Need help with a logo for a delivery firm

[Lin]

Hi everyone,

First of all, I'm completely new here as well as being a relatively unexperienced designer (no experience with designing logos) so please be kind
I've got a relative who runs his own B2B delivery firm and he wants me to design a logo for him that he'll have spray-painted on his trucks.
The name is "24-7 transport [and then the name of the town he's working in which is] bunkeflostrand"
I've done the 24-7 part (which he wanted to be prominent) but I don't know how to add the rest of the text. Do you have any suggestions? All advice is appreciated, I'm completely stuck at the moment.

Cheers
Lin

 

[@GCarlD]

Firstly, Hello and welcome to the forums.

Since this is quite an important job for a business, has your relative thought about hiring an experienced, professional designer to design the logo for his firm? A logo is one of the most important parts of a business, as that is what people first see and visually remember a business/brand by. It is imperative that it is executed correctly to be as effective and memorable as possible.

While I can only admire you for jumping into the deep end with a job like this, due to you having 'no experience with designing logos,' it maybe best if you start off gaining that experience with a much smaller project. Logo's aren't something you can learn to do overnight, and without the necessary experience, even with advice from us it will be very difficult for you to design an professional looking logo for the firm. It's like trying to run before you can crawl.

 

[Lin]

Well, you got to start somewhere don't you. And I rather test my new skills on a relative that won't pay me much (and therefore can't argue much, lol) than with a large company.

 

[@GCarlD]

That's exactly my point. I was thinking from both yours and your relatives point of view. That's why I suggested starting on a smaller and possibly less important project, just to build up your experience with logo design, and then move onto projects for business', brands and whatnot. You do have to start somewhere, absolutely, but your going into a project for a business firm with no experience of what is required to be accomplished. 'Testing your new skills' on a relatives firm can be even more dangerous than testing them on a company, and are both as equally important. Just a bit of friendly advice. Good luck with it all.

 

[Paul Murray]

Hi Lin, Carl has made a good point about the importance of a well-designed logo for a business. Regardless, you asked for advice and feedback so I'll provide some.

Firstly, the 24-7 isn't particularly legible due to the breaks in the characters. Legibility is one of the most important things to consider when designing a logo; Can you read it? Can you read it when it's small?

Secondly, it reminds me very much of the DHL logo, what with the lines and the break in the characters. Be careful not to imitate another logo, both consciously and accidentally, especially not a larger company as they're very protective of their branding (Apple will sure ANY company that uses the term 'apple' or an apple in their identity or business name).

Thirdly, it's rather long at the moment. How will the logo look when it has the town/city name in there too? How will they look next to each other? How will it look when the elements are stacked on top of each other? These things will all alter the footprint of an identity (the overall shape and how much space it takes up), which affects how and where it will be used. Stacked logos for example take up more space vertically, and therefore are not often used on websites for that reason.

I'm not sure of your working method either, but be sure to do a lot of sketching of ideas. Jumping straight onto a computer is a bad idea, as you often get tied up in creating something that looks finished, rather than letting ideas flow. And finally, make sure you're creating the logo in a vector format using the appropriate software (such as Adobe Illustrator) so that it can be scaled up and down without losing quality.

 

[Lin]

Cheers Paul, good advice. I've got a few designs without the "dhl"-lines (or bullets as I call them) and they are definitely easier to read. I might have to try to persuade him to go for any of them rather then the one I posted earlier.

And I think I need to clarify some things here... I don't have any experience in logo design. What I do have is plenty of education and practice behind me. I've done plenty of logos and graphic design but just never been paid for it...! So I wouldn't classify that as "experience". Then again english is not my mother tongue so maybe I'm not using the word "experience" right... That's besides the point anyway. If anyone has problems with my relative going for the cheap rather than professional then you can discuss that with him, I'm just trying to do the job assigned to me...!