Logo Design for Non-Designers

The main purpose of this article is to help non-designers understand the logo design process, general terms, requirements and things to remember when ordering a logo.

When you decided that your company needs a logo you need to think if you need a completely new logo or redesign the old one (of course, if you have it) before searching for a designer. Redesign of the existing logo is often cheaper than design of a new logo.

There are a huge number of companies which offer logo design services. All of them have different prices, number of concepts and revisions offered. Some of them can design business stationery for you. Let's talk about every point in detail:

Price is important factor; it is very unusual to receive high quality at low price. But Internet is the place where designers work from all over the world and logos are going down in price. You can buy logo of satisfactory quality for $100 (yes, one hundred dollars). One of the very important factors affecting the price is whether design company uses clip-art (premade pictures or graphic elements) or creates unique logos. Be sure to find out this. Custom logos are much better because you will have exclusive logo nobody has.

Number of concepts is a number of ideas for logos which you will be offered after answering the logo design questionnaire. It is good to have more than one idea for logo because you will be able to choose. Usually, you will receive a couple of ideas in different styles. When you choose a concept for your logo you will be able to change it using revisions.

Number of revisions is a number of possible changes which you can request for a chosen logo design concept free of charge. You can change everything including color, font, graphic element, arrangement of the elements. The more revisions you have the more chances you receive a logo of your dream.

Turnaround time is an amount of time needed for work on your logo. Usually design process takes from 3 to 10 days. There are companies, which can do urgent orders but the cost of logo will be higher.

Number of designers - recently design companies started to indicate number of designers working on your project. Big number of designers should guarantee diversity of the concepts, but this factor is difficult to control and it is difficult to find out how many designers really worked on your project.

Stationery design - it is good if your logo design company will design business cards, letterhead and envelope for you. Usually, you will receive a couple of concepts of business stationery to choose from.
Things to remember during the communications with logo design company:

1. Number of colors of your logo. The more colors you have the more expensive will be cost of printing services.

2. Files optimized for print. Be sure to request files optimized for home and professional printing (tif, pdf, jpg, eps).

3. Source files of your logo (ai, cdr). Be sure to request source files of your logo; you may need them in future.

4. Use of photos in logo. It is very bad idea to use photos in your logo. Such logos are overloaded with graphic elements and have non-professional look.

5. Logotype with abbreviation or without company name. It is very difficult to advertise and promote your company with such logo. Logos with acronyms are good for very big companies which have a lot of money for marketing.

Logo is very important for each company and serves the crucial role of successful marketing. It is vitally important to have good logo from the beginning because redesign of logo will cost you a lot because of need to inform you clients about rebranding, change business stationery and logos on signs, cars, etc.

Logo Design for Non-Designers

The main purpose of this article is to help non-designers understand the logo design process, general terms, requirements and things to remember when ordering a logo.

When you decided that your company needs a logo you need to think if you need a completely new logo or redesign the old one (of course, if you have it) before searching for a designer. Redesign of the existing logo is often cheaper than design of a new logo.

There are a huge number of companies which offer logo design services. All of them have different prices, number of concepts and revisions offered. Some of them can design business stationery for you. Let's talk about every point in detail:

Price is important factor; it is very unusual to receive high quality at low price. But Internet is the place where designers work from all over the world and logos are going down in price. You can buy logo of satisfactory quality for $100 (yes, one hundred dollars). One of the very important factors affecting the price is whether design company uses clip-art (premade pictures or graphic elements) or creates unique logos. Be sure to find out this. Custom logos are much better because you will have exclusive logo nobody has.

Number of concepts is a number of ideas for logos which you will be offered after answering the logo design questionnaire. It is good to have more than one idea for logo because you will be able to choose. Usually, you will receive a couple of ideas in different styles. When you choose a concept for your logo you will be able to change it using revisions.

Number of revisions is a number of possible changes which you can request for a chosen logo design concept free of charge. You can change everything including color, font, graphic element, arrangement of the elements. The more revisions you have the more chances you receive a logo of your dream.

Turnaround time is an amount of time needed for work on your logo. Usually design process takes from 3 to 10 days. There are companies, which can do urgent orders but the cost of logo will be higher.

Number of designers - recently design companies started to indicate number of designers working on your project. Big number of designers should guarantee diversity of the concepts, but this factor is difficult to control and it is difficult to find out how many designers really worked on your project.

Stationery design - it is good if your logo design company will design business cards, letterhead and envelope for you. Usually, you will receive a couple of concepts of business stationery to choose from.
Things to remember during the communications with logo design company:

1. Number of colors of your logo. The more colors you have the more expensive will be cost of printing services.

2. Files optimized for print. Be sure to request files optimized for home and professional printing (tif, pdf, jpg, eps).

3. Source files of your logo (ai, cdr). Be sure to request source files of your logo; you may need them in future.

4. Use of photos in logo. It is very bad idea to use photos in your logo. Such logos are overloaded with graphic elements and have non-professional look.

5. Logotype with abbreviation or without company name. It is very difficult to advertise and promote your company with such logo. Logos with acronyms are good for very big companies which have a lot of money for marketing.

Logo is very important for each company and serves the crucial role of successful marketing. It is vitally important to have good logo from the beginning because redesign of logo will cost you a lot because of need to inform you clients about rebranding, change business stationery and logos on signs, cars, etc.

Rimage Everest 600 AutoPrinter Review

The Rimage Everest 600 CD printer is the 4th generation photo realistic thermal re-transfer printer manufactured by Rimage and was released in the 3rd quarter of 2008. The latest Rimage Everest 600 printer is fully automated, like the previous Everest III, with a 300-disc input capacity, PC and Macintosh OS X compatibility.

This review of the Rimage Everest 600 thermal DVD / CD printer is based on ten different criteria, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 stars being the highest rating possible). We have run about 100,000 CDs and DVDs through 5 different Everest 600 printers over the past 4 months. Here are the results...

Price - The Rimage auto-Everest 600 has a MSRP of $9750, and a street price around $8500. The Everest 600 auto-printer is the most expensive printer I have used or tested, but the higher price may be justified depending on your requirements or needs. 1 star.

Speed - The Rimage Everest 600 printer will print approximately 65 discs/hour. The Everest 600 will output the same number of discs per hour no matter how light or heavy the print coverage on your CD or DVD. This is the case because of the 3 color panels of the CMY ribbon get used no matter what color your CDs or DVDs are. 65 discs per hour is pretty good for a full 100% print coverage, but a bit on slow if the artwork design is just a logo and a few lines of text. 3.5 Stars.

Bin Capacity - 400-disc capacity (300-disc input bin with the remaining bin used for output) . Like most other Rimage systems, the latest Everest autoprinter utilizes a 4-bin carousal that gives the user the ability to load a maximum of 300 CDs or DVDs at a time. Assuming you have enough unused ribbon in the printer, you will have 300 printed discs in about 4 and 1/2 hours. You can easily print more than 1200 discs per day. 5 Stars.

Reliability - The Everest 600 was extremely reliable in our 3 months plus of testing. Assuming you use approved CD or DVD media that does not stick together and have enough ribbon loaded, you can expect all 300 discs completed without error. 5 Stars.

Cost per Print - Color prints cost about $0.32/disc. If you use the black ribbon the cost per print is $0.15/disc. While this is on the higher side of CD / DVD printers we have used, continue reading on for cost justification. 1.5 Stars.

Print Quality - The Rimage Everest 600 printer has an extraordinary 600 x 600 dpi print resolution. Everest 600 prints small text sharply, high quality photographic detail, is great with halftones and gradients, and the color matching has been improved. The print quality is really something to be seen and compares very favorably to vastly more expensive screen and offset CD / DVD printers. Simply put, the Everest 600 delivers the best looking discs that I have seen in my 14 years in the CD duplication and printing business. 5 Stars.

Print Durability - Because the Everest 600 printer uses a thermal re-transfer process, the print on the discs is completely indelible and waterproof. In addition, the colors will not fade or lose their brilliance over time because the thermal re-transfer process protects the discs from external forces like moisture and UV rays. 5 Stars.

Easy of Use - This printer connects to your PC or MAC computer through a serial and USB 2.0 connection. Rimage includes an easy to use template software program called CD Designer that allows you to import standard graphic file formats like JPEG, TIFF, EPS and BMP. Users have the option of printing directly out of popular graphic programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as well. Tip: Make sure to always use high-resolution artwork that is at least 300dpi for best results. 4.5 Stars.

Maintenance - The Rimage Everest 600 printer works best in a dust-free environment, so don't set it up in your warehouse. Like the previous Everest printers, the Everest 600 requires bi-monthly cleaning of the print head and air filters to archive the best printing results. If you use the proper CD and DVD media you can expect at least 50,000 prints before the print head needs to be replaced. We have not had to replace any print heads as of this review. Get more Everest cleaning and care tips by searching "rimage repair" in Google. 3 Stars.

Technical Support - Rimage has above average phone technical support for the CD / DVD equipment industry. To maximize uptime and customer satisfaction, Rimage offers a variety of expedited warranty and post-warranty upgrades. After warranty repairs can be expensive, as they are with other manufactures in this niche. That being said, I recommend buying this printer from a reputable dealer that has the experience to answer your technical support issues on the first call, and that can help with your operational requirements and repairs without the need purchase additional or expedited coverage. 4 Stars.

Conclusion - Rimage Everest 600 AutoPrinter (part# 4000471) is our top pick for an automated thermal CD / DVD printer for standard 120mm CD-r, DVD-r, and Blu-Ray media. Strengths are the brilliant print output, print durability, capacity, and the reliability to print 1200+ discs per day.

Click on the links in the resource box for more information and special offers on Rimage Everest 600 printers.