Referrals

Word of mouth remains to be one of the most powerful brand awareness and lead generation tools your business will ever have. It’s free and it can bring highly targeted prospects ready to purchase your products or services. For small business, you can use word of mouth effectively to raise brand awareness by creating a simple program to reward and empower your current clients for referring their peers to your business. Be sure to let the current clients know about the existence of such a program in your business so that they can make good use of it.

Hold an event

Irrespective of the business or the industry you are engaged in, holding a live event will make you attract the attention of both clients and prospects. The event could be anything, either directly in line with your products or services or something complimentary to what you have to offer to your clients. It can be as simple as a social summer barbecue or a party and for better results, you should structure it to coincide with of a product or a new promotion in your business. If possible, you can run a free workshop to share with the potential clients about your business and the kind of value your products and services can bring to them.

Increase your networking

Networking is another awesome way to meet new people and potential clients to your business. You can attend a local networking event and even the though the results may not be apparent immediately, those whom you will share your business with will have the name of your company at the top of their mind should they need your services or products in the future.

Hold Exhibitions

By exhibiting yourself, you create an awesome avenue to show your products or services to hundreds of highly targeted prospects and it is also very possible to make sales during the exhibitions. Though it might be slightly expensive, the results will be worth it in the long run.

Additionally, you can organize a relevant giveaway or a competition as a means of making more people aware of your products or services. Giveaways and competitions have always performed well because people love free things and if you tell them that you will give them something without them spending a dime, they are likely to register for the giveaway or the competition in multitudes. Just ensure that whatever you will be giving away is relevant and will provide real value to the winners.

Sponsor an event or a product

Sponsoring an event or a product is another nice way small businesses can reach targeted audiences and increase their brand awareness. Through sponsoring such events, the business will have a face-to-face time with attendees and this will give you an awesome chance to get leads which you can follow up once the event is over. Be careful however, when choosing the event to sponsor. It should something related to your business.

Consider the social media

Small businesses can also consider offered by the social media for short term and long term branding options. Social media is a fertile ground for people seeking to raise brand awareness on their products or services since it contains all types of audiences. All that is required is for one to build a large base of active following and interact with them on a regular basis. It is also possible to increase the results from social media by using paid ads which can be very effective if the targeting is done in the right manner. The best social media sites to target for brand awareness currently include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google +.

Invest in promotional merchandise

Promotional merchandise is also a nice avenue for businesses to increase their brand awareness. The merchandise can be given to customers after they make a purchase and also to the potential customers who come to make inquiries about the business. Such promotional items don’t have to be expensive, but they should be relevant and also provide some value to the recipients. Additionally, the items must be branded with the company’s name, logo and contact details. In this manner, those who get the promotional items will continue having the business in their minds for as long as they have the promotional items and they will also have the business contacts readily available should they need to contact the business.

Take these 5 steps to brand a new business

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Businesses are slowly moving away from brick and mortar stores to more robust solutions, such as online stores.

One of the main reasons of this is because they are easier to run and also have the potential of doing business globally.

Etsy is one solution and gives people the ability to run online stores at the comfort of their living rooms.

But even for the online stores, the basic concepts of branding and marketing remains.

If you want to attract more clients to come to your online stores, you have to stand out from the crowd with effective branding strategies.

Below are the various tips and tricks you can employ to design a logo for your Etsy store and bring you all the benefits you need.

Simplicity rules

A glance at the world’s leading eCommerce store will be a clear testament to the fact that simple logos work well for online stores.

Amazon’s logo is nicely designed and it has been a major driving force behind the company’s branding success.

Etsy store owners can be pick few tips from this logo and implement them in their designs.

For instance, the logo is largely text-based and it is clearly formatted and well organized.

If such a design is adopted, the logo will be memorable to the current store users and potential customers will also notice it quite easily.

Optimize for mobile

It is no longer a convenience but rather a necessity for online stores to be mobile friendly so that mobile users can also have a chance to access the stores online.

It will interest you to know that the number of mobile users has grown so immensely, thus making mobile traffic a major source for most of the eCommerce stores.

In regards to logo design for Etsy stores, the logo should have the versatility to render in mobile devices as well, so that mobile users don’t miss a chance to recognize the store simply because the logo is not mobile friendly.

But the logo shouldn’t be just optimized for mobile alone.

The versatility should also be depicted when you need to scale it up or down.

For instance, you may be interested in creating various marketing materials such as posters, flyers, business cards, email signatures etc.

In putting the logo in such materials, it is imperative for it to maintain its legibility and not lose any of its qualities.

Use images or tagline to reveal your unique selling points

To run a successful Etsy store or any other eCommerce store, it is imperative to distinguish yourself from the competition by providing a truly unique selling point.

Since there are several stores competing for the same audiences in the internet, your logo should inform your target audience of the kind of value they will get when they purchase from your store.

The best way to do this is to use images or your tagline to reveal your unique selling points to the target audiences.

Because the potential customers may not have time to go through your website in detail, by revealing your USP in the logo, they will feel compelled to check out your store.

Consider horizontal designs

When designing a logo for your Etsy store, it may be tempting to keep the design to just one corner of the website, usually the top left corner.

Whereas this is the norm and almost every store is doing it that way, to attract more attention, you should consider using as much as possible the horizontal length of the web page.

If you minimize the vertical space and instead stretch the text and the graphics of the logo to cover the horizontal plane, the logo will be easily recognizable, thus contributing to the branding efforts of your Etsy store.

Additionally, such an alignment will give you the chance to showcase more of your products on the store.

Use images properly

Finally, you should make good use of the images.

From well performing online stores like Amazon, it is not possible to think about the logo without the upward pointing arrow coming to mind.

Again, such logos use art minimally, hence it is important to use images that are unquestionably related to the kinds of goods you are selling on your Etsy store.

Look for a clean and a minimalist image that is simple enough and will have the ability to stick in the minds of your customers or potential clients who visit the website.

These tips, if used religiously, will enable you to create an outstanding logo for your Etsy store.

Remember, the competition among fellow Etsy stores is very high and you need to do everything necessary to stand out.

One of these ways is to have a nicely designed, unique, and original logo.

Use these color tools with your logo!

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For your brand to stand out amongst the millions in the site, it is imperative to provide real value to the followers and give them a reason to believe that you have a solution to their needs. Additionally, your branding must be spot on and this calls for the creation of a well suited logo to distinguish your brand from the rest. It should be noted, however, that when creating a logo for the social media such as Instagram, there are a few subtle aspects you need to have in mind to make the logo more effective. Presented here are cool tips one can use to create logos designed to be used in the social media, and especially in Instagram.

Consider the aspect ratio

Most of the marketing gurus will bring to your attention that your logos ought to be proportionate, in the sense that they should not be too wide or too short. If the logo is meant to be used in the social media such as Instagram, then there is another reason why the height and the width of the logo need to be in harmony.

Most of the social media websites, including Instagram, will display your logo or icons in a square or circular shape as is usually seen in profile displays in Facebook and Instagram respectively. In as much as your logo doesn’t have to be a perfect square or circle, it should have an aspect ratio that will enable it to display just perfectly well when should placed for display in the social media profiles.

Detach text from graphics

Since it is not possible to foresee all the applications of your logos in the future, it is highly encouraged you be versatile with the design, especially if you ever think that the logo will be used in the social media websites such as Instagram. You may be faced with a situation where you will be compelled to rearrange or use certain section of your logo if it doesn’t fit properly in certain shapes or sizes. If, perhaps, you needed to have very small icons, then it may be possible to include the entire logo. Due to this, most companies have adopted the use graphical elements or a single letter for their logos in the social media. It implies that if your graphics and texts are intertwined in the logo, then it may not be possible for you to separate the elements and use the logo in Instagram without confusing your followers. Therefore, consider detaching text from graphics when you are designing a logo for use in Instagram or any other social media platform.

Remember to keep it simple

Gone are the days when the quality of a logo would be determined by the total number of graphical elements and colors it had. Presently, minimalism and simplicity rules in the world of logo design. When designing your logo for use in Instagram or any other social media platform for that matter, avoid using too many words, thin lines, and very detailed graphical elements in the design. If the logo becomes too detailed, it will not just appear confusing to many people, but also resizing it may be difficult and this may work against your brand. Again, avoid using all the colors of the rainbow in the logo hoping that you will make it more beautiful and more conspicuous. This will create unnecessary noise and may not deliver you very good results in the social media, where there is already a lot of distractions from the followers.

Be consistent

In as much as you are creating the logo to be used in Instagram, it should be consistent with the logo being used in other social media sites. Through consistency, people will see the same image in the different platforms and this will work strongly for your social media branding needs. If you are keen, you will notice that most of the successful brands have a simplified variation of their designs being used across all their social media outlets. Without consistency, you will miss an opportunity to connect with your audiences throughout the social channels and in the process miss an incredible opportunity to achieve effective social media branding.

Learn how to build a social media strategy here!

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The competition in the technology industry is always a cutthroat one, and the companies realize that for them to stand out from the ground, branding is very important, and this begins with the design of the company logo. A beautiful logo won’t just make the company appear professional, but also will be memorable amongst the potential audiences and in so doing, the company has a chance to build a strong and a lasting brand in the minds of their customers. Whereas there are many tech companies with extremely gorgeous logos, some not already famous, below are the ones with the hottest logos currently.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a file storage company providing users with the ability to store and share files in the cloud. The company is relatively new, yet it has become immensely popular because it has negated the need for people to constantly walk with their memory sticks. Perhaps the other reason for the popularity of the company is its awesomely designed logo. It is simple, easily recognizable and a single glance at it will let you know immediately what the company deals in.

Storific

This is an app that allows its users to order food using their phones and they get notified with the food is ready for pickup. The logo features handwritten lettering on a bright blue background. It is beautiful, stylish and elegant, exuding a nice and warm personality.

Jelly

Jelly is a new tech company founded by Biz Stone, Twitter Co-founder. It is a platform where people can ask questions and get responses from other members and it is designed to be used by mobile devices, but allows for seamless integration with the social media websites. Just like Dropbox, Jelly’s logo is ultra clean, stylish and very simple. It depicts a shape of a white jelly fish against a light green background.

Snapchat

Snapchat is now one of the most popular social networks, and it uses a mascot as the logo. The logo is minimalist against a yellow background. The choice of the mascot is derived from the premises of the platform, in the sense that messages disappear immediately after they have been viewed. In this manner, it is like a ghost, since you won’t access the message again, and the choice of the logo has worked very well for the branding and overall success of the tech company.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a startup tech company which allows designers, artists, musicians and other professionals in the creative industry to have easy to build websites. Their logo features a beautifully elegant design, minimalist in nature and it can be easily recognized. The fact that the font is in white against a black background makes it conspicuous enough and it easily stands out from the rest.

Simple

Simple was created with a bold idea of replacing the high street bank. The design of the company logo is as simple as the company’s name – it is a beautiful design which will help you see as you spend your money. The logotype is all in uppercase, looking stern but professional.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a tech company that allows businesses and internet marketers to collect email addresses for purpose such as email marketing, and newsletter distribution. It is one of the top autoresponder companies you will ever come across in the present times. Their logo is a very simple logotype with the name with the name of the company written in a playful font against a white background. It is the perfect definition of minimalism in logo design.

Visual.ly

This is a startup tech company dedicated to creating different kinds of infographics to aid in presenting information in a more interesting way. Their logo features a sweetly designed logo mark which relates to its visual approach to data and it is well suited for the company.

GitHub

GitHub is a tech company that allows for code storage in the cloud and it’s a service that has grown immensely in terms of popularity. They have made it easier for programmers and developers in different parts of the world to share code with one another and also to work on projects together. GitHub’s logo is an interesting and a quirky one, perhaps to depict the personality of the company, which is now the most preferred for people working on open source projects. Their logo is half mascot and half cat and they have named it as “The Octocat”.

Hall

Hall is a communication app designed for businesses. It has various chat rooms that can only be accessed by the people who work for the respective companies. The Hall logo design is simple, clean and easy to recognize.

Check out why Uber’s head of design quit here!

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Apple, McDonalds, Google, IBM, Nike and many others wouldn’t have attained the staggering levels of success they are currently enjoying if they never invented their time and resources in having great logos. Therefore, note very strongly that it is possible for your logo to cause your business to fail and that can happen in one or a combination of the following ways.

Alienating new clients or prospects

One of the primary reasons of having a logo for you business is to stand out from the crowd and attract new prospect clients. With a poorly designed logo, you lose the competitive edge to be conspicuous amongst the competition and you will be effectively alienating the prospective clients whom would have been interested in doing business with you. Additionally, a poorly designed logo may attract the wrong crowd which is not suitable for your business and this will do nothing but stunt your growth potential. Therefore, be sure that you are not locking out potential customers by having an ill-designed logo.

Sending out the wrong message

When it comes to using business logos for branding, the logo must have the ability to send out the right message to your potential and current clients. The logo should essentially portray what the business firmly believes in and it should tell the potential clients the business has what it takes to meet their specific needs. People will be more confident in engaging your business if they feel they will get value out of doing so.

And since your logo is the first point of contact between you and your clients, if it delivers the wrong message, then this is likely to make your business fail. Therefore, if you don’t want your logo to fail your entire business, it is imperative to ensure to get the messaging right.

A poor logo may suggest poor quality standards

It goes without saying that success in any business is greatly pegged on the ability to deliver quality products or services. It is a must for the clients or customers to believe they are getting their money’s worth by working with you. A poorly designed logo may create an impression that the business does not take quality seriously. If they can’t design a high quality logo, why should a potential client think that they will get quality products or services from the business? This is another way through which a logo can make a business to fail.

Lack of a great first impression

A successful logo must have the ability to standout from the crowd and make a lasting impression when a potential client sees it for the very first time. This ability to be noticed from amongst the competition is what will be responsible for continuous flow of potential clients to the business. In this manner, it will not be possible for the business to win and to retain prospects if the logo can’t make a good and lasting first impression.

Not only this, but the lack of a good  first impression will have other implications on the business like making the prospects doubt your values and every other thing you claim to stand for. As a matter of fact, it will be an indication that you never took much time and effort to create the logo. Thus, it will not be possible for your business to realize its ultimate growth potential with such a logo.

Affecting talent acquisition

It is important to have in mind that business logos are not just for attracting new clients, but also attracting the right employees to the business. A bad logo may not only drive away talented and experienced employees, but also it can prevent the business from attracting talented professionals from applying for open positions.

A poorly designed logo will send a message to the potential employees that the business is not keen on connecting with their employees, leave alone the customers. A potential employee will thus be left wondering if the business will have any interests in investing in them. If your business is unable to attract the right talent in the industry, then moving forward will be very difficult and the business may as well fail.

These are some of the ways through which a logo can make a business fail. It is imperative to consider each keenly so that you avoid curtailing the growth of your business due to poor logo design.

Learn more about design education here!

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Create the logo yourself

For you to create a worthwhile logo for your business, some design skills and knowledge will be required. This is usually the most preferred path for those who are design conscious and who want to have total control over all the aspects of the creation process. This option gives you the ability to create the logo just as you had imagined it and it will not cost you a thing, given that you will not be paying anyone to do it on your behalf.

However, as much as creating the business logo on your own may sound appealing; it comes with certain disadvantages which you’d better be ready to contend with in advance. To begin with, you must possess designs skills and knowledge for you to create the logo without any professional help. Not everyone is a designer and if you have never tried it before, then this wouldn’t be the right choice for you.

In addition to having design skills and knowledge, it will be imperative to know how to use various graphics programs for logo creation. Some of the programs are pretty expensive and it wouldn’t make any financial sense to purchase them just to make one logo and this is why you may consider our second option of creating a logo for your business.

Order the logo for a graphics designer

The second option, and which is preferred by many entrepreneurs, is to entrust their logo creation to the professional graphics designers. With this option, you are guaranteed of having a high quality output that will represent your business in the most professional manner, visually. Besides, there are so many places where you can get such qualified professional logo designers at affordable rates. Some of the benefits you get by traveling down this route when creating a logo for your business include-:

• Access to a pool of designers and you are able to choose from the very best
• You are guaranteed of getting a unique and quality business logo
• Takes less time compared to creating the logo on your own
• Sometimes the cost of designing the business logo can be relatively cheap.

But despite the advantages, there are certain things you may not like about ordering your logo from a graphics designer. For instance, finding a very good designer may be a challenge, given the nature of the freelance marketplaces and the huge number of designers available. You may find one or two very good designers, but they will be very expensive and this can be a little bit of a setback, especially if you are just starting out and you are pressed for finances. Finally, you won’t have a lot of control over the creation process and there are no guarantees that the designer will translate all your ideas into a perfect design.

Order it from a studio

Ordering the creation of your business logo from a design studio is almost similar to ordering from a freelance graphics designer, but it comes with advantages not available when you consider working with the freelancers. For instance, you will have a chance to work with very talented designers on your logo project and there is also a wide range of design studios for you to choose from. Communication with the designers will also be easy and this will lead to great finish at the end. However, if you decide to order form the studio, be prepared to spend a huge amount for the service fee and it is also a time consuming affair since you will have to consult with the studio designers at every stage of the design.

Use an online logo generator

With the advent of the internet and advancement in technology, there is a plethora of free online design tools people can use to make logos for their businesses. Not the very best option to say the least, but the online logo generators have the benefits of being free and easy to use and also you don’t need to have any design skills to create a logo for your business. Additionally, the results are almost instant and you have a wide variety of options to choose from. You will however have to contend with the fact that you don’t have actual control over the design and your customization options are also very limited.

Learn how to make a daycare logo here!

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This is why graphics designs should be rooted on the right design principles that will stand the test of time so that the designs will maintain their beauty and relevance years after the trends have all faded away. Here is a look at the graphic design trends that took the industry by storm but are now slowly dying and nobody ever thinks about them-:

Ultra detailed or Complex designs

You may have probably noticed graphic design styles with a complex composition and ornate details. The popularity of these graphic design trends was partly due to the vintage design that took the industry by storm during the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this period, graphics design featured impressive attention to detail as well as a great sense of craftsmanship that many designers found to be appealing.

Even though retro and vintage styles in graphic design will continue to be popular, there seems to be a general shift in the recent decades towards what trend forecasters refer to as “Modern Retro” style of graphic design.

Another reason for the recent shift from the detailed or complex design is the adoption of simplicity and minimalism as depicted by some of the industry leaders. For instance, Google changed their visual language in 2015, and so many designers have taken the concept, further sounding the death knell for the ultra detailed designs.

The Use of Natural Color Schemes

The use of muted, natural color scheme is another graphics design trend that is slowly fading into the oblivion. With this trend in graphics design, designers tended to base their designs solely on the natural colors that were primarily inspired by nature. But this is no longer appealing in the design world as designers are now shying away from the natural color pallets and shifting towards the use of brighter and more saturated color palettes. The use of natural color schemes was especially rampant during the late 1980s and early 1990s, but a lot has changed since then.

Mixed Typography in design

The mix and match approach of using multiple fonts in the same design was a graphic design trend which was in use for a very long time. You would see it virtually in all the places you would find graphics displayed. These included websites, social media and logo amongst other branding materials. It is never easy to combine fonts, and it can easily lead to the ruination of a design if not done in the right manner.

However, if done perfectly, it can lead to very awesome designs. But presently the trend is no longer considered hot, especially with the challenges that come with the printing of multiple fonts on the same design. As a graphic design trend, therefore, mixed typography in design has lost the steam it needed to move forward.

Monoline in logo design

Monoline logos featured designs where the elements were illustrated in a single line weight. This graphic design trend was a rage when it hit the industry but seems to be losing its appeal among the current crop of designers. It used to be a versatile style that could also be used in minimal designs but despite this, it is no longer the in thing as designers have other approaches on making their designs looks great and trendy at the same time. Monoline logo design is thus one of the graphics design trends which might not be around in the few coming years.

Badges and crest logos

Badges and crest logo types were very popular and could be found everywhere. They appealed to most people due to their ease of creation since they also came with a plethora of templates that made it easy for designers to come up with different kind of logos in this style. But just like any other graphics design trend, their days as a trend had to be numbered and presently, nobody designs logos using the badges and crest styles.

Shaped Typography

Shaped Typography is another graphic design trend you have to accept its demise. This trend featured typography arranged in a manner that it formed certain shapes. It could be the shape of anything including patterns, plants or animals. The problem with this trend is that it made the designs look similar even though they were completely different. But since designers are after freshness and uniqueness in design, this trend is no longer considered great and it joins the list of graphic design trends that are officially out of style.

Learn why you need to cut the clutter in designs here. 

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Perhaps you have the urge to become a graphics designer or you already are, but you are still not sure if it is the thing you want to do. You will never know unless you take your time to try out your skills and see what you come up with. In the meantime, you should know you are a graphics designer if you experience or do the following-:

You judge a store based on their logo

If you are the kind of person who will look at a store’s logo and use that to inform your decision of whether or not to purchase from the store, know immediately that you are a graphics designer. Maybe the logo turns you off with the images they use. Maybe they are done in a manner that is not appealing to you hence you don’t want anything associated with the store. When you see the logo, your graphic design mind goes to work. It does a subconscious evaluation on the logo so you can tell if it is a terrible logo and leave the store.

You see design everywhere you go

Are you the kind of person that notices the font and the layout on the menu at your favorite restaurant? Does it bother you that the labels at the grocery store are rather big and user unfriendly? And do you feel that the branding on your favorite clothing line appeals to you in a special way?

If you are such a person, you should probably consider taking a career as a graphic designer more seriously. You know you are a graphics designer when you see designs everywhere you go. You not only see them but critique them and think of better ways which they could have been made greater if you feel that they are of mediocre quality.

You enjoy findings solutions to problems

Graphics designers are obsessed with trying to make the world around them more efficient. They are some kind of perfectionists who prefer to search for clear solutions to the problems they encounter on daily basis. If you are this person who finds that the tables at the bus terminus are rather complicated and, in turn, confusing travelers, then you are a graphics designer.

Also, if you find that the maps are complicated and make it difficult for you to find your way around, then you could make a very good graphics designer. Remember, hundreds of people use those tables and maps every day without every noticing anything wrong with them. And since you can notice the anomalies and think of better solutions, it shows that you are a very instinctive graphics designer.

You naturally appreciate good designs

You also know you are a graphics designer when you can notice good designs and appreciate them for the various elements of greatness they have. You are ready to accept that some designs are better than yours, and you are willing to take inspirations from them to apply and enhance your design skills.

You have a yearning to learn more

Perfection in graphic design comes by blending natural creativity and learning. With the advent of the internet, the graphics design industry moves very fast with many tools and styles being discovered. A proficient designer, therefore, needs to update their knowledge constantly and continue perfecting their natural skills in design. If you are the kind of person that is always eager to learn new things and stay at the top of the industry as far as graphic design is concerned, then you are a true graphic designer.

You are competitor

If you discover that you like competing with yourself, and you always want to become a better you with each design, then know that you are a graphic designer. You don’t have to compete with others or take part in design competitions. But you feel defeated when you think that you could have done a better job.

You have a genuine interest in the latest design trends

Professional designers know trends never last and they never form the basis of their designs. However, if you find that you have a genuine interest in learning about the recent trends in design, then you might as well be a graphics designs. Your aim is not to follow the trends and apply them in all your designs, but you are trying to get clues and inspirations and also have a general feel on where the industry is headed to.

Check out the best graphic design books here!

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Enhancing your creativity is one of the ways to separate yourself from the plethora of designers around the globe. You must have a strong desire to improve continuously your design skills and levels of creatively with every project that leaves your desk. There are several ways through which you could achieve these and reading is one of them. With the advent of the internet, there are several sources where you can get quality design materials to increase your knowledge, skills as well as creativity as a graphics designer. But with all the available sources, design blogs are one of the best you will enjoy using.

Why design Blogs

Blogs are more educative, current and “friendly” than the traditional books. The blogs are updated on a regular basis. Hence, you are guaranteed of finding fresh and updated content each time you visit. This will not just enhance your creativity, but also will make you have the current news and knowledge about graphics design right at your fingertips. Additionally, the blogs offer a means of interactivity, where readers can make comments and contribute to the blog posts they just read. This is extremely beneficial since it gives designers a chance to engage one another in a constructive manner.

Also, with the blogs, you can sign up for their newsletter and monthly publications and through this, you will continue to get useful and inspiring content from the industry leaders from time to time on your inbox. Therefore, any designer serious about enhancing their creativity will find every reason to be a friend to the blogs and utilize them to improve on their design skills.

Here are the top five inspiring design blogs to keep an eye on-:

Onextrapixel

Onextrapixel should be your first port of call if you are looking for design blogs to boost your creativity. It has a good reputation for being one of the oldest design blogs as well as having some of the well-seasoned contributors in the field of graphics design. The blog provides you with lots of resources including tutorials and a wide variety of freebies on different design subjects. No matter what you would like to learn, so long as it is within the field of graphics design, you will surely find it in this blog. Due to the nature of its content, therefore, Onextrapixel is ideal for both beginners and experienced designers.

Creative Nerds

Just as the name suggests, this is the place where you find all the creative nerds in the graphics design world (pun intended). It is an awesome blog with lots of fonts, free icons and Photoshop brushes that will help you enhance your creativity as a graphics designer. It is also among the few design blogs that come along with a complete YouTube Channel where you can further enhance your creative skills by watching videos and following along through live design projects by the experts.

You the Designer

You the Designer is another terrific design blog ideal for designers at all levels. It has a wide range of inspirational design works in almost any niche you can ever think about. In addition to the inspirational design works, you will also find lots of educational materials, freebies, tutorials and ninja tips both for web and graphics design. You the Designer is conclusive and is guaranteed to give you all the inspiration you need to get started to get going as a graphics designer. Additionally, the layout of the site is quite intuitive making it easy to use to the benefit of the users.

Inspiration Feed

At this design blog, you will find the same resources as the other blogs named above, but they have additional stuff for you. Inspiration Feed brings you a lot of articles covering different topics in various niches as well as relevant industry news that you ought to know as a graphics designer. This is also the one of the best places on the internet to go to if you are a graphics designer in need of great resources for startups, social media services, and general business motivation. Just as the name suggest, this should be your favorite place where you get your daily drip of inspiration as far as graphics design is concerned.

Graphic Design Blender

If you are a freelance graphics designer, or you are aspiring to become one, then you will find the Graphics Design Blender to be very resourceful. It is dedicated to offering freelance graphic designers with great tips on how to ply their trade in the turbulent but lucrative freelancing industry. Discussed in this blog are all matters relating to the freelancing industry such as dealing with tough clients, how to overcome your fears and start your business, where and how to land your first graphics design clients and many more.

Be a regular visitor to these inspirational graphics design blogs and get the fuel and the nourishment to be your best every day as a graphics designer.

Check out whether it is worth entering graphic design competitions here!

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There is no denying that the heart logo is very popular. It is the most prevalent of all the shapes used for logo design. Due to the positive associations of love and life, the majority of designers and audiences find the heart shape to be warm, welcoming and charming as a design element. This is why the shape has graced so many logos across multiple fields and industries.

It will interest you to learn that the heart logo is not a 20^th century phenomenon but was in use many years before then. It is only that by the early 20^th century, its use became rampant, and there were warnings that the shape would no longer appeal due to overuse. But this was not to be the case, as many designers continued to be more creative and continued making stellar trademarks and logos using the shape of the heart as the dominant shape.

Rise in popularity with I Love NY Logo

When people thought that that using the heart logo was just about to die, Martin Glaser revived it in 1977 when he came up with the massively popular I Love NY Logo. This was to inspire lots of designers to find more creative ways to use the shape in logo making but it also important to point out that a lot of imitators were also inspired as this is the most imitated logo in the world. Official records of United States Patent and Trademark Office show that there are currently over 1400 trademarks registered using the Glaser’s concept of I (heart) Logos.

More about I (heart) Logos

In the past years, many designers have continuously realized the potential that the heart logo has. They have come up with creative and intuitive ways to use the shape for better and more effective logo design. For instance, in some of its application, designers can turn the shape of the heart into an alphabet letter and use it within wood mark logos. The versatile shape of the heart can be used intuitively to take the forms of letters such as a, b, c, m, o, u, v as well as y. This versatility alone provides a wide range of design inspiration if you can get creative enough with using the heart shape.

Frankenmark Heart Logos

The other reason for the continued growth in the popularity of the heart logo is due to the Frankenmark logos. With this kind of logos, designers try to make logos that use two fingerprints, two hands, a handshake, or use a paw to form the shape of the heart . These types of logos are very popular owing to the fact that they use already popular symbols and combining it with the heart.

The omnipresent nature of the heart-shaped logos continues to increase, with big brands and companies adopting it. For instance, some of the big companies with heart-shaped logos in the present times include companies such as Airbnb, Thomas Cook, Southwest Airlines and CVS Health. But the use of heart-shaped logos in identity is no limited to such companies alone.

The social media is also now becoming awash with the heart symbols with big industry leaders Twitter, Instagram and Periscope all having something to do with it. For example, Twitter recently changed the starred favorites to heart-shaped likes. This was significant in the sense that it signified strong emotions of love, acknowledgement and appreciation of the people who used the symbols in their contents.

Overusing the heart logo

It is true that the use of the heart logo has continued over the decades. But does this increased adoption of this shape by designers tantamount to an over use? Analysis of USPTO data, in essence, shows that the use of heart-shaped logos is actually on the rise, and this might negate the notion that this type of shape is overused by the designers.

Presently, the heart logo makes up to 2.25% of all the logo designs. This is according to 2014 statistics. But even though this is a large percentage, considering the usage of other shapes in logo design, it doesn’t constitute an overuse in the heart logo design. Ideally, every heart logo is always unique and distinct, though they may adopt same design principles.

For graphic designers, as long as there is still room for creativity, the world is not about to stop seeing more heart logos. Designers will continue to come up with creative and unique inspirations to create quality and enticing heart logos. As days go by, more inspiration sources are discovered and so are different ways to use the shape in creating the heart logo. We can thus expect to see more uniqueness and freshness in this type of logo for many more years to come.

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