A classic example is Nike's "swoosh" logo. People did not originally associate it with company. But because of its corporate rise and ubiquitous presence, people have grown to associate "swoosh" to Nike. McDonald's golden arches have also developed its own identity.

Another option is to combine text and symbols to create your company logo. It could be a brief amount of text, or sometimes an abbreviation. Just remember to make two elements compliment each other and provide extra clarity to what your company wants to get across its target audience.

The Color of Your Logo

Color also has a lot of impact to overall appearance of your logo. Colors can help you make a positive image or convey a wrong perception. They do influence your audience, and before a visitor would ever read your content, color would be primary element that would attract him/her to your logo.

There are many choices to consider when deciding on corporate logo that best exemplifies your image. However, you should also bear in mind that your logo is not only for you but also for your target audience. How your audience will perceive your logo is more important.

Not satisfied, yet? Use your TWIRL tool and twirl shapes around. Ooops…no twirl tool on your old Illustrator version? Try using FILTER, then. Twirl shapes around as much to your satisfaction, but make sure it’s still recognizable and readable especially if you’re using text. Want to see shapes without selected paths? Hit CTRL H and be gone with blue select marks, though paths are still selected. To make blue select marks reappear, hit CTRL H again!

Finally, use OBJECT-PATHFINDER-SOFT- with a value of 100%, to blend colors and give you painterly effect. It’s best to select an appropriate color format, aside from default CMYK. You may see a rasterized image by selecting OBJECT-RASTERIZE.

A word of caution, though, go back one step by hitting CTRL Z since once you saved image rasterized and closed, you won’t be able to edit it anymore. You can also copy/paste your creation into a new document inside Photoshop and if you need to print from Illustrator for spot colors, select Split Along Path option in Document Set Up, first. Keep on painting!