Why is logo design important?
A logo is more than coming up with something fanciful. It has to be unique, pass across the right message, and catch the attention of the right audience. Your logo speaks about your business first before you get to speak. Your logo can do much more than you think it can. It can attract or repel a client.
Every designer is creative in their own way with awesome ideas exclusive to their minds, but no matter the level of creativity, there are some basic rules designers should abide by so as to get a perfect logo like Apple, Nike, and Coca-Cola.
Simplicity is Key
As a designer, you might want to go all out on the logo design or as a client you want your designer to put everything you have in mind on to your design, but that is wrong. One of the surefire ways to design a logo in a unique way is to remove all the excessive elements. So, keep only those colors, shapes, lines, symbols, fonts that are just enough to convey a message. Any element that is unnecessary occupying the logo design space should be eliminated.
The Black and White test
Seeing your design on your screen with a lot of colors can make you feel like you have created the best design. A very interesting test to show if you’ve done a good job is the “black and white test”. Another thing to consider is that your company logo should be equally impressive in black and white. There are many instances when you will be printing the logo without colors. When publishing your advertisements in a newspaper, the logo will generally appear without colors.
Hold back on the colors
Colors are good, they make everything bright, beautiful, sparkly and all, but too many colors would not help you. If your logo design looks too busy, then you are getting it all wrong. Learn to use the right and simple colors. One way to know if you are going overboard with colors is by shrinking the image on your computer. If it looks blurry, then you need to reduce the colors.
To find out if a logo looks like a memorable design in black and white, first create it without colors. If your logo drawing is not impressive, change it until you are satisfied. It is only after you find the colorless logo a significant design that you should fill it with colors. This way, the business symbol will appear equally remarkable in colors and colorless versions.
Separate the images and the text
Putting images in the middle of the text or vice versa makes the logo look confusing. You have to make sure your logo is shareable that is why you need to separate the images from the text. If however, you are creating an emblem (a form of a logo), then you have to make sure the logo is readable and not choked-up.
Simplify and streamline logo designs to improve versatility and memorability. A logo that’s too detailed is difficult to reproduce, with complex elements being lost as a logo is shrunk down or printed. Complex logos are also harder for people to recall and take more time to process. Keep things simple, with strong, clean shapes, and leave out any purely decorative stuff, like overly intricate textures, gradients, and shadow effects.
The fonts
Sometimes, we might tend to fall in love with a particular font and want to use it always because we feel it looks great on screen. Not every font looks good in every scenario, so you have to know the right font to use at the right time. Try not to use more than two different fonts if you must. To know if you selected the right font, look at it from a distance and see how it looks like from afar. If it looks good to you, then you are good to go.
Consider three main points when choosing a font to accompany your logo design:
- Avoid the most commonly used fonts, such as Comic Sans, or else your design may come off as amateurish.
- Make sure the font is legible when scaled down, especially with script fonts.
- One font is ideal, and avoid more than two.
Also, your logo needs to be legible no matter the size. If at small sizes they are not detailed, then you should revise.
You can as well ask your friends’ opinion on the font.
Clever Use of Color
Color theory is complex, but designers who understand the basics are able to use color to their advantage.
The basic rules to keep in mind are:
- Use colors near to each other on the color wheel (e.g. for a “warm” palette, use red, orange, and yellow hues).
- Don’t use colors that are so bright that they are hard on the eyes.
- The logo must also look good in black and white, grayscale, and two colors.
- Breaking the rules sometimes is okay; just make sure you have a good reason too!
Avoid too many words
Most times, people do not read the extra words you put in the logo, and most times the extra words just make the logo look too busy anyway. Avoid unnecessary words. Wordiness and the marketing copy do not quite go as well as you might think so let the words be short and straightforward. Not everyone is interested in the other stories you might want to put on the logo, and it’s a logo remember?
Create sketches
This is an important part of any creative design process. You won’t find the right design immediately, so sketch away. Also, do not erase as you don’t know if you will come back for it. Sketch and have fun!!!
Research
Logos are meant for brands, and brands are created to attract just the right audiences. You have to strive to create a logo that will appeal to the right audience. You can achieve this by researching.
At the end of the day, what matters the most is the uniqueness of your design. You might not end following every rule in the book but always remember the basic rules.
If you have any rules not mentioned in this article, we would love to hear from you.
