Last updated on March 22nd, 2023
What is it that compels companies like BBC to go to the extent of spending $1.8 million in the rebranding of their logos? A logo is a critical facet of an organization. It encapsulates the brand personality of the company and provides an opportunity for the audience to interact with the brand—influencing their purchase decisions, eventually. In this article, we’ve shared amazing tips for creating an impactful logo design for your brand.
Crafting a logo requires a touch of genius and the knowledge of several technical ingredients. However, the following 6 tips will help you find the inspiration and get you in the right direction to design a logo for your brand.
So, Let’s Get Started
01. Know Your Brand
Just like every robust building requires a solid foundation, an impactful logo requires its bedrock. But what is it exactly?
To make sure that the logo synchronizes with the brand it is associated with, you must begin with knowing the brand inside out.
Who would be your customers?
Gaining an insight into your target audience would go a long way.
If your potential customers constitute a teenage category, you might want to consider adding funky, trendy, and colorful elements in your logo. In contrast, it would make sense in keeping the bells and whistles at bay if the intended audience is older and / or professional.
That’s not all there is to it. Besides age group, try to probe In and figure their buying habits and understand what attracts them and why. In fact, it would be a great idea to conduct a survey on the potential customers and gauge the responses to get a clue of their preferences.
Ready to make a logo? Start personalizing these templates!
How do you describe your brand?
Your logo should be able to reflect the nature of your company, ideally. Think about your company, dig for its unique traits, and try embedding one or two inside the logo.
Consider the following set of questions while having a more in-depth look at your brand:
- How do we do things differently?
- What are our core values?
- What are our mission and vision?
[Image Source: VISUAL HIERARCHY]
Consider the vision of the famous e-commerce company – Amazon – as an example:
“to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.”
Now, notice how the arrow in the logo conveys the highlighted clause of the vision statement. It initiates just at the bottom of A and ends at Z—a clever way to tell the audience that they deal in everything from A to Z.
02. Explore Your Options
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” ― Maya Angelou
Take no shame in putting your competitors’ logos under the spotlight. In particular, rank them in terms of popularity and discover their common traits and patterns. This would help you connect the dots and realize what consumers are into. As a result, you could get a head start in innovating something of your own.
Moreover, if you plan on hiring a designer for your logo, analyze the portfolios of the logo designers, explore their plans, and go for the one that promises an affordable logo design with value.
Get noticed and build your visual identity.
In contrast, if you want to paint that magical portrait yourself, don’t forget to round up all the paint colors in front of you.
For That, Let’s Explore Some Of The Common Ways You Could Craft Your Logos
i. Wordmark
Also known as Logotype, a Wordmark is a font-based type of logo that solely depicts the name of the brand.
[Image Source: Pinterest]
Who doesn’t recognize the logo of the world-famous non-alcoholic beverage company ‘Coca-Cola’!
The trick behind this iconic logo is a custom font and a wordmark layout.
With that being said, the Wordmark logo could be a risky business as the entire essence of the logo pivots on the font—not leaving you with much to play around with.
ii. Symbol Logos
This type of logos incorporates a symbol or an icon without the presence of any text.
If we consider ‘Nike,’ the swoosh serves as an icon that has stood the test of time by remaining memorable, versatile, and simple. On the other hand, a bullseye is all that it takes to encapsulate Target’s logo.
However, be wary of the fact that these logos are generally not recommended for new entrants that expect to get recognition, through their logos, on the fly.
iii. Combination Logo
As the name suggests, a Combination Logo combines a picture, symbol, or icon with a text. This is a rather safe technique to create your logo as it doesn’t leave the audience guessing what brand it is.
If we talk about the variations, you can include your text separately, like in the case of Lacoste. On the contrary, you could merge the pictorial part with the text, like the way Burger King does, to make it look more creative.
Start a logo contest to get a winning design.
03. Get The Colors Right
Colors bring the logos to life, like the way they do to everything around us. Sadly, colors can also suck the life out of a logo if they are selected on a whim.
According to research, colors can increase brand recognition by 80 percent.
Every color evokes a unique type of mood or a feeling. Your logo can do wonders for your company if it comprises colors that correspond to the kind of feelings or impression you wish to instill in your target audience. Alternatively, you could even use colors to convey the values of your company.
[Image Source: Sortfolio Blog]
Another research indicates that Red increases metabolism and enhances your appetite. This speaks for the reason why many food brands prefer to include the color red in their logos. In contrast, Black generates classic and deluxe kinds of vibes; hence, it can be seen in the logos of popular luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, and BlackBerry.
Fun Fact: Blue is the most popular choice of color when it comes to logo designing. Some of the examples include Facebook, Twitter, Samsung, and Intel.
So, now that we have seen how every color carries more meaning than what it usually gets the credit for let’s shift our thoughts to color combinations.
Upon analyzing the logos of Fortune 500 Companies, it appeared that majority of the companies preferred to have a combination of two colors while designing their company logos. On the other hand, only less than 1 percent got gutsy enough to go for five colors or more.
Here’s The Full Breakdown:
- Two colors – 43%
- One-color –37%
- Three color – 14%
- Four color — 5%
- Five colors or more — Less than 1%
Once you make your mind on the colors, don’t forget that there will certainly be moments when your logo be tested in the black and white. Hence, it is vital to make sure that your logo works just as fine in its black and white and grayscale versions.
Moreover, it is best to avoid using the gradients, tones, and colors to mark an essential distinction in the logo.
If we take the example of PayPal, you can notice how the two shades of blue are used to make the distinction between the two Ps of PayPal. However, soon as we look at its Black and White counterpart, we can see the essence disappearing and the logo turning into an absurd blob.
Looking For a Logo Design?
We have helped thousands of business owners from all around the world with their graphic design needs such as a logo design, website design, social media posts, banner design and much more.
Get Your Logo Design Create Your Own Logo Online
04. Make It Versatile
There are a few technical blunders that could easily spoil your work of art and push your efforts down the drain.
To avoid getting blots on the landscape, let’s make your logo foolproof by putting light on some of the crucial aspects.
Is it scalable?
Scalability ensures that your logo doesn’t lose its spirit upon getting used to a variety of applications. Some of the logos make it on the huge billboards, and the same logos shrink down to the scale of a business card.
Think about where you would be using your logos, and make sure that your logo Is fit enough for both large and small applications.
Another must-have to ensure that your logo doesn’t lose its crisp is to make it on a vector-based program. Not only would it keep it from getting pixelated, but it would also make your logo compliment to some processes that solely deal with the vector files. Such may include embroidery, etched foiling, and vinyl cutting.
What is the typeface like?
If your logo is a wordmark or a combination type, you can NEVER afford to disregard the importance of typeface.
So, the first thing to consider is the selection of fonts.
Did you know that 73 percent of the Fortune 500 Companies count on the Sen Serif font? The reason is simple: it is easier to get a grasp of.
What appears attractive to you might not be the case for your target audience. But if you plan on to go creative with the font, make sure it doesn’t get complicated for your audience to comprehend.
Moreover, it is essential to see to it that your logo is free from:
- Faulty capitalization
- Too many fonts
- Unreasonable font sizes
- Inconsistent spacing
What about proportion and symmetry?
If one part of your logo out-weighs the other, best get it balanced. A good example of the proportions of details is the Starbucks logo. The details in the face, the crown, and the fins are so balanced and coherent that it’s hard for anyone part to steal the show.
[Image Source: Pinterest]
Another important consideration is to take care of is the aspect ratio. It wouldn’t be intelligent to make a logo that is either too horizontal or too vertical. Your logo should work in portrait mode just as well as it would in the landscape.
Create a logo that captures the essence of your brand!
1. Choose relevant templates
Enter your company name. Choose desired templates. Move ahead.
2. Customize your logo
Pick a logo template you like. Personalize with relevant icons, font, or color. Save changes & move ahead.
3. Download your logo files
Check the logo preview in real time. Select a suitable package. Download high-quality logo files.
05. Add A Unique Touch
Be creative and conjure up something out of the ordinary. Every impactful logo always has something to it that makes it stand out.
Let’s Consider Some Of The Ways You Could Instill Uniqueness In Your Logo
i. Double Meaning Picture
You can take your creativity to the next level and employ a couple of images merged into one—the double visual entendre
[Image Source: Crux Creative Solutions]
The logo of the Wine Place puts this technique into effect perfectly. The thumbtack in the icon refers to “place,” while having a second look at it makes you realize that it serves as an upside-down wine glass as well.
You can also pack your logo with an obscured image by utilizing negative spaces. Negative constitute spaces and areas around and between the main element of your logo.
Two good examples of utilizing negative spaces can be seen from the logos of FedEx and Spartan Golf Club. The hidden arrow in the FedEx communicates that the company is quick and forward-thinking. On the other hand, the Spartan Golf Club beautifully integrates a spartan warrior and a golf swing in its logo.
ii. A Story Behind The Curtains
Some of the famous logos in the world involve more than what just appears in front. There are certainly interesting stories behind their logos.
The logo of the Bluetooth technology suggests the story of a Danish King who had the liking to snack on blueberries.
Likewise, the three dots on the Domino’s logo symbolizes the three branches that the restaurant had in total when this logo was designed.
Start a logo contest to get a winning design.
Stirring a story with your logo will provide your brand with an opportunity to make the audience talk about it and get connected to it emotionally.
iii. A Timeless Design
If you want your logo to last for the next 100 years, don’t buy into adding something to it that would fade out eventually.
The Continental Valet Services features a key in its logo design. This is a bad idea to go for if longevity is sought because many modern cars don’t come with a key.
Horses, on the other hand, won’t fade out, of course, but the polygon art style might not be a trendy option to go for in the years to come.
06. Keep It Simple And Balanced
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak” — Hans Hoffman
According to Pam Moore, 5 to 7 observations are enough for anyone to get familiar with a logo. The simpler your logo is, the easier it would be to make it memorable for the target audience. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?
You will have to work with limited space and deliver both style and substance within that. If any aspect of your logo doesn’t play a substantial role while interacting with the audience, remove it.
A study was conducted in which 156 people were made to draw certain logos from their memory. The logo of IKEA was drawn with the greatest accuracy. One quick look on the logo, and you understand why that was the case.
Besides, omit to clutter your logos with over-the-top effects. Not only would they lose their essence in the black and white version, but it could leave an impression on the audience that the company is pretentious.
Logos like that of Apple and McDonalds offer the epitome of simplicity. More and more brands are refining their logos and inclining towards simplicity.
Ready to make a logo? Start personalizing these templates!
Wrapping It Up
Let’s take a moment to recall—begin with knowing your brand, then explore your options, get the colors right, analyze its versatility, add a unique touch, and finally make sure that it is doesn’t contain unnecessary elements.
Creativity has no limits. So, once you establish yourself at a position where you know all the rules and tips, there is no issue in making bold decisions and taking the leap of faith.
Give us a chance to interact with you in the comment section and let us know in the comment section if you think we missed out on anything important.
