Your logo is an integral part of your branding and marketing. If you have a poorly designed logo, customers simply won't remember your brand. A well-designed logo, however, is both memorable and conveys the right emotions to future customers.
How do you design a memorable logo? Follow these tips.
- Consider Scale and Different Mediums
The first thing to decide on is what format to create your logo in. As a rule of thumb, creating your logo in vectors is much better than creating rasterized logos.
Vectors are infinitely scalable. Scalability (meaning the ability to look great at tiny sizes or huge sizes without loss of resolution) is crucial for logos, as they can go on anything from a business card to a giant poster board.
You need to consider all the different mediums your logo could end up on: TV, cardboard boxes on the products you ship, other marketing materials, etc. Make sure the logo will look great on all different mediums, including when it's in black and white.
- Color and Typography
How do you choose the colors and the type for the logo?
Choose based on the “vibe” you want to create.
For example, Coldwell Banker's logo is blue and the type is an authoritative type. This works great for building trust among higher net-worth individuals.
On the other hand, the McDonald's logo is red and yellow, looking like an inverted smile. This worked great at creating an association of fun for family and kids all the way into the 21st century.
The vibes you want to create has a large influence on the right colors and typography for your logo. Start with the vibe you want to create, then work backwards to the color and specific type.
- Create five Different Designs
If you hired a professional logo designer, they'll generally sketch out several different designs and have you choose the one you like best.
When you're designing your own logo, follow a similar process. Sketch out at least five different potential designs. Once you've sketched it out, let it sit for a day or two before coming back to it and deciding which one to proceed with.
In this process it often helps to get feedback from other people. Ask business associates, employees and past customers what they think of your new logo and which one they like best.
Designing a great logo is both a scientific process and an artistic process. Scientifically, it's important to make sure that the logo works in all different kinds of formats. Artistically, it's important that the logo conveys the right emotions and vibes that you want it to convey. Make sure it's memorable and that you get feedback before releasing and finalizing the logo.
