo that depicts company values. Once the designer has a good idea of the image that a business hope to portray, he or she will use fonts, color, placement, size, pictures, and design motifs to convey this to customers.

Logo designers also know that some images require a sense of movement in the logo design, while some need the strength of heavy block lettering. Logos for products for infants, for example, would be best served with soft pastels and lines that are rhythmic and flowing rather than having sharp angles.

Knowing the relative weight of each factor, a logo designer can then create a logo that catches the public eye and imagination, sends a subliminal message about your company's image, and indelibly imprints the logo in the consumer's memory.

There are four options for actually getting the design work done: hiring a freelancer, an ad agency, an online logo design specialist or doing it yourself. All have benefits and drawbacks, but for most small businesses, hiring a freelancer or using an online company are the most effective and affordable methods.

A logo can be the single most important way of identifying your business, on signage, in advertising, on business cards and stationery, and in Yellow Pages listings. And it can be a useful way to set it apart from the competition. There are important considerations, including issues of copyright (we are fairly confident that if you own a restaurant; you may not use a gold-colored arch as your logo, unless you want to get a swift, not-very-supportive reaction from McDonald's). Likewise, you do not want to choose as your corporate identity a graphic that is too similar to a competing business. The idea here is to differentiate your enterprise. If you have a construction company and your biggest rival uses your city's skyline in all its ads, on the side of its trucks, and on its letterhead, you are better off steering clear of that motif.

Colour is also an important factor to consider. Much research has been done over the years to identify the feelings that overcome us when we see certain colours (red is famously a popular color for grabbing attention, which would explain the choice of colour for the stop sign). Also, certain colours have, all on their own, come to be quite representative of a particular mindset: the colour green for things associated with the environment or vegetation or money, for example.
So whether you do it yourself or engage a graphic artist to create your company logo, keep in mind you are communicating a lot of information in that very small space. Think about what it is you want to say as you go through the design process.