11 Tips for Designing a Good Logo

While designing your logo, you have to consider all possible implications and you should approach this seemingly straightforward task very seriously. The following advices will help you prepare the professional, attractive, and profitable logo:

1. A logo is an integral part of your brand identity. Your logo defines who you are in graphical terms.

It represents your company. A good logo must serve as a memory jogger. A viewer should be able to form an association with your business after seeing your logo - an association that is revived every time the viewer encounters your logo. Towards this end, a logo needs to be attractive, highly simplified and completely compatible with the image of your company.

2. Engage your Audience

The logo design should above everything entertain and engage your audience. Your logo should not be so literal that the message is spelt out for them. They should be given the opportunity to discover the meaning and intention of your logo themselves. If people are able to discover the 'trick' of your logo within a reasonable amount of time, this will help to create a memorable and entertaining experience between you and your audience.

Too much abstraction will on the other hand work against you. If the logo is too obscure, the message that you are attempting to communicate will be lost, and so will your potential client. Remember, today's consumer culture is accustomed to very intense and stimulating media, and therefore you cannot be too demanding on your audience either.

3.       A good logo is strikingly simple and unique to your company.

The 'Less is More' principle is a good one to follow when it comes to logos. A logo should ideally represent one idea and not try to embody too many concepts. Colors should be kept to a minimum of two or three. This also helps in keeping printing costs down since logos need to be used in different promotional media and printing techniques that may have in-built limitations. Your logo must be original and instantly recognizable. It should not be a copy of somebody else's logo.

A great logo design will imbed itself into ones sub-consciousness. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but for a logo to be memorable it needs to use simple lines and be very easy to recall from memory. A good test to ensure that your logo design is memorable is to show it to a friend and ask him/her to retrace it a week later. A good design should use a recognizable shape or element for it to be easily remembered.

4.       A good logo can be reduced and enlarged without loss of clarity and without distortion.

A logo should be consistent in appearance no matter how or where it is used, even if it is blown up to a 100 feet or reduced to a quarter of an inch in height. This means you need to use simple graphic shapes and vector formats.

5.       A good logo harmonizes with the image of the company it represents.

If your company produces heavy machinery, a cursive font would look completely out of place in your logo. Neither would you choose colors like lilac and pink. Heavy bold fonts and colors like gray and red would be much more suitable. Similarly if you run a florist shop, cursive fonts and a hint of pink in the logo would look completely appropriate.

6.       A good logo must project an idea in a nutshell.

May be your logo could represent what your company does or represent a symbol associated with your company's activities. It could even represent a letterform that could be the initial of your company name.

7.       A good logo must have few colors that can be easily reproduced.

It isn't a good idea to have too many colors or gradations of color in a logo. Flat, solid colors work best and can be reproduced with most printing processes. Remember the colors you choose should go with the kind of business your logo represents. A solicitor's logo could be in dark blue and gray but a babysitting service could have a colorful logo with orange and purple. The more logos you create, the more you will hone your skills of logo creation.

8. Vector is Better

Although it's tempting to use detailed illustrations and complex 3d effects in a logo, chances are that it will not serve you well. Clean, crisp lines with very limited colors are almost always more effective than an illustration or complex 3d rendering. A well-drawn vector-based logo will provide you with the contrast and balance that is so important in logo design. New capabilities in vector based programs can now give you the illusion of a 3d effect without losing contrast, using tricks such as the canter effect.

9. Logo Longevity - Think Ahead!

The durability and longevity of a logo is worth considering. Although it's impossible to see into the future, it is useful to picture your company 10-15 years down the road, and think about what kind of products and services it will offer, if any at all! Even the strongest companies update their logo every 15 years or so, but often the changes will be subtle in nature. Very seldom will they take on a radical re-design.

There are many long-standing companies whose logos have stood the test of time. Type-based logos are good for this. The IBM logo is a great example. They offer a variety of products and services on an international level, and also provide research, design and consulting services. They've succeeded in communicating all of this through their logo, but we think they are due for an update very soon!

For small start-up companies, it may not be the end of the earth if you decide to change your logo after even a few years, depending on what transpires with your company. But it's always nice when a logo design is able to stand the test of time.

10. Adaptability - Be Ready for Change

Your logo should be flexible enough to adapt to every business situation. If a logo is too literal or specific, you may have a hard time using it when catering to different markets.

Generally speaking, the best thing for small business start-ups is to have an icon and logo-type designed at the same time. This will allow you to use the logo as a stand-alone image, or use it along with the type-font name as well. Often times, companies will use only the icon on its products and packaging materials. This is a common practice among software companies and book publishers.

11. Versatility Pays Dividends

One of the most important attributes of a good logo design is versatility. You want to portray a consistent image across all of your marketing materials, including signs, letterhead, business cards, products lines, and web sites. Often times, a complicated logo design will work fine on a website or billboard, but when you shrink it down to fit on a pen or coffee cup, the illustration or lettering will become illegible. Your logo should also work well in black and white.

You may often find that start-up companies and even well-established law firms will not consistently brand their logo across all their marketing materials. For example, they may have their logo on the front door of their office, but will end up using something different (or nothing at all!) on their website. In order to build brand recognition you need to market your logo and image as consistently as possible. Be sure that when you're having your logo designed that you receive all the file formats necessary for use in your various marketing channels.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.logosmartz.com/good_logos.asp

http://www.logobee.com/feature22.htm

http://www.businesscards4me.com/logo-design/logo-design-tips.htm

http://tannerchristensen.com/rules-for-logo-design/