A logo is the ever-present face of your company. Words, type, colors and shapes -these attributes help a logo to communicate a message to potential customers about what your company does and how your company is different from the competition.

Many logos fail to communicate, which eventually creates barriers to successful marketing and advertising. For brand messaging, a company should have cohesive marketing approach of all points - logo, website, brochures, advertising, promotions, etc. If something as seemingly small as a logo lacks the communicative punch, you're your company is surely missing a huge opportunity to reach out to your customers.

A poor quality logo suggests inferior products and it puts a bad impression in the minds of your customers. Find out if your logo is suffering from any of the six common logo mistakes mentioned below. If you can successfully avoid these common logo blunders, then you are on your way to a successful logo.

1. The Clipart Logo

Many clipart images are widely distributed. Most of us are familiar with the software providing the clipart and will instantly recognize your 'borrowed' logo. This is one way to loose credibility of your business.

2. Special Effects Logo

First, strip off all the special effects to get at the heart of the design. A great logo should be able to stand its ground in black and white, without any effects. Draft your concept on paper first. Think about what to present before you decide how to present. After you are pleased with a one-color concept, then produce it digitally. At this point you may not like to add any effect to enhance your logo for web use. Eliminate any effect that does not add value to your design.

3. The Banner Logo

A logo is not your web banner advertisement. You are doing your company more harm than good by forcing your logo into a banner shape, especially if your logo is crammed to fit the entire rectangle.

4. The Text-Only Logo

These types of logos restrict the ability to express your company's uniqueness. A large established company can pull off text-only logos with exorbitant marketing budgets. Test of your logo's effectiveness by altering the letters and see if your logo is still recognizable. If not, then you need to seriously consider the visual element of your logo.

5. Monogram

Monograms (company initials) are very difficult to use effectively. It will take a long time to build credibility with a monogram logo. Also, logos consisting of several overlapping letters generally do not do well, and very often they speak too little about your company and the products.

6. The Complex Logo