10 Essential Things to Keep in Mind When Designing a Logo

Do you know it takes just 50 milliseconds to create the first impression? We live in a world where visual identity plays a pivotal role. For brands, it takes just a few seconds to attract or distract their prospects.

The modern era has businesses crave for both attention and credibility. The paths that they need to walk on are far beyond the traditional ones. Today, the process goes on building brand image through various touch points. To represent your brand, you need a logo. It helps not only to build your credibility but also catch attention on multiple channels.

Brands like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, etc. don’t have to do something special to attract the prospects. Their brand mark on any product would vouch for them. Customers would easily recognise which brand it belongs to! That’s how a logo represents a brand.

That’s all was about logos and brands. But the one person who is responsible for kicking off a brand’s visual identity is a logo designer. If you are someone who belongs to logo design background and looking for opportunities to make most out of it, hang on.

You can lead a brand on the pathway to success. Also, you can achieve success! How? By designing unique logo, however, you need to keep a few things in mind though. What are those things, let’s have a look.

1. Research a business first

Before you start with the process, study your client first. Find out the target audience as it will help you determine the elements of a logo.

Without having a clear picture of your client and its marketer, you would be directionless. Get to know what the company sells or is about. Once you gather all the relevant information, it becomes easy to create a logo.

2. Start with a basic sketch

The first step in creating a purposeful logo is to create basic sketches. The step is very simple, and it involves just the pen and the paper. You need to draw sketches. Or for the first draft, you can use the Illustrator tool.

The outcome is that your final logo design would be compromised if you ignore this step. Start creating about twenty to thirty sketches and sort out the ones that are good. However, if nothing looks good, start all over again.

A good designer is one who spends more time in sketching before engaging with other design steps.

3. Find creative ways of expression 

The color, typography, and shape should give a cohesive impression of the brand in one look. Take for an example, the FedEx and Amazon. The arrow used in the FedEx logo and the curved arrow in Amazon's A to Z letter depicts the nature of the company and what it does.

4. Steer clear of the trends

Often designers fall into the trap of trends and start using fancy fonts, colors, and other elements to express their ideas. That's not cool! Remember, trends aren't for long but for a shorter period. After that, the fancy fonts, colors, etc. become outdated.

There comes a time when the logo starts looking obsolete. Brands don’t have other choices but to go for a redesign. It again involves a dedicated budget which may stop the client returning to you for more.

So, it’s better to bid bye to trends.

5. Consider a logo’s size

Size is one of the important factors in logo design. The visual identity of a brand needs to look good no matter what size one chooses. When you scale a logo down for a brochure or a letterhead, it loses its quality which is not good. It needs to look good no matter where you use it in a larger or smaller version.

The most effective way to decide its scalability is to test it on your own.

6. Create a black and white version of the logo

There is no dearth of logo ideas showcasing a brandmark in different colors. But there come many situations in which you need to print a logo without any colorful effects. For example, printing it in a newspaper, taking photocopies, and so forth.

So, create a logo in a black and white version for various purposes. You can even start one in monochrome first and then decide colors for it. It helps a business mark appear remarkable in both monochrome and colorful versions.

7. Pay attention to typography

Talking about logo ideas and forgetting typography is like half a cooked meal. Choosing the right typography is essential. If your brandmark has text either in the form of a tagline or in the logo itself, you need to be very careful in choosing the right fonts. Go for Serif and Sans Serif fonts as they are the safest bet.

If nothing works out, create a custom font. Brands like Coca Cola, Twitter, and Yahoo have custom fonts take inspiration from them.

8. Be unique

We all want to look different from our counterparts. The same is with brand logos. Apple has nothing but a tiny apple with a bite, McDonald’s has golden arches, and Domino’s has four tiny squares. Each of these logos stays in our memories for longer. Just a single look and we remember which brand a particular symbol belongs to.

Therefore, create something people will remember. Don’t be scared to be different and try out a unique concept.

9. Be minimalistic

You might have had heard the phrase less is more. The logos you create have to be simple. It means stripping it off from unnecessary elements and keeping it minimal in terms of design. Take for an example, the logo of Kellogg’s. It is classic and uses an old-fashioned font style. It’s simple but remarkable.

10. Take inspiration for reference purpose only

One of the simplest but most important things to keep in mind is — don't copy other's work. There is a difference between taking inspiration and plagiarizing things. It's unethical to copy other designers' work. There are many templates and gallery sites that you can use for reference purposes. 

They help you get logo design ideas and kick off your own design journey.

Conclusion

Do you keep these things in mind when designing a logo? Tell us about your perception.