Logo design: 15 golden rules for crafting logos

Logo Design: 15 Golden Rules For Crafting Logos

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Your brand is not defined by your logo or website. Your brand consists of people’s experiences, perceptions, and reputations with your services. Branding is the process of developing your brand (strategy). Additionally, a brand identity is the physical manifestation of your brand (logo, typography, colors, etc.).

Your business’s logo is critical since it communicates ownership, quality, and values. It’s ingrained in your products, your business card, your website, your social media presence, and, most importantly, in the brains of your clientele.

Your brand logo is likely to be one of the first experiences customers have with your business, and it’s your opportunity to make a solid first impression, demonstrate that you provide a high-quality service, and visually communicate your mission.

What characteristics define an effective logo?

A successful logo is consistent with and acceptable for your industry or service. If you’re a professional services business (as opposed to a product business), simplicity is usually preferable. We frequently develop clients’ wordmarks or typographical logos because that is all they require.

It is created so that it sets you apart from the competition and encourages brand loyalty. How? It is infused with meaning. Why? Because your brand is built on your business’s belief system, fundamental values, purpose, mission, and vision. People recall and discuss with their friends, not your brand.

Nobody is genuinely concerned with your logo (except for graphic designers or those with an eye for design). What matters most to individuals is their experience with your service and your brand’s values. The practical design appears professional on the surface and conveys a message.

How do you design an effective logo?

To establish an immediate connection with your audience, a small business logo should be simple to read and understand. It’s critical to keep your logo basic so that it’s successful across many media platforms and at any size. 

Unlike major corporations, most small businesses lack years of brand awareness that consumers associate with them or a sizable marketing budget to assist consumers in comprehending what they do. Thus, your logo must instantly explain who you are and what you do. There are many platforms such as Designhill to get your logo designed. 

The following are the fifteen golden rules for creating logos:

Utilize a sketchbook:

While you may be tempted to use one of the numerous digital tools available today to produce a logo design, utilising a sketchpad allows you to rest your eyes from the glare of brightly illuminated pixels and, more significantly, to record design ideas much more swiftly and freely. Without a digital interface in the way, you have complete freedom to explore, and if you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea you don’t want to lose, a pen and paper by your bedside is still the most acceptable way to capture it.

Assist your client in implementing your logo design:

You are transferring your completed logo design to the brand, and utilizing it as they see fit might be a formula for catastrophe. It would help if you strived to supply the client with a style guide outlining the proper (and improper) way to use your logo design. This should include everything from color choices to the minimum and maximum sizes at which logo designs should be utilized, positioning guidelines, spacing (including exclusion zones from other design elements), and any clear no-nos, such as stretching or distorting.

However, strive to be unique:

Suppose all of a company’s competitors use the same typographic style, color palette, or symbol to the left of the brand name. In that case, this is the ideal opportunity to differentiate your client rather than blend in. Take a unique approach to create a logo that stands out among others.

However, such commonality in the marketplace does not always imply that your job has become more accessible. Often, it takes a courageous consumer to deviate from a prevalent trend. However, exhibiting your inventiveness in your design portfolio is an excellent method to attract the type of client you desire, and demonstrating the suitability of your concept will help alleviate any reservations.

Accept constructive criticism of your logo design from the public:

In the age of social media, everyone and their dog has an opinion on every logo design that appears on the internet. Thus, criticism is no longer an occasional irritation or something reserved for professionals. It’s something that everybody involved in a high-profile rebranding exercise should anticipate.

Make it simple to remember your logo design:

A memorable logo design enables a business to remain in a potential customer’s memory despite the competition for their attention from competing brands. How is this accomplished? Simplicity is the keyword here. A fundamental logo can frequently be remembered after only a glance, which is not feasible with an excessively complicated design.

A trademark must be concentrated on a single notion; on a single-story.’ In most circumstances, this means that it should be simple in design to be used in a variety of sizes and uses, from a website icon in a browser bar to signage on a building.

Maintain a good logo design:

A logo design must be meaningful about the concepts, ideas, and activities it symbolizes. An attractive typeface is more appropriate for a high-end restaurant than a children’s nursery. Similarly, a vivid pink and yellow palette is unlikely to engage male pensioners. And, regardless of the business, creating a mark that bears any resemblance to a swastika is not going to work.

Use black and white in the beginning:

As discussed previously, color is a crucial aspect of branding, but it may also be a distraction, making it difficult for a customer to evaluate the logo’s basic concept. By deferring color until later in the process, you may concentrate on the concept of your logo design rather than on an aspect that is typically much easier to adjust.

Prepare the groundwork:

One of the fascinating aspects of being a designer is that each project provides an opportunity to learn something new. Each client is unique, and individuals do their duties differently, even within the same profession. The process of developing a logo should begin with some groundwork. Knowing the customer and their product intimately enables you to choose the most robust design direction and makes consensus on your logo design easier to achieve later on.

Consider your brand’s broader identity:

Typically, we do not see a logo on its whole. It is frequently used in conjunction with a website, a poster, a business card, an application icon, or various other supports and applications. A client presentation should incorporate relevant touchpoints that demonstrate the logo to potential customers. It’s similar to when you’re caught in a rut. Taking a step back allows you to see the broader picture, to realize where you are and what surrounds you.

Bear in mind that symbols are not required:

A logo does not necessarily have to be a symbol. Often, a customized wordmark works effectively, mainly when the firm name is unique – like Google, Mobil, or Pirelli. Avoid being tempted to exaggerate the design flare simply because the letters are the focal point. With every wordmark, legibility is critical, and your presentations should demonstrate how your designs operate at various sizes, large and tiny.

Avoid being overly literal:

A logo does not have to convey information about a business; it is frequently preferable if it does not. Abstract marks are frequently more durable. Historically, you would have shown your factory, or perhaps a heraldic crest, if it was a family-owned firm, but symbols do not convey information about what you do. Rather than that, they make it abundantly plain who you are. The mark’s significance in the eyes of the public is added later when linkages between the company’s activities and the shape and color of its mark can be developed.

Constantly seek a second opinion:

Never undervalue the value of a second (or third) set of eyes to spot issues that may have gone unnoticed during the design stage. It’s surprising how easily cultural misunderstandings, poor shapes, or unintended innuendos, phrases, and meanings are overlooked.

Expand the brand’s world:

A logo is only one tiny component of a branding strategy and should be established in conjunction with other activation points as part of a larger ‘brand universe.’ This word is essential to the branding process at London’s SomeOne firm. As co-founder Simon Manchipp explains in the video interview above with Computer Arts magazine, it is preferable to achieve coherence across disparate pieces than to achieve consistency. “The definition of consistency is solitary confinement – doing the same thing every day,” he complains. “Cohesive is distinct: it is a more adaptable, more intelligent method of doing things.”

Consider the following methods for bringing your logo design to life:

In today’s branding marketplace, a static logo tucked away in the corner of a completed piece of design is frequently insufficient. You’ll need to consider how your logo design can be animated for digital applications. This may require collaboration with specialists in animation or motion graphics to explore its potential fully.

Color is critical:

Monochrome does not necessarily mean black and white! Occasionally, black and white can appear harsh on the eyes, especially if we’re attempting to evoke a Zen-like state of mind. You can create subtle contrasts inside your logo by utilizing several hues of the same color.

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