Everyone has heard the old adage ‘Don’t judge the book by its cover’. Unfortunately, people often do exactly that. The reason is pretty simple, really. We are visual creatures, and our perception of the world is heavily biased in that direction. Our eyes see something arresting and our heads will automatically snap around to focus on that image. As a book reviewer, I don’t judge a book by its cover, but I do take note what the cover looks like, because it tells me something about the author. I’ll leave the dissection for some other time.
Another thing that speaks to me is an author’s logo. You see lots of them on Twitter, and some are less than amusing. Whether you like them or not, they talk to you and give you a glimpse of the person behind the image. Wherever you look, every social media outlet bombards you with photos of members and contributors, but how many of those do we remember? Personally, unless I am actively corresponding with someone, I would be hard pressed to identify people behind those photos. And that’s the rub, and why you need your own logo.
Call it what you will: a brand, identifier, trademark, first impression. They all do one thing—connect you and what you do with the world, and helps people remember you. Think of world famous logos like Nike, McDonald’s, Shell, IBM…loads of others out there. One look at their logo and you don’t need to be told anything else. Of course, such branding comes at a price, and multinationals spend millions every year making sure you do recognize them. For the rest of us, we have to be satisfied with Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Yeah, it sucks. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have your own logo!
A logo is a visual expression of your personality, and I’m talking about writers here, not businesses. It also differentiates you from everybody else and acts as an exclamation mark. Perhaps your photo isn’t doing you justice. Time does bad things for our image, but our logo remains immortal. The thing is, you want to be noticed and remembered. Hopefully, this will translate into sales of your books.
How do you create a logo that will do all that? Well, there are several things to consider there:
• Your logo should be an authentic representation of you and what you are about.
• It should invoke an emotional or intellectual response.
• The logo should remain relevant over time.
• It should also be media independent—you can use it online, in emails, and printed stationery.
If you have decided to create your own logo, the end image, of course, is all important. Selecting that image can be soul-wrenching. There is no hard and fast rule how to do that, except that you know immediately when something doesn’t work for you. This is where a professional graphic artist can help. You may have dabbled in some artwork yourself, and creating a logo shouldn’t be a big deal, right? I once thought so, having designed my own business card. Luckily, I didn’t use it for long. A professional designer can interpret your halting, uncertain ideas and translate them quickly into draft drawings. It will not take long before you see something you will like. Of course, this doesn’t come free, but I believe it is a worthwhile effort.