Ground Work
Firstly you need to establish and understand who, what and why? Who is the customer, what is the product or service and why do they need a logo? The look of the logo should grow as a result of these answers.
First Impressions
The face of your brand is the first impression you give, therefore your design is very important. Creating an effective visual representation of your brand is so much more than just graphic design. As with any work that requires skill, logo design needs plenty of knowledge and experience for it to be successful. Your logo will only be seen for a moment therefore it’s important it’s easily recognizable.
Preliminary work
Sketches are an important first step in the process. Ensure you create balance in your design and keep the graphics, colours and size equal on each side. Size does matter and a logo needs to look good in all sizes.
Colour
We are taught very specific ideas about colour: blue is masculine and pink is feminine, a red light means “stop,” a green light means “go.” Use colours which are near each other on the colour wheel or directly opposite. Knowing the colours which evoke feelings and moods is important.
Red: Passion, energy, danger, warmth, aggression. Red is often used in food packaging or in restaurant branding as it can stimulate hunger in people.
Blue: Professional, serious, sincere. Blue is used in lots of corporate logos, studies have suggested people associate blue with authority, hence why lots of government bodies use blue in their branding.
Orange: Modern thinking, innovative, fresh, fun. Orange is usually used for start up companies or businesses that are trying to do something different.
Green: Healthy, ethics, organic, natural. Green is often used when companies want to represent their ethical or natural products or ingredients. Financial products and some banks use green too.
Yellow: Warm, friendly, sunny. Yellow does have a lot of negative connotations against it as it is often related to warning signs, so a lot of companies try to avoid this in their branding.
Purple: Royal, luxury, dignity, wealth. Popular with brands that are trying to convey elegance, purple is a great choice if you have a luxury product or service.
Pink: Fun, feminine. Probably the only gender specific colour, generally pink is associated with services or products for women, although it has been appearing more and more in male dominated sports recently. You must also remember that it must also look good in black and white too.
Typeface
Choosing the right font type and size can be tricky. Spend time looking at lots of different font types and sizes, ensuring that the font is legible when scaled down. One font is perfect, avoid using more than two and avoid using common ones such as Comic Sans as this can make it look amateurish. Ensure you test them on your design before making any final decisions.
Be Different
To stand out from the competition be innovative. Try a variety of styles to find the one that works best for you. Try different colour combinations until you find one what makes your design truly original.
Keep it simple
The simpler the logo, the more recognizable it will be. For example, the Nike swoosh is an extremely simple logo and is also one of the most recognizable in the world. Keep rewording your design until you have the essentials and leave out all unnecessary elements. Your logo is a signpost that identifies your company and reflects its attitudes and values. It’s a short-cut, a visual language that is quickly recognizable and memorable. Go easy on the effects, graphic design programs are extremely powerful tools and have many effects that you can apply to your logo, but don’t get carried away!
Design for a variety of media
Until the 1950s most logos only needed to work in print form. Now a logo must be legible on a colour newspaper, a website, three-dimensional signage, a phone, a tablet and on television.
Understand its limitations
A logo is not a magic wand. It can’t make a bad product successful or save a poorly managed company. A well-designed logo will always help a good product reach its full potential. Smart design, along with the power of reputation can make an enormous impact. The logo gives direction and attitude, while the product informs the meaning.
Design for longevity
Every hour we are barraged with an endless array of images and ideas. Our visual landscape is composed of billboards and signs, television commercials, magazine advertisements, messages on packaging, and other forms of visual communication. Almost every one of these messages is combined with a logo, but many of these have little impact and are quickly forgotten. Make yours stand out and be remembered!