When to Hire a Design Firm to Get Your Logo Just Right Struggling to convey your startup's value to consumers? Team with the right design firm for branding that fits.

When restaurateur Emmanuel Verstraeten decided to expand the culinary philosophy behind his Michelin-starred New York City eatery Rouge Tomate to create SPE Certified, he knew he needed the perfect logo. Not just for aesthetic purposes, either: SPE Certified, a certification startup championing nutritious but delicious dining, needed a symbol that could integrate seamlessly into clients' menus and identify those dishes that adhere to the program's strict nutritional ethos--a kind of Good Housekeeping seal of approval for fit foodies.

"In order to tell consumers you have a wonderful product or service, you need to create a strong brand identity," says Verstraeten, who serves as CEO of SPE (an acronym for sanitas per escam, Latin for "health through food"). The logo had to contain the name SPE Certified. What's more, adds vice president of marketing Greg Deligdisch, the company required an image that conveyed respectability and trust: "We're not a diet brand. The program is based in rock-solid science."

No challenge proved greater than the SPE logo, which evokes a sprouting seed.