Without a doubt, logos can make a huge difference to brand recall. You don’t need someone to tell you the brand name when you see a “swoosh” sign or a half-bitten apple sign. You can instantly connect to their brands – one belongs to Nike, and the other is Apple. That is what a good logo can do to your brand recall.
Yes, a well-designed logo speaks volumes about your brand. It becomes the face of your brand. A logo appears everywhere – on your products, marketing, website, in-store signages, and practically everything that you put out for your existing and potential customers.
Every business, be it an established organisation, or a start-up, needs a good logo.
However, designing a great logo, one that truly represents a brand, is not an easy task. You need to understand that a lot of thought and hard work goes into creating a great logo design. From concept to research, you have to take into account a lot of factors to design a good logo for your business.
Let us, therefore, take you through designing the best logo for your business – does a business logo really matter, what to consider when designing a logo, and mistakes to avoid when designing a logo.
Does a business logo really matter?
When we talk of logos, the biggest question to understand is this – does a business logo really matter.
Yes, it does, and every business needs a good logo. A logo is a visual representation of your brand. It is a symbol that can easily get etched on to the minds of your customers if they connect with it.
Here are a few of the reasons why your business needs a logo:
Visual representation is a better way of communicating with your customers – It is much easier to retain a visual image than the words you read or things you listen. Hence, if you want your customers to remember and recollect your brand, then you need a great logo for your business.
You can create branded swag with logos – You can hand out branded swag to your potential customers at trade shows, pass it on as gifts, and even sell them. People love souvenirs. For example, a branded key chain can stick around with your potential customers for long. It is a better form of publicity, where your logo keeps reminding them about your brand.
A logo helps you create brand consistency – To create a lasting impression on the minds of your existing and potential customers, you need to be consistent with your branding. With a logo in place, you will not have problems in designing other marketing elements.
A logo helps create an identity of your own in the crowded market – With so much competition in every vertical, you need to create an identity of your own so that your existing and potential customers remember you easily. A logo helps you stand out from the competition. A distinct logo makes it easy for your customers to recollect your brand.
As mentioned earlier, every business needs a logo. If you don’t have a logo, people might not take you seriously. A good logo instils trust among your customers. It makes your business look more professional.
What to consider when designing a logo?
If you want to design a good logo for your business, it is important to understand what to consider when designing a logo.
There is no point in complicating things when it comes to designing a logo. You need to understand that most of the great logos have a simple design. Take, for example, the logos of Apple, McDonald, Nike, and Starbucks. These are all simple logos that have a subtle message for their consumers.
A good logo conveys to your consumers your brand story with the right mix of colours, fonts, imagery, and shapes. It lets you stand out in this crowded market place. Also, a logo becomes great only if it can be used seamlessly across all mediums. From your business cards to social media platforms, your logo should fit in everywhere without any issues.
According to Tamarin Morley, a brand designer based in Australia, “it can be as pretty as you like, but if it doesn’t mean anything and doesn’t communicate anything, then it’s not going to be a good logo. It needs to be effective at communicating the brand—its purpose and personality—and it needs to do that in a very simple, clear way. It also needs to be memorable and recognizable.”
Let us try to understand the design elements of a logo. Here are the design elements that make up a logo – colours, font/ typeface, shape, line, negative space (the arrow in the FedEx logo), graphics, and layout.
If you want to design a good logo, you need to make sure that you have a strategy in place. It is crucial to understand the core value of the business, what it offers, and how the business differs from others.
“It’s pointless trying to work out what you want something to look like until you understand what the point of it is. Once you’ve got a good understanding of that side of things, then you’ll start mood-boarding,” says Tamarin.
Once you understand the objective of what your logo needs to represent, you get down to the sketching stage. When you reach this stage, make sure you follow these points to design a great logo:
Keep it simple – Simple things click more with the audience. Take the example of Apple; they had a complicated logo when they started in 1976, but now they a simple logo that rules the roost. According to Tamarin, “Something that’s bold and simple is going to be far more memorable and recognizable than something that’s got an awful lot of detail. The detail can come in the visual language and be expanded out in other applications, but the mark itself does need to be simple. It doesn’t have to be super simple, but it has to be something that translates from large-format signage to a tiny little digital icon.”
Don’t overlook the principle – less is more when it comes to designing a logo.
Always keep your audience in mind – Every business has a target audience of its own. And, when you design a logo, you should always keep your target audience in mind. It is, therefore, crucial to factor in age, gender, income, location, profession, etc. Also, do factor in the competition while designing a logo, but it is not necessary to always play by the book. According to Tamarin, “rules are there to be broken. You’ve got the fundamentals but they’re well and truly worn and people get sick of them. There’s a lot of really great branding that has quite a naïve approach that is very much aimed at a higher-end adult audience, it’s all in the way it’s executed.”
Make sure the logo is memorable – With competition in each vertical growing by the day, you need to ensure that the logo you create stands out in the crowd. But creating such a logo is a challenge. Try to avoid using generic themes and symbols like the globe and cityscapes. To make a fresh logo, dive deep into the brand, and use your creativity to design the logo. If you can tell a brands’ story in a symbol, there is no reason why you can’t make a memorable logo.
Also, ensure the logo is timeless – If you look at the logo of Coca Cola, you would understand what a timeless logo means. The logo has been in existence since 1985 and connects pretty well with its audience even now. There is no point in creating a trendy logo because it can soon go out of fashion. Making a typographic logo is a good idea because these are simple logos that can remain in vogue for long.
Try to make the logo versatile and scalable – When you design a logo, you need to make sure that it looks good on all the applications. If it looks good on the computer screen, it should also look great on a pen, web banner, or a billboard. Colour is another thing that you need to factor in seriously. According to Tamarin, “A lot of people design with just RGB in really bright colour and then go to print it and it looks flat and horrible. Make sure that you understand the difference between RGB, CMYK and Pantone, and how things are going to translate between digital and print.”
The logo should have a quality typeface – The font you select for the logo is also an important factor to consider. The font you use in a logo represents the story of the brand. For example, Google switched its typeface from serif to sans serif, and the logo is doing pretty good for the brand. Hence, it is crucial to select a quality typeface, one that turns a word into a recognizable brand.
Use colours strategically – Colours have a significant role to play in a logo. Different colours have different connotations. For example, the colour blue stands for trust, stability, and calm, and the colour red denotes action, energy, and passion. That is why you will see many logos in shades of blue and red. Most of the brands use two colours or less. Using a signature colour can boost recognition significantly. However, logos can look great in more than two colours. When executed properly, logos can look great in more than two colours as well.
Don’t forget black and white – Your logo should look good in black and white as well. Look at the logo of Adidas; it looks stunning in monochrome. Factoring in colour is fine, but you should never ignore how your logo would look in black and white. There are many instances when your logo will appear in black and white. For example, in sponsorship, the logo appears in monochrome. Hence, always make sure that the logo looks great in greyscale or black and white.
Make a balanced logo – Humans consider balanced images as attractive. There are some ground rules in logo designing like the golden ratio and the rule of thirds. Do remember that balanced here means optical balance and not mathematical balance. The point is the logo should appear great to your eyes like the logo of Twitter.
Always stick to what has worked for you – Creating a brand identity is difficult, but rebranding an existing identity is even more difficult. Remember what happened when GAP changed its logo. Things did not work out well for them, and they again had to revert to their old logo. A lot of thought, concept, and strategy goes into making a logo. And if things click, there is no point in experimenting with a winning solution.
Mistakes to avoid when designing a logo
Just as there are some principles you should follow to make a logo, there are some mistakes to avoid when designing a logo. Some of the mistakes you should avoid are:
Never over complicate your logo – As mentioned earlier, simple logos connect well with audiences. Don’t put too many icons in your logo. It is easy for consumers to remember a simple design. Don’t use too many colours. Using too many colours can complicate your logo design. Remember that monochromatic logos can also have a similar impact.
Don’t create too many different variations of your logo – While it is important to create variations of your logo in different sizes, make sure you don’t re-arrange and re-align too many elements. Also, ensure that you don’t change the logo design to fit the size.
Don’t copy other logos – While it fine to get inspired by other logos, you should not copy them too closely because you will not get a chance to stand out among your competitors. Also, copying amounts to plagiarism.
Don’t try to be too trendy when designing a logo – Don’t fall for trendy themes and colours when designing a logo. Trendy themes and colours fade out quickly. Always stick to the contemporary theme. Remember that you are not designing your logo for a few years, it needs to stand the tests of time.
If you are looking for a company that can design a great logo for your business, you must contact vStacks Software Solutions now. We are a digital marketing and software development company with hands-on experience in logo designing. From understanding the requirements, doing research, and drafting a rough design to the delivery of the logo, we follow a systematic procedure to design a logo. You can contact us to learn how we can instil life into your logo.
