Logo Design Tips

Your logo is a visual representation of your company and your brand.  It is one of the most important components to your identity and it will impact all of your marketing efforts. Successful logos can become iconic images for products. Poorly crafted logos are a long-lasting nightmare for the designers and marketers that are left to work with them. Whether you are developing a new logo or refreshing the look of an existing one, here are some basic tips to follow to make sure that your logo succeeds:

1. Understand

The first step in the process is to really understand the brand that the logo is being developed for. Make sure that you understand some key marketing elements:

·         Brandpositioning: what place does the brand occupy in the competitive landscape?

·         Brand message: what is different, special or unique about the brand?

·         Target audience: who is this brand being sold to? Need to know basic demographics like age and gender. Geography and culture are also important to understand as symbols and colors can have different meanings for different regions, religions and nationalities.

2. Research

Find out what is being done in the marketplace now.  Gather information and logos from at least the top five competitors. Knowing competitor’s positioning and messaging will also be helpful. You want to create a logo that is impactful and memorable, so knowing what already exists is essential. For logo redesigns or refreshing, collect all past logo versions. Perhaps continuity is the goal or a complete departure is needed. Either way, you need to know what has been done in the past to move forward.

3. Inspiration

Whether you are a designer or a marketer, inspiration needs to come from somewhere. Look for visuals, symbols and words that communicate your brand message. Do an online search for images or keywords and see what appears. Additionally, many logo sites exist where you can see what is currently being done in a wide variety of marketplaces. This can be a great starting point. You can even use some old school tools like a dictionary or thesaurus to look for meanings and ideas. Old sketchbooks and even previous designs you’ve done or seen can all help to get the creative process started.

4. Design

Let the fun begin! Typically this is the part that everyone enjoys the most. Here are a few things to remember when designing and reviewing logos:

·         Typography: Type only logos can be powerful and memorable. Just think Coca-Cola, Disney and FedEx. Whether using an existing typeface or creating a custom type, remember to keep it simple and readable. You want something that will stand the test of time. Also make sure that the type you pick matches the brand’s personality. Finally, remember to use a maximum of two fonts, for clarity and legibility.

·         Color and Usage: Make sure you think through all uses and color scenarios. Will the color logo work in a black and white format? It probably looks great on a white background, but how about on a dark or photo backdrop? Some simple modifications are usually all it takes to make the design work in all the necessary formats.

·         White Space and Negative Space: Keep a defined area of clear space around your logo so that the focus stays where it should—on the logo and therefore the brand. This standard can be reinforced when developing a brand book or graphic standards manual. Also, don’t forget that you can utilize the negative space in your logo to reinforce messaging, but keep it natural and not overly forced. Some cleaver examples include FedEx (look for the arrow) and the Big Ten logo (when an eleventh school was added).

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