What You Should and Shouldn’t Do With Logo Designs

By admin, 15 February, 2017

Planning on designing your first ever logo? Congrats! This process can be a very exciting one. It’s also one that involves a good amount of time and effort as well as the know how needed to create one that not only makes sense, but is appealing to everyone who sees it. But first things first, if you’re interested in creating a logo, but don’t want to handle it all on your own, you’re going to want to hire a person or a company to do the bulk of the work for you. Logo Design companies specialize in creating understandable and fun logos for businesses all the time and will be able to help you create the best one for your particular business or product.

If you have all the logo design experience needed, then you’ll want to create one yourself, though few of us fit this category. Either way, here are some dos and don’ts when it comes to crafting your next logo.

Do

  • Go with something different - One of the major keys to a successful logo that will become well known in the future is to be a little different. The key word here is a LITTLE though. You don’t want to go crazy and create a hard to understand logo just because it’s different from what is already out there.
  • Know your audience - This is extremely important. Without knowing who your audience is, you won’t ever be able to create a successful logo that leaves its mark. When creating a logo, what you’re actually really doing is creating a visual presentation, no matter how small, that is aimed at attracting potential and future customers and clients. Because of this, you need to know who those customers are and what they like. If you don’t, then you run the chance of completely going in the wrong direction and missing the boat all together.
  • Keep it simple - Keeping it simple may sound simple, but most of the time it isn’t. This is because it’s very easy to want to keep adding things to your logo to make it fun and interesting looking. But in the end, most of the time our imagination will have gotten the better of us, causing a logo design to be way too much. Too much design equals a complicated and confusing logo, which in turn leads to a bad impression among your audience, not the good one you’re hoping for. To help you out, the best route to go is to highlight only one feature in your logo, and leave it at that. This may be a picture or a letter, either way, it’s best to make that the one feature that stands out.

Don’t

  • Follow trends - Though this may be something you want to do when it comes to buying the latest fashionable outfit or accessory, it’s the last thing that you want to do in the logo world. This is because a trend is exactly that, a trend. During the season your logo will end up blending in with all the others, which will make it harder to remember. After the season is over your logo will be outdated and out of place, which will then mean you’ll have to start over with a new logo, which doesn’t make any business sense. A logo design is supposed to last, not be replaced every year or so.
  • Add more than the needed amount of detail - This may sound like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised to find out how many logos start off with way to much detail on them. Remember, the key to a strong logo is the lack of intense detail. In the end a good logo will be simple, not complicated and will tend to focus on one key feature. The more details that are added to a single logo, the more likely your audience will become confused and maybe even a bit frustrated.
  • Switch up your theme every year - Switching things up constantly is a mark of a weak brand. It also makes it so that your customers will have a much harder time recognizing your logo in the future. Think of it this way, what if Burger King changed its logo all the time? Would you be able to recognize the new one on a small highway rest stop sign? Probably not. This lack of recognition may cause you to go to Wendy’s instead, which in turn leads to a decrease in sales for Burger King.
  • Focus on the literal - Though you may want to use a dress as your logo for your dress shop, you don’t have to only go down that route if it’s not one of your top choices. In fact, you can use the first letter of the shop in its place if you would like to. Not everything in life has to be so literal.
  • Imitate - Though imitation is sometimes looked at as the purest form of flattery, it’s anything but in the business world. In fact, imitating another brand can lead you into some hot water with your customers. What you want to do is separate yourself from other brands and make yourself a well known entity on your own, not to blend in with others.
  • Go crazy with fonts and colors - The last thing you want is a wild logo that doesn’t make any sense and is difficult to read. If you do this, you are much more likely to drive potential customers away rather than reeling them in. A good thing to keep in mind is that one or two different fonts is the way to go. The same is true for colors.

There are lots of dos and don’ts in the marketing and logo world, making it important for you to know what they are before you begin designing. If you don’t take the time to learn all this beforehand, you may find yourself regretting it.