So many people and small businesses are interested in how their business logos will look on a website, on social media, or on their email signature that they forget that in the “olden days” logos were affixed to the actual physical product of the company they made.
As logos become more and more of a passion project, physical logos become more intensive. If you work with wood – making furniture, collectibles, or anything else that requires a tree to make it happen, this article will help you best determine what kind of logo you should use and how you should render it onto your physical products.
Basics of Design
The best logos are always the simplest ones, like McDonald’s golden arches which has led the fast-food restaurant industry for more than six decades. Simple is a good working theory when you’re dealing with wood as well as reproducing really intimate details into a material like that can be tricky. The last thing you want on a hand-crafted chair or a sentimental keepsake is a blurry, jagged logo that makes your paying customers wonder who the rank amateur behind this logo design is.
Tools of the trade
If you’re going to go with a metal brand or a lathe, you’re going to have to really take that previous advice to heart. Even if you find someone on a creative logo site like DesignCrowd who has experience in crafting logos for wooden objects, they’ll mostly be forging something for you from a series of straight lines. Circles and pinwheels and custom objects need not apply for this format. You also have to consider that your logo needs to be available in any size, so it needs to keep an approximate square or circular shape to hold up if it’s blown to appear on a banner or shrunk down to fit on a business card or as a button on your website.
There’s also the option to use a three-dimensional printing company to create a metal brand for you to use on all your products. That makes the possibilities a lot more interesting and gives you more room for creativity, but the cost will likely rise as high as the flames if you go down this avenue.
The Basics of Branding
If you do opt for the old-fashioned process of branding your logo yourself, you’ll need to follow these steps to ensure good work and safety at all times. You’ll also need the following supplies: paper, pen, sheet metal, metal snips, pliers, welding torch, safety goggles.
First, sketch out your logo on a piece of paper and measure the size of the sections you need. This step assumes you’ve done all your requisite legwork to get your logo to its final incarnation: researching your target audience, using pen and paper to write out words that represent your brand; working through several iterations to get to the version you like best, etc.
Once the logo is in its final form on paper, cut the sheet metal, using your metal snips, into sections that match the straight-line design of the logo.The pliers can be used for any bending necessary to fit each piece to the way it should look. If you’re using letters or some sort of multi-piece graphic element, use the welding torch to fit them together.
Once the logo has been created and cooled, weld it to a backing plate to secure it, then to a 2-foot metal pole about one-third to one-half of an inch in diameter.
Once you’ve finished this process, you’re ready to affix your brand to your creations. There is definitely a learning curve here, so you obviously need a trial-and-error portion before you start branding your custom-made creations. Make sure to get trial wood that is the exact kind and density of your products so that you know exactly the correct temperature to heat the brand to and precisely where and for how long to press the brand.
Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels
