It’s no secret that your logo is a big part of your brand. It is the first thing people notice about your company. A creative logo design has to look great. It has to be relevant. Above all, it has to be easy to remember.
Let’s dive into five simple tips for designing a logo you’ll love for years to come!
Work in Black and White
Begin your logo design in black and white before adding any color. Concentrating on color too early in the game can become distracting.
If you already know exactly what color(s) your brand will embody, resist the temptation and stick with black and white at first. Having those versions of your logo comes in handy anyway as you may need black or white versions for placement on banners, ads and other types of content.
Keep in mind that ultimately, color choices should be made by judging shapes, angles and what you want to pop AFTER you’ve nailed down your black and white version.
Test in Different Formats
It’s so easy to look at your logo in one place and be Does your logo look as good in a Twitter icon or Facebook picture as it does on your header? Can you make an icon that looks enough like your logo that someone who finds you on Facebook or Twitter isn’t confused when the visit your website? Make sure that your logo looks good in any size.
Keep it Simple
Now there are always going to be exceptions to the rule, but listen, nobody likes a busy logo. 99% of the time, a busy logo is going to evoke less-than-deal vibes from a customer because they can’t immediately decipher what’s being represented.
Think about Under Armor or Fendi. Their logos are so simple and easily identified. Less is more! If people can’t read your logo, it’s useless to have one. This sounds like logo design 101 type of advice, but it’s easy to get caught up in creating letters or distorting a font until it becomes unreadable.
Don’t Use More Than Two Fonts
This tip goes for much more than logo design actually. Using too many fonts nearly always results in a loss of coherence. As I mentioned above, the most important aspect of your logo (remember, it represents your brand) is memorability. It’s relatively easy to commit one visual style to memory. The same cannot be said once the image becomes more complicated.
Hire a Professional
Wait a minute, wasn’t I just giving you a bunch of tips for a DIY logo? Yes, sort of. Bringing a creative plan to a professional graphic designer is an excellent idea because it gives them a jumping off point. Unless you’re highly confident in your vector skills, you’ll NEED a professional to finalize your logo design for actual usage.
Be sure to obtain the final logo in Vector, PSD, JPEG and PNG file formats.
For more tips and tricks, follow me @bellestrategies!
