Creator Confessions: Don’t Forget About The Logo

As a writer of both novels and comics, Comicon contributor Frank Martin has a lot to say about the process of making fiction a reality. In Creator Confessions, he offers some of the discoveries he’s made in bring a story from initial idea to a complete, published reality.

Creators can go on and on about big decisions while making a comic book that are constantly overlooked or taken for granted by readers. One such aspect is a book’s logo. All fans have to do is scan comic shelves to see the wide variety in logo possibilities. There are plain and simple logos, to elaborate works of design, to iconic images that have withstood the test of time and will most likely never be changed. When devising a logo for a book, a creator might give it as much as two minutes of thought or put two weeks worth of work into it. There are pros and cons to both, and regardless of what you choose, it’s important to know why it’s important.

First: you would need to know exactly what a logo is. Sure, in it’s most basic form a logo is the title of your book. But in the grand scheme of things, it is so much more. The logo is the imagery for which your book, character, and IP as a whole is viewed. It is the image that fans will most likely remember when thinking of the name of your work. It could also be used in a wide variety of instances and tie-in products. A sleek logo can be inserted in articles and promotional material wherever the book is mentioned, adding a little bit of pop whenever your work is discussed. Designers know this, which is why many charge top dollar to put a logo together for you.

Now we’re getting into the pros of cons of how you choose what kind of logo to go with. As I just said, if you go with a very elaborate logo then you will need someone with the design skills to put that together for you (if you can’t do it yourself). There is plenty of material out there on the use of subliminal imaging in logo design. Not that you need to implore such tactics when creating a logo for your comic, but it’s important to keep in mind that a snazzy logo goes a long way in making your work stand out from the crowd.

Of course, your logo doesn’t have to be some big fancy endeavor. A logo could just be a simple title in a conventional typeface. That will absolutely save money and can probably be something you can do yourself. But then you lose the pop of an impressive logo catching people’s attention. Again, pros and cons. The cost of good work.

Then again, you can go too much in either direction. There are logos that are so bland and boring readers pass right over the title without a second thought, just like there are logos that are so fancy and overly designed that they become distracting or unreadable. Potential readers can see a big elaborate logo and feel it takes away from the cover art, which is a big turn off. Like everything, there is a balance between cost, design, and memorability. Fans might not think much of it, but as a creator, the logo you choose might be as important as the art for the story itself.