‘Logo’ is Greek for ‘Meaning.’
A successful logo has meaning behind it. Logos are everywhere. They are an essential element of a companies brand so it’s essential to do some ground work before beginning the design process.
Here are 10 tips on how to go about designing a memorable and professional logo:
THINK ABOUT THE CONCEPT – Research what the company/client is about. Make sure to have a clear idea off what you’re wanting to portray in the logo and that you’re on the same page as the company/client.
SKETCH IDEAS – Sketch lots of ideas and brainstorm what the company is about. Whatever comes into your mind, you can disregard whats not needed but it helps to get all your ideas down on paper. Some designers like to show their brainstorming/ and rough sketches to the client/company to see if the initial designs are in line with the client/companies expectations.
KEEP IT SIMPLE – You want your business and its trademark to be recognized anywhere. Having a simple logo can help it to be memorable. Unique and effective logos are always simple. It’s not easy condensing a business/companies message into a simple form but it makes all the difference. You can tell when time and thought has gone into a logo.
THINK ABOUT LONGEVITY – Create an ageless logo. You don’t want your business to go in and out of fashion, so your logo has to be the same. It needs to stand the test of time. Research other logos that have been around for years and think about what makes them timeless for example the Coca Cola Logo.
MAKE IT ADAPTABLE – Create your logo so its adaptable. Make sure you logo is created to be used for different mediums. Create it in a vector form. Does it look good as a small avatar or on a large scale for example on a billboard? These are questions you need to keep asking yourself during the design process.
WORK ON COLOUR – Think about the mood of the company or client when choosing the logos colour palette. Is the logo just as effective in black and white? When designing logos, the Pantone colour system is suggested.
CONSIDER NEGATIVE SPACE – Think about the use of negative space when designing your logos. If you can optimize negative space around and within your logo in the right way it can add additional meaning to your designed logo. Supporting the notion that simplification through reduction can increase your brand logo. This will make it more memorable.
TAKE YOUR TIME – Its hard to put a time frame on how long it takes to design a logo as there is so many factors to take into consideration and each design process, company and expectations will be different. Its best not to rush the process, the ground work always pays off.
HAVE FUN & LEARN – Enjoy the process, learn new skills within logo design. Also learn as much as you can about the company, that way you’ll have a better understanding of what they’re about and be able to communicate their message better to the public.
ASK FOR OPINIONS – It always pays off to ask for a second or third pair of eyes to view your work. No matter how good you get at design it’s always a good idea to have another person identify points that you may have missed. Allow yourself time to have your work checked, for innuendos, hidden words, meanings etc. Lots of studios allow sticking work in progress up on their walls to receive peer review, if you’re working solo its a great idea to ask peers to just cast an eye over what you’ve done.
Written by Sarah Ellen – Marketing & Development at Graphics Bite
