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You’re tempted. It would save the company some money and logo design can’t be that hard, right? Unfortunately, if you chose to do that, you'd be wrong on both counts. If you look at the idea of designing your own logo or using clipart for a logo objectively, you might find that it could cost you more than money. Even if you only use a do-it-yourself logo idea to begin with, you could lose brand equity, which could cost you your entire business.
DIY Logo or How to Sabotage Your Identity
Logo design is an art form. It is the identity of your company distilled into an elegant mark that tells a story in one glance. It is a mark that comes to mind whenever your company name is mentioned. Think of IBM, Apple and Nike and you can immediately see their logo in your mind’s eye. Is it wise to trust the development of this mark to the person who's “pretty good with Word”?
The development of your logo should be taken seriously. It is not a mark that should be thrown together as an afterthought. It is a mark that should be created with insight into what your business means. It should be created to provide something that is easily recognizable and memorable. Logo design is not a simple process. Its foundation is based upon the research and understanding of your company. These two elements are then combined with the designer’s understanding of form and function, the impact of negative and positive space and the power of abstraction. When a designer brings these elements together, the result should be extraordinary.
But Clip Art is FREE!
First of all, not all clip art is free. There is also the misconception that if an image is on the Web, it's public domain or free for use by anyone. This simply isn't true. There are almost always copyright issues associated with clip art and images on the Web, and those aren’t even the most important reasons as to why using clip art for your logo is a bad idea.
In many cases, clip art, whether paid for or free, is available for use by anyone and everyone. Clip art provides a cookie cutter solution for a design. Consider the following scenario: You’ve purchased a piece of clip art from a popular clip art website. You use it for your logo and everyone is happy that you’ve saved the company some cash. A week later, you do an online search to see if you have any competitors. You scroll through the results and click on a page. You can’t believe your eyes. They’ve stolen your logo! But wait. They didn’t steal your logo. They simply went to a clip art website and found an image that they thought represented their company. It just so happens that they chose the same one that you chose.
These examples are just a few of the issues you could run into if you decide to create your own logo or use clip art for your logo design. Ultimately, any of these scenarios could completely devastate your business. So, if you think it’s cheaper to create your own logo or to use clip art, you may want to reconsider.
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