How to check your logo for originality

As you must have noticed several times in the past (Quark, City of Kelowna, Fallen footware, etc.) it is highly probable that the logo you designed and believe to be original has already been done in a similar form in the past.

If this is discovered early on in the design process not much harm is done. But if the new logo has been launched and material has been printed and distributed the cost and efforts to redo the identity can be really high. Besides the monetary loss such an experience is extremely frustrating for the designer and client alike. It is best to check if your idea is original as early as possible.

There is unfortunately no one sure way to check, but there are srategegies you can try and eliminate the possibility of a well known duplicate logo. Here are a couple of ideas in order of effectiveness:

1. Post your logo on international design websites for critique
   Designers in general pay lot of attention to logos they see in communication and have probably tens of thousands of logos in their memory they can easily recall. If you ask if they have seen a similar idea specifically you will surely receive a tip if it has indeed been done by someone else before. Here on creativebits' critique section you will probably find a large and international community with kind members offering help.
2. Search for symbols
   If you have a very distinct symbol, for example a horse head or a bell you should try to search by keyword adding the words "logo" or "symbol" to your query. Because google uses human volunteers to keyword the images in its library it is possible your search will come up with something useful.
3. Payed trademark research
   There are many agencies specializing in researching trademarks. These are always payes services and cost at least US$100 or more. They usually only work within one country or a group of countries. I'm not aware of a service that would offer a worldwide trademark search.
4. Search for similar images
   Use Google Similar Images and GazoPa (with an upload function) search to see if it comes up with something useful. This technology is fairly new and the databases do not include too many images yet, so currently this method has low success rate. It is expexted this method will be more efficient in the near future as the technology matures.

The combination of these methods should give you a very good chance to avoid problems, but the true test comes when the identity is launched. Therefore you should advise your client to soft launch the new identity on easy to change surfaces that reach a large audience such as email newsletters or web pages to allow for feedback from general audience. Once a few weeks passed without any major complaints you can proceed to launch the logo everywhere with high confidence.