Company Logo Designs & Branding

You know that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Yet, most small businesses don’t invest time and attention into a quality logo design, even though it’s the first piece of information about your company that a potential customer sees.

A logo is the foundation of a company’s brand, and one of your most important assets. It communicates what you do and how you do it—your values and philosophy. It quickly tells potential customers what they can expect if they choose your business from among their many options. For example, a company with a retro logo wants to conjure feelings of honesty and trustworthiness commonly associated with the “good old days.”

Since their rebranding, Goettl has gone from $8m in sales to $40m in three years.

In a competitive market, where discriminating customers do research and share their experiences with each other, a small business cannot reach its full potential without a strong company logo design.

KickCharge® Your Identity With Custom Logo Design

The talented team at KickCharge Creative designs custom, hand-illustrated logos that meticulously suit each of our clients. We never use clip art and we don’t outsource work overseas. Instead, each logo and brand identity package is crafted by KickCharge Creative founder Dan Antonelli and his in-house logo designers. We start from scratch on all designs, because every business is unique. Their logos should be, too.

We have extensive experience serving small business of all types, but especially providing expert marketing for contractors, HVAC marketing and marketing for plumbers. Service providers like these can count on us to use our in-depth understanding of their operations and pain points to communicate better with their target audience.

Understanding the Value of Our Branding Service

Research, experience, strategy, time and talent are all essential ingredients when naming a small business and in our logo design process. We’ve invested our creativity into developing more than 1,000 company logo designs to bolster small businesses across the United States. When you entrust KickCharge Creative to develop your brand, here’s what your investment yields:

• Unparalleled experience: Our small business branding expertise is unrivaled. It’s unlikely you’ll find a team better qualified to build your brand. Our work is never outsourced, unlike most of today’s logo factories.
• Industry-leading expertise: You’ll work directly with Dan, the president of KickCharge Creative and author of three popular books and dozens of articles about small business logos, branding and design. You’ll be relying on someone uniquely qualified to grow your business.
• Sound strategy: Yes, your new brand will look pretty. But more importantly, it will work. We build customized branding strategies focused on helping your company grow and prosper. Before we start sketching designs, we strategize by conducting research to identify optimal solutions, such as whether to take a retro or modern approach, whether a mascot makes sense and which colors will resonate best in the marketplace.
  

  At KickCharge, we pride ourselves on delivering all original art for each brand we create.

• 100% original design: We pride ourselves on crafting original pieces of art for each logo. This is an important distinction from logos that use clip art. A logo derived from clip art never can be trademarked, which means any competitor can use the same mark. In contrast, KickCharge Creative’s logos are unique. We even use custom-built fonts, and much of the lettering is drawn from scratch. Dan’s logo design partner, Jeff Devey is an accomplished hand letterer, in addition to a brilliant illustrator.
• An invested ally: Most of our clients aren’t interested in a one-time design; they want a strategic partner to guide them as they grow their business. That’s what we want, too. You won’t find another agency that cares more about its clients’ success. We’ve got your back, for the long haul.

More Brand Identity Services

As a well-rounded small business marketing agency, KickCharge Creative offers a full complement of services—building a strong brand that becomes your company’s firm foundation for growth and success. Follow the links below to learn more about additional brand-related projects we can manage for you.

• Brand name development
• Brand identity guides
• Character/mascot logos

• What’s Included in a Small Business Branding Package

  Aside from our pride, time, talent—and our hearts, of course—here is what goes into our typical branding and logo package for small businesses.

  • Concepts: Approximately two to four conceptual ideas and mockups
  • Time: Up to 40 hours budgeted for logo design, with unlimited revisions during that time
  • Logo guidelines: Creation of a basic logo standards document, providing an overview of logo usage, colors and application tips  
  • Logo files: Upon completion of your brand, you will own full rights to the logo we’ve created and will receive all of the files required to use it. We include both color and black-and-white versions of your logo in the following industry-standard formats: EPS, PDF, AI, JPG, PSD, PNG, TIFF and BMP.

  Trademark and Copyrights

  Our logo design services do not include trademark or copyright submission. Learn more about the trademark process for small businesses and copyrighting basics on our blog.

• The KickCharge Brand Development Process

  Step 1: Creative Brief

  We begin every small business branding process with a creative brief—a form that you complete to give us an in-depth review of your brand goals, your competition and your clients’ preferences. It serves as the foundation for our kickoff conversation, when we discuss the details of your brief to ensure alignment on objectives, audiences and the look/feel of your new small business brand. We’ll talk about considerations such as whether a corporate feel or a retro style is a good fit, and the style of lettering that best matches the brand voice.

  Step 2: Brainstorming, Pencil Sketches and Initial Conceptualizing

  Next comes the fun part: researching and conceptualizing your logo and obsessing over its implementation. This usually involves a lot of sketching, doodling and bright ideas. Your small business brand becomes the center of our universe while we think through the logistics and brainstorm how it will work across media channels such as your vehicles, stationery, website, brochure, uniforms, etc.

  Step 3: Concept Presentation

  At this stage, we’re ready and excited to share our small business branding concepts with you. After all of our collective experience building brands, we’re usually right on the money with the first round (or pretty darn close). But if we’re not, we’re happy to make changes within the budgeted project time. If we’re even remotely close to going over your budgeted hours, you’ll know well in advance so there are no surprises. Don’t worry—it’s only happened a couple of times in our history.

  Step 4: Revisions and Finalization

  The last stage is when KickCharge Creative sends final art files for your approval. Once you give the go-ahead, we prepare your artwork files in various file formats, as well as provide the logo guideline document for your new brand.

Retro Logo Design

One proven way to capture attention as a trustworthy, reputable company is to go retro. Retro branding conveys reliability and customer service—characteristics that consumers seek when they need help or expect to make a significant investment. A nostalgic look feels wholesome and comforting, so it instills confidence. Countering negative industry connotations, it says: “This company is going to take care of me.”

Retro branding is unique in most markets, too. Since it’s not mainstream, it stands out and makes the company’s name and logo design more memorable (especially among a sea of weak, nondescript brands).

Of course, a retro brand isn’t the right fit for every business. When a company is focused on offering the latest technology and innovative solutions, a modern, up-to-date look is more appropriate.

Get the Complete Look

After crafting your small business logo and collaborating with you to develop a brand vision and strategy, we create corporate style guides to ensure your branding is properly executed across platforms. We carry your branding into vehicle advertising, the best web design in NJ and across the country, stationery, outdoor advertising, company uniforms and more, creating a cohesive look and feel across every application.

As a full-service marketing agency, KickCharge Creative can implement your new company logo for all of your needs, including print collateral, trade show booths and more.

KickCharge Your Brand

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, it’s crucial that the image you portray communicates the quality and customer service you deliver. You need consistent branding that sends a clear message and helps you stand out in a saturated market.

To get started on carving out your company’s unique identity, contact the KickCharge Creative branding experts online or call 908.835.9000 today.