A logo adds value to your company; it allows your company to be identified through images and/or text while encompassing the principle of your business.
It displays the worth and outlook of a company and is an element that needs much consideration for success.
What to consider before commencing on your logo design:
- What does your company represent?
- What do you want to say?
- What is your story?
- Who is your target market?
- What makes you unique?
Always look at your concept and refer to the first few questions when you feel like you're stuck. It will remind you and your designer of what your target is and how to achieve the best possible results for your brand.
To really enhance your logo make sure the image is unique, understandable and relatable. Some of the above questions may not seem important when you start your brief for a logo, but they sure will come in handy down the track when it comes to the nitty grittys of logo design.
There are many elements in logo design that are unfortunately left out by many company's, so this article will assist you with what not to miss.
Remember a logo is used to identify your company.
Order to follow when creating a logo
Even if you're planning to outsource, or crowdsource, your logo design, it helps for you to fully understand what you want from the process. It will also assist you when it comes to writing your design brief.
- Research - This needs to be done not only on the above questions, but also research your competitors and what they are doing in the market. Also research trends, tastes and fashions in your industry, to ensure your design in on point.
- Concept - Using the above ideas create a foundation for your logo design to be based on. Eg, Mood boards, brainstorms, sketches etc. A lot of this should come from your research.
- Generate ideas - You can start with one concept, evolve it, and create countless more on the back of it. It doesn't even have to take you that long, once you're into the flow of it.
- Evaluate - Assess your concepts and give clear guidance to your designer. When they come back with their ideas, you should be in an informed positon to choose which one you like the most. If you like different aspects of a few designs, think about and discuss incorporating the features that appeal to you into one design. This should get you to a stage where you are happy to sign off on the final concept.
To really enhance your logo make sure the design is unique, understandable and relatable. It needs to be responsive, and work across multiple formats, media and sizes.
The aesthetic properties of a logo are vital as you are inviting people to distinguish your company through the design. You need to ensure the logo interacts well with your target audience, and is successful in hooking them onto your brand.
Typography in logo design
Fonts!! They are vital when it comes to logos, the type of font chosen portrays a lot about your company. Some company s only use the initials of the brand name in a monogram format to appeal to their audience. For example Louis Vuitton can be instantly recognised with the 'LV' monogram that is on most of their items. They also use the whole name for packaging and other parts of their company.
Both the monogram and the full name logo consist of similar design aesthetics. Don't use a large number of different fonts, as they will only confuse your audience. You will always need to be consistent. Two fonts should be maximum. You can also try also using the same font family with different weights.
The Country Road logo is comprised of the same ideal, there is only text producing the logotype. The design encompasses simple font and black lettering to convey the essence of the brand.
Even though this logotype looks simple, there remains a strong approach in design. The logo uses kerning (space between each letters) to make the logo legible and give it its own character.
Consider what type of company you are representing for the type of font - Serif is lettering with small details taking the shape of a flick at the edge of letters (Eg, Baskerville, Caledonia, Cambria, Georgia, and Rockwell).
Sans Serif does not have the decorative flicks (Eg, Arial, Avenir, Corbel, Helvetica and Veranda). Cursive script could be used in accordance to the nature of the company for example in the Barbie logo, which has a curly font in pink, which engages their young female audience. It is playful, and logomark almost looks like Barbie's signature making it unique and memorable.
Ensure you have a license to use the fonts you are using to avoid legal problems in the future, especially if it is not a font in the public domain. You can check out some of the top free fonts here and here.
Symbolism and imagery in logo design
Is there a particular icon that is important to you or your company that could be included in the logo?
For example the Versace brand, a high end Italian fashion label, Gianni Versace had a strong interest in history and drew parallels to Greek Mythology for his compnay logo. He is displaying his passion for a domain that is not fashion but relates to him on a personal level and incorporated this into his branding.
By using Medusa the brand is symbolising the reaction of people who look at Versace's fashion - that is being stunned by the quality of the clothing and made them stop dead upon witnessing their beauty.
The Versace logo is intricate and has a long story behind it displaying the complexity and vibrancy of the brand. After all it's a fashion house and this kind of symbol is quite frequent.
There is also another type of symbol that is also apparent with many successful brands - this is the minimal logo.
The apple logo is simple, yet identifiable. Almost anywhere in the world the Apple logo is recognised, this has been achieved through the minimalistic design and obvious shape of an actual apple. There is no confusing aspect of design here, which makes it easy for their audience to identify.
It is not necessary to include a symbol into your design; typography and placement of the company name itself could be great on its own. It all depends on your company and what you would like for its representation.
If you are having issues deciding whether you need a complex symbol, a minimal symbol or no imagery at all, go back to the key questions at the start of the article and think about who your audience is and what would most appeal to them.
It's also worth noting that having your company name in the beginning will make it easier for people to recognise, and only once it becomes memorable will removing the type ensure the icon remains successful.
Imagery created through vectors (line framework) is easy to duplicate onto other items such as shirts and posters as it has properties that will alter to size and material.
If you decide your logo should consist of an image, make sure it is an original design. You can take inspiration from other images but the final logo should be your own to avoid legal problems.
You should always think about where the logo will be presented. If your logo needs to appear in smaller devices, try to have less detail in your logo as it won't present well when scaled down.
Several companies use subtle references and unique imagery that makes the logo very cleaver.
The Baskin Robbins ice cream logo contains the number '31' in pink in between the BR while incorporating the initials. 31 symbolises the number of flavours they have in the stores.
The FedEx company uses positive and negative space to create an arrow between the 'EX' suggesting they're on the go.
The Nike 'Swoosh' logo symbolises the wings of the Greek Goddess of victory, Nike. The logo represents the moving notion that the Nike brand encapsulates through their active wear. The logo can be identified nearly anywhere due to the minimal yet meaningful design.
Ensure your logo can be distinguished without overdoing it – For example the Apple logo mentioned in the previous point. Simple but gets to the point. You don’t want a confusing logo that distracts your audience.
Layout of your logo
Layout is significant as the placement of words to text is an element that really defines the audience's outlook on your brand. Think about image to text ratios or how you will incorporate text with the image.
The Jaguar logo contains of a jaguar with text underneath.
The golden ratio is great to shadow for this; it is also a key that many designers and artists use not in their logos but within their work as it provides a coherent visual layout. The key is easy to follow - follow the diagram for proportion.
Color in logos
When it comes to colour, think about what colours are suitable to your company's aesthetics. Ideally it is good to try and create a base design that still looks good if it were converted into black and white.
It can then be turned into any colour for any purpose and still keep its aesthetic value. For example, the Coco Cola logo - it is a trademarked red but changes pending on the type of cola.
Vector images are best for this sort of design - you never know when you might want to change the logo colour. You could think about 'creating' a colour and buying the rights such as the 'Coco Cola' red if you're interested in 'owning' a colour for brand representation.
If your company represents a multi colour approach, colors such as the Burger King logo design it in a way that even if it were converted to black and white it would still have appealing qualities.
This versatility allows for a good logo - if you need to print it on a banner or flyer in another colour it will adapt.
The Google logo is featured in an array of colours but can easily be converted into black and white.
The ToysRus logo is cleaver as the ‘R’ is back to front - this may be something you are interested in exploring.
Always look at your concept and refer to the first few questions when you feel like you're stuck. It will remind you of what your target is and how to achieve the best possible results for your company.
Guest article by Tanu Vasu. Tanu has written reviews for designers at New York and Paris fashion weeks and assisted with editorial campaigns for Vogue Australia. Tanu completed a Bachelor of Design at Whitehouse Institute of design, and is currently undertaking studies in Masters of design as UNSW.
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Written by DesignCrowd on Tuesday, July 26, 2016
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