Your Logo is the Core to your Brand
Successful and effective logo design is a rather complicated task because logos are the core of your brand, the heart and soul of your marketing direction. Our company has designed dozens of logos over the years, and of all the variety of design projects, logos are the most labor intensive. Time, effort and a lot of planning goes into logo design because they should say so much with simplicity and unforgettable style.
So what makes a good logo? Why do some logos stand out from the crowd and create an great first impression of your business and why do others fail at making any impression or worse yet a negative one?
There are a few key elements that should be considered before you start envisioning your new logo. Your logo should be simple, transferable, unique, meaningful and conveys your company’s personality. Sound easy, right? Let’s discuss these in more detail ….
Great Logo Design Ingredients
I. Simple: The design and layout should be uncomplicated and uncluttered. Try to keep your logo to two to three colors without gradients or shadows. The image should be clear, understandable and easy to understand (like the Apple logo to the right). If you use an abstract or rather obscure image that needs to be explained before its significance is made clear, than you may want to rethink it. As with your marketing approach, keep your message simple and engaging, so the same goes with your logo. Make sure the message is simple enough to be understood and remembered. If your logo includes verbiage, make sure the font is not overly fancy or hard to read.
II. Transferable: Think of your logo on a business card, on a poster, on a billboard, on your letterhead, in a print ad, on your website and embroidered on your employees’ polo shirts. How does it look on each format? Does it transfer well from very large to very small applications? If printed in black and white, on dark or light backgrounds, does it stand out and is it still recognizable? If overly complicated and cluttered, it will look messy and unreadable when shrunk to a business card or print ad.
III. Unique: Some say this is nearly impossible to design something truly unique, but it takes thinking out of the box to come up with a design that is original to your industry. Don’t imitate your competitors or go for the obvious. “The Mercedes logo isn’t a car. The Virgin Atlantic logo isn’t an airplane. The Apple logo isn’t a computer,” David Airey, a graphic designer and creator of website Logo Design Love says. For example, having a hammer or the shape of house has been done over and again in the construction business so its time to think outside of the box.
IV. Meaningful: A great logo is memorable when it tells a story, whether hidden or obvious, about your business. So much can be said about your brand from your logo’s design with shape and color, even if your logo is text based. For example, the Fedex logo use bold colors and a bold, readable font of the abbreviation of the original name of the company, but what you may not notice is the hidden arrow pointing forward. The arrow symbolizes the speed and reliability of the courier service.
Color selection also can convey subconscious meaning as well, a quick look at the Psychology of Color:
- Red: energetic, sexy, bold, power, passion, love, aggression, increases appetitie
- Orange: energy, balance, and warmth.
- Yellow: sunny, optimism, hope or warmth.
- Green: nature, health, organic, financial success, calming.
- Blue: trust, security, order, and cleanliness.
- Purple: spirituality, mystery, royalty, pride
- Black: stability, credible and powerful
- White: simple, clean, pure
- Pink: feminine, fun and flirty
- Brown: rural, historical, steady
Our company’s logo has several hidden meanings: first, it illustrates the elements of the company’s name Startup, which is a “star” with an arrow embedded in it pointing “up”. The green arrows illustrates financial growth moving upward, as a result of our services, and the black star conveys the idea of standing out among the crowd with great design.
V. Conveys your Company’s Personality: Your logo’s style can also do much to convey your company’s personality and engage your target audience. The Toys R Us logo conveys colorful, fun, playfulness and creativity that appeals to a young audience and easier for them to recognize. On the otherhand, the Sony’s VAIO logo appeals to techie geeks, where one side represents analog technology and the right side is a 1 and 0, which is the binary code of computer processing.
To see our company’s portfolio of original logos, see our website. If you need help designing a new logo or rebranding your company’s identity, we can help you develop a logo that creates a successful & lasting impression.
