Think big from the beginning, it will give your brand more potential in the long run.
Winning the hearts and minds of consumers with a memorable logo can be the difference between success and failure of a business (harsh, I know). A snappy logo can make people connect with your brand and recall your business down the road.
Identities are becoming less literal and more about the emotional connection. Apple is a great example of a company where their brand opens the doors for product expansion because people love what they stand for.
And it all starts with their logo. The Apple logo doesn’t represent computers or technology, rather what they embody as a company, slick, elegant products that may not be cheap, but are the best in the industry.
As we’ve stated quite a bit already, a logo is the face of your brand and the very first impression your audience will have of your company - so logo design is crucial.
Good logos will provide their audience with a simple mental shortcut to help them quickly understand what a business is about while designs that are too complex are harder to create recognition with and rarely work.
Creating an effective visual representation of your brands requires more than just graphic design. Like any line of work that involves a set of specific skills (you just read that like Liam Neeson, didn’t you), logo design requires plenty of practice and experience to be successful; knowledge is definitely power.
PRELIMINARY SKETCHES ARE A MUST
Sketching is the most important stage of design. Jumping right onto the computer can limit your creativity by the amount of time it takes to produce just one logo. When sketching, you can let your creativity run wild and have multiple ideas down on paper in a shorter amount of time. Use the computer to refine your logo, sketch to get your ideas down on paper. According to Web Designer Depot, begin with anywhere from 20-30 sketches or ideas and then branch out to create variations of the original ideas. If nothing seems to work, start again and begin sketching new ideas.
An effective designer will spend more time on this step than any other step of the design process.
K.I.S.S. (KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID)
The best way to describe this rule is with an example. Think Nike. The simpler the logo is, the more recognizable it will be. The Nike swoosh is an extremely simple logo, however it carries a lot of meaning, and is one of the most recognizable in the world. Make sure to follow the K.I.S.S rule right from the beginning when you start your preliminary sketches. You want to work your design down to only the essentials and leave out unnecessary elements that will only end up cluttering your final design.
CLEVER COLORS
While color theory can be complex, understanding the basics of color can be a great advantage to your business. Some of the most important basics to consider are:
• Don’t use colors that are so bright that they are hard on the eyes
• Avoid neons and light colors as well, they tend to disappear in smaller sizes
• Design your logo in black and white to begin and then decide on colors. If it doesn’t look good in black and white, it won’t look any better in color
• Keep in mind that colors evoke different emotions and moods so use colors that capture the company’s personality
Different colors represent different emotions. A great guide to color emotion can be found on the Buffer App Blog.
TYPOGRAPHY MATTERS… A LOT!!!
Typography is so significant it can make or break a logo design. A designer should test a few dozen fonts before choosing “the one.” Experiment with size, spacing and weight. The typeface should complement your brand as much as any other element within your logo. If you really want to make your company standout be unique and customize a font, great examples for customized logo fonts are Yahoo!, Twitter and Coca Cola.
GO EASY ON THE EFFECTS
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and other graphic design programs are extremely powerful tools and offer great filters and effects you can apply to your logo, but don’t get carried away! Your logo shouldn’t be dependent on these elements and should look great without things like a drop shadow or gradient effect. It’s perfectly fine to play around with filters and effects, but there is a time and place for them, not necessarily on the design of a logo. Of course, seeing if they can enhance your logo is fine but just remember that simplicity is key.
BALANCE ELEMENTS
Our minds naturally enjoy balance so it’s important that the elements in your logo balance each other. A few key things to keep in mind:
• Play around with the size and line weights of each graphic and typeface
• Strive for the square layout; you want a logo that can be scaled to different products like letterheads or website graphics.
Though the rule of balance can occasionally be broken, remember that your logo will be viewed by the masses, not just those with an eye for great art, so a balanced design is the safest approach.
BE ORIGINAL
The final rule to designing an effective logo is quite simple; don’t copy another designer’s work! There is nothing wrong with checking out the competition for inspiration, but copying another person’s ideas or work is just plain wrong.
Being original also means never using stock or clipart in your design. As a designer you should have your own style - this is what makes you stand out.