Write a list of imagery words that describe your logo, including animals, minerals, colors, shapes and lines. Using a thesaurus helps discover more possible ideas. For example, a mountain ski resort conjures images of icebergs, snow, blue, white, polar bears, penguins, trees, cone shapes and S-curve lines.
Review your list and combine imagery words that suggest a potential logo design, such as "polar bear/S-curve lines/blue" or "snow/penguin." Make several preliminary sketches of the combinations, then transfer the ideas with merit into your design program for rendering. Search your clip art or online sources for cartoon images; typeface clip art, including the fonts "wingdings" and "dingbats," provide excellent sources for basic graphic images such as snowflakes.
Open the cartoon element in your layout program. Clip art images usually require some form of improvement; manipulate the image by flipping, skewing, stretching or cropping or add geometric shapes behind your cartoon graphic to add dimension and interest. Work in a high resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch), for use with commercial printing, although online use only requires 72 dpi.
Place text next to the graphic and add interest by using contrasting values of size, weight and structure to the text. Most logos incorporate a company name, slogan or some form of textual inclusion. Type and image work together to create a unified design; place as much importance on your choice of font style as with your cartoon image selection.
Align the text flush left (quad left), flush right (quad right), centered or justified (quad left and right); adjust the text line height and letter spacing or apply a special effect.
Add color to your black-and-white clip art images using solid colors or tints. Use black or choose a complementary color for your textual elements.