New startup - do you still need to bother with a logo?

I encounter this situation often when designing fund raising presentations for new startups pitching to VCs. “Oops, what about our logo?”. My answer is usually don’t bother, instead invest time to find a suitable color scheme.

• Getting a good logo designed is expensive

• It takes time for logos to become brand icons. First you need a brand story/experience, only then can customers connect it with your symbol. Read Seth Godin’s post (great quote “the iPod didn’t need a logo”).

• Logos are not important for the look and feel of a presentation, colors are. If a client insist, I will put them in 8pt at the right bottom of the page. Think about what drove logo design in the last century: they needed to fit on a building, a letter head, a form, a black and white fax. Because the user could not manipulate colors, fonts, images like we can today, it was the only “interesting” graphic on an otherwise boring piece of paper without an identity. These times are over.

Forget about logos if you are short of time, or short of cash. Pick some nice colors instead. Worry about your logo later.