UPDATE: See part 2 of this series here ‘How to Run a Logo Contest for Small Business’
As a small business, I’ve been through several names and logos. I guess spring has me looking to do some remodeling on the website, so it is time for a new logo and new look.
DIY Logo with Corporate Name
The company started as GAMA Health Technology. The focus was on providing secure networking and business intelligence to healthcare imaging companies. GAMA was short for Gamaliel, a guy in Acts chapter 5, but was often confused with GAMMA the type of radiation. Here is that first logo I did with that $29 do-it-yourself software. Yup, just a name and some squiggly things.
First Logo
It didn’t take long for me to get tired of that and want a little more professional look. I hired a local designer and used the following logo for several years.
The Blog Logo
Along the way I started a blog about Cognos tips and tricks. First thoughts on naming the blog were cognosandbeer.com and I thought would review a different micro brew in each city. Then a friend suggested cognostweaks, but there were a lot of tweak sites. Finally I read about cognitive information theory and shortened it up to CognitiveInfo.com.
Having forgotten the lesson learned earlier, I combined text and clipart to make a logo. By the way, don’t ever use clip art in a logo, due to copyright issues.
Then it was just a matter of filing a D/B/A (Doing Business As) form with my state to rename the company. A local print shop made a quick text based logo and that has worked for several years.
The contest!
If you are a graphic designer, you can win some real cash! Head over to DesignContest and help me out with a new logo.
http://www.designcontest.com/logo-design/cognitive-information/