Whether you are just starting a business and need a brand new logo or if you are in the process of a redesign and just need a refreshed logo, it’s important to put thought and effort into your business’ logo. Logos help with brand recognition and can help customers identify your company over any competitors or similar brands. In order to design the best and most effective logo possible, take the following tips and ideas into account.
1. Think of Your Values
When you first start your logo creation process, make sure that you keep your business’ values and mission at the center of it all. Your logo will most likely be what many of your customers think of when they think of your company, so you have to be sure that it is fully representative of who you are.
If you are considering putting a tag line onto your logo, make sure that you are thinking of your values when you choose it as well. For example, if you are a clothing brand or store that prides itself on inclusive sizing, you could have a tag line on your logo about how you make clothes for everyone or something to that effect.
2. Consider Your Niche
Having a niche is an important part of having a successful business. If you’ve already found your niche, you need to make sure you’re capitalizing off of it in all of your marketing materials, especially your logo. For example, if you’re a personal injury law firm in Texas, you will want to consider the two-year statute of limitations in a civil injury suit and factor that into your marketing technique and your logo as well. If your niche is based on a quick turnaround for starting civil injury litigation in relation to personal injury, you might want to represent the emphasis on time in your logo.
3. Choose a Color Scheme
It’s been proven that having recognizable colours can improve the overall recognition of your brand by up to 80%. In order to increase brand recognition through colour, you have to have a consistent colour scheme throughout all of your marketing materials. Make sure that you’re choosing colours that you will good on a variety of different mediums. Make sure that your colours do not clash or look awkward next to each other — you want your colours to be as recognizable as possible, but also as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
4. Make it Original
Obviously you don’t want your logo to look like other logos out there since that would make it useless since consumers wouldn’t be able to really differentiate between your logo and someone else’s. However, it’s also important to have your logo display your values, which will need a distinct impression.
Look at logos you like and figure out why you like them to determine how you can use a similar idea in your design. However, make sure that you only take concepts from other designs and do not directly copy any designs you find.
5. Use a Legible Font
A busy font choice can make it difficult to fully understand what someone is trying to say with their logo. Try to use a font that both matches the aesthetic of what you’re trying to and is legible to the average reader. A fun font may seem like a good idea, but realistically if no one can figure out what a business is for, the logo has failed its main purpose.
6. Keep It Simple
Simplicity is the key to a really good logo. If your logo is very busy, potential customers will struggle to figure out what exactly it is that they should be focusing on. Try to have one clear center to your logo that draws a viewer’s attention immediately and holds their attention there as well.
7. Choose an Aesthetic
When you’re in the process of designing the meat of your logo, you will have to choose the aesthetic that you are trying to achieve. Your font, color scheme, and any images you use will tie into this aesthetic as well. If you already have one part of your logo that you really like, such as a specific drawing or font, stick to the aesthetic of that item. If you’re unsure what aesthetic you want, consider these:
- Classic. A simple traditional logo is always a good choice if you aren’t sure how to design your logo. Include a simple image, your company name, and an easy to look at color scheme to achieve this logo.
- Cute. If you’re running an art-based or otherwise creative and quirky business, this may be the aesthetic for you. Include an image that looks hand-drawn or otherwise cutesy and match your font to the image.
- Minimalist. If you’re interested in a minimalist aesthetic, make sure that you are still making your logo distinct and representative of your company. Bigger companies, like Apple, have a lot of success with minimalist logos, but part of the reason that it works is that they are already so well established. Make sure that your logo is recognizable and easily associated with your business or company.
- Vintage. Using washed out and worn in fonts or imagery is a great way to portray a vintage aesthetic. Choosing aesthetics from specific decades, like the 50s or 60s, is also a great way to play up a vintage aesthetic. If you’re selling a product that plays on nostalgia, this can be a great aesthetic for your logo.
8. How Would It Look In Black and White?
Although your color scheme is very important, some places where you may publish or print your logo may not offer color printing. Ensure that when your logo becomes black and white it does not lose its distinct look or feel. If your logo does not work in black and white, consider how you can rework it.
9. Put It Everywhere
Once your logo has been finalized, you should put it everywhere that you possibly can. Make sure that if your business has a physical location you clearly display your new logo on a sign — it has been shown that 35% of people discover businesses through seeing their signs. If you’re a retail store, also consider including free stickers with your logo in every order. Stickers are a low-cost way to get your logo out into the world, and people tend to put stickers on just about everything, from laptops to water bottles, which means more exposure for your brand.
When you’re designing your logo take these tips into account and you’ll be well on your way to creating a logo that has a distinct impact on your potential customers.
What tips do you have for designing a logo? What’s a brand logo that you love? Let us know in the comments!
