Logo design is so much more than creating a pretty visual for your business! Your logo sits at the very heart of your branding efforts and should represent the spirit of your business as much as possible. The best logo will send the correct message to your target audience, convert people into loyal customers, and help your business build a strong brand identity. Here are our team’s top 8 tips and design rules that we follow when creating logos for our clients.
Tip #1: Conduct Brand Identity Research
Most business owners know their brands inside and out but it’s always a good idea to spend some time doing market research and conducting brand analytics. Try to reconsider your target market, preferred tone, brand ideology and personality, and future goals to make sure you have a solid vision for your company. The whole point of a logo is that it can be fully capable of representing your business. Every choice you make when designing your logo should align with how your business operates and what you offer. This sounds extreme but remember that your logo should be on every promotional material your company releases and will often be the first impression (and hopefully lasting impression) that people get of your business.
Tip #2: Play with Words and Symbols
If you are a small business, we usually recommend including both symbols and your company’s name (and perhaps even tagline) to ensure you can create a solid brand identity. If you want your business name to be centre stage then opt for a logotype design like IBM. These logos are stronger at advertising for your brand than logos with just a symbol featured like Nike and Apple. These larger corporations can make extremely powerful logos with just symbols because they have the marketing power to build brand awareness that most small businesses do not have at the beginning of their journey.
Tip #3: Show Don’t Tell
That being said, remember not to overcrowd your logo with text. Explore conceptual icons that capture the spirit of your business in a quick and easy way so that customers remember your brand. These can be more creative than an image of the services or products you sell, think about how you want your logo to make customers feel and design from there. Again using Nike as an example, the iconic “swoosh” icon evokes the feeling of movement, speed, and completing tasks which are very fitting for a sportswear brand. If going the conceptual route, opt for highly visual, not too complex and easily recognizable and rememberable.
Tip #4: Harness the Power of Colour
Think about what colours your business is already drawn to in terms of the products and services you offer. If there is a main colour or two that you keep going back to, then this is a good place to start. Remember that each colour has an innate connotation and feeling associated with it so pick colours in a planned and powerful way to connect these meanings to your brand. For example, red is often associated with feeling aggressive, passionate, and energetic while blue is more tied to feelings of togetherness and calm. Use these kinds of associations to your advantage when thinking about how you want your brand to feel to people.
Tip #5: Use Empty Space to Your Advantage
The best logos have room to breathe and do not feel cramped. You want people to be able to read your logo both from a distance and when it is really small so try to keep your design clean by using white space to your advantage. It can be tempting to try to fit an icon, business name, and tagline into one logo but sometimes it is better to follow the “less is more” approach. Regardless of where it appears, you want your logo to be readable at all times.
Tip #6: Pick Fonts Carefully
Speaking of fonts, we recommend choosing them with care and purpose. Do not just choose a random font because it initially looks good and gets the job done. Similar to colours, your chosen typeface will speak to your brand’s personality and needs to match the message you are trying to portray. A handwritten font makes sense for a toy company while a bold and clean font is better suited for a luxury clothing brand. Whatever typeface you choose, try to stay away from gimmicky fonts and make yours as unique as possible.
Tip #7: Imagine Your Logo in Situations
This step is something we find businesses often forget to think about or at least leave as an afterthought when designing their logos. Think about what your intended use is for your logo and visualize it fulfilling that purpose. Will your logo look good on your products? Do you plan on using it for internal communication purposes (uniforms, merch, in your office, etc.) and external marketing purposes (website design, business cards, social media, newspaper ads, email campaigns)? You want to make sure you think about these questions before and during the actual design process, not after your logo is complete or you may have to make tweaks.
Tip #8: Keep it Simple
Above all else, try your best to keep your logo simple so that viewers understand and recall your brand at first glance. It can be tempting to overthink and go overboard when designing your logo, but in this case, less is usually more. Try to stick to one or two colours, fonts, and other elements to keep it from becoming confusing and overwhelming. You want to avoid creating a complex logo full of confusing colours, fonts, and shapes that will be too ambiguous and send mixed signals to the viewers.
We’re Here to Help!
While there are plenty of online logo makers out there, we can’t stress the importance of a professionally designed logo enough. Remember that your logo should be on every single piece of marketing material your company puts out, so you need to feel confident and proud of its ability to accurately reflect your brand and values. Bailey Creative approaches logo design with all of this in mind. Leave all the graphic design and logo design work to our trained experts who have experience creating designs that capture the essence of brands and giving companies the attention they deserve.
As a digital marketing agency, we’re here to answer any questions you may have and to help your business grow online to reach new consumers. Contact us if you’re ready to improve your online channels and build your brand’s digital marketing potential.
Top 8 Tips for Designing the Perfect Logo
Logo design is so much more than creating a pretty visual for your business! Your logo sits at the very heart of your branding efforts and should represent the spirit of your business as much as possible. The best logo will send the correct message to your target audience, convert people into loyal customers, and help your business build a strong brand identity. Here are our team’s top 8 tips and design rules that we follow when creating logos for our clients.
Tip #1: Conduct Brand Identity Research
Most business owners know their brands inside and out but it’s always a good idea to spend some time doing market research and conducting brand analytics. Try to reconsider your target market, preferred tone, brand ideology and personality, and future goals to make sure you have a solid vision for your company. The whole point of a logo is that it can be fully capable of representing your business. Every choice you make when designing your logo should align with how your business operates and what you offer. This sounds extreme but remember that your logo should be on every promotional material your company releases and will often be the first impression (and hopefully lasting impression) that people get of your business.
Tip #2: Play with Words and Symbols
If you are a small business, we usually recommend including both symbols and your company’s name (and perhaps even tagline) to ensure you can create a solid brand identity. If you want your business name to be centre stage then opt for a logotype design like IBM. These logos are stronger at advertising for your brand than logos with just a symbol featured like Nike and Apple. These larger corporations can make extremely powerful logos with just symbols because they have the marketing power to build brand awareness that most small businesses do not have at the beginning of their journey.
Tip #3: Show Don’t Tell
That being said, remember not to overcrowd your logo with text. Explore conceptual icons that capture the spirit of your business in a quick and easy way so that customers remember your brand. These can be more creative than an image of the services or products you sell, think about how you want your logo to make customers feel and design from there. Again using Nike as an example, the iconic “swoosh” icon evokes the feeling of movement, speed, and completing tasks which are very fitting for a sportswear brand. If going the conceptual route, opt for highly visual, not too complex and easily recognizable and rememberable.
Tip #4: Harness the Power of Colour
Think about what colours your business is already drawn to in terms of the products and services you offer. If there is a main colour or two that you keep going back to, then this is a good place to start. Remember that each colour has an innate connotation and feeling associated with it so pick colours in a planned and powerful way to connect these meanings to your brand. For example, red is often associated with feeling aggressive, passionate, and energetic while blue is more tied to feelings of togetherness and calm. Use these kinds of associations to your advantage when thinking about how you want your brand to feel to people.
Tip #5: Use Empty Space to Your Advantage
The best logos have room to breathe and do not feel cramped. You want people to be able to read your logo both from a distance and when it is really small so try to keep your design clean by using white space to your advantage. It can be tempting to try to fit an icon, business name, and tagline into one logo but sometimes it is better to follow the “less is more” approach. Regardless of where it appears, you want your logo to be readable at all times.
Tip #6: Pick Fonts Carefully
Speaking of fonts, we recommend choosing them with care and purpose. Do not just choose a random font because it initially looks good and gets the job done. Similar to colours, your chosen typeface will speak to your brand’s personality and needs to match the message you are trying to portray. A handwritten font makes sense for a toy company while a bold and clean font is better suited for a luxury clothing brand. Whatever typeface you choose, try to stay away from gimmicky fonts and make yours as unique as possible.
Tip #7: Imagine Your Logo in Situations
This step is something we find businesses often forget to think about or at least leave as an afterthought when designing their logos. Think about what your intended use is for your logo and visualize it fulfilling that purpose. Will your logo look good on your products? Do you plan on using it for internal communication purposes (uniforms, merch, in your office, etc.) and external marketing purposes (website design, business cards, social media, newspaper ads, email campaigns)? You want to make sure you think about these questions before and during the actual design process, not after your logo is complete or you may have to make tweaks.
Tip #8: Keep it Simple
Above all else, try your best to keep your logo simple so that viewers understand and recall your brand at first glance. It can be tempting to overthink and go overboard when designing your logo, but in this case, less is usually more. Try to stick to one or two colours, fonts, and other elements to keep it from becoming confusing and overwhelming. You want to avoid creating a complex logo full of confusing colours, fonts, and shapes that will be too ambiguous and send mixed signals to the viewers.
We’re Here to Help!
While there are plenty of online logo makers out there, we can’t stress the importance of a professionally designed logo enough. Remember that your logo should be on every single piece of marketing material your company puts out, so you need to feel confident and proud of its ability to accurately reflect your brand and values. Bailey Creative approaches logo design with all of this in mind. Leave all the graphic design and logo design work to our trained experts who have experience creating designs that capture the essence of brands and giving companies the attention they deserve.
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As a digital marketing agency, we’re here to answer any questions you may have and to help your business grow online to reach new consumers. Contact us if you’re ready to improve your online channels and build your brand’s digital marketing potential.
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