Think of a bitten apple, two golden arches forming an “m”, and a lowercase “e”… Sure you can automatically associate these logos with your brand, right? That is the objective that you must keep in mind when designing a logo.
The logo is your company’s calling card and therefore deserves as much attention as any other aspect of the business… Or more. In this article, we will see what you should take into account when designing your logo, whether you do it yourself or hire a professional.
1. Define a brand identity
First of all, you must establish certain principles of the company: vision, mission, and values… Perhaps some of these things are already defined and others are not, but it is important to have them clear and present at all times. The logo has to be consistent with all the core aspects of your company.
But … why is all this important when designing a logo? In fact, it is very important! The logo, the color palette, the fonts you use, and every other visual aspect of your brand will tell customers about the identity of the company. Therefore, all these elements have to condense your personality.
And how does this apply concretely in logo design? For example, a study in the Journal of Consumer Research lets us see how different geometric shapes influence the perception of the logo.
2. Establish a concept for the logo
If we already have a clear identity for our brand, it is time to start thinking about how to transfer that identity to the logo. That is, think about the concept behind the logo, the central idea that will take shape in this small image.
We can think of a literal concept, easily linked to what our company does (like the Burger King burger), or something more abstract (like Nike’s tick).
3. Use the right tools
Once you have a sketch of what your logo could be, it’s time to start translating this into images. For this, it is highly recommended to use specialized tools, such as Adobe’s logo maker.
If you have no experience designing, it is best to spend some time “playing” with the program, testing all its functions, to familiarize yourself with the commands. Although they are usually quite intuitive, knowing well the tool we are going to use is fundamental.
4. Pay attention to colors
A good idea is to start designing in black and white and then, when the logo has more shape, start playing and trying the different colors.
Colors transmit a lot, regardless of whether they are colors that we like more or less. Color psychology applied to marketing gives us a lot of information about what each color conveys. Here are some examples:
- Yellow: optimism, clarity, warmth.
- Orange: friendship, transparency, security.
- Red: emotion, courage, youth.
- Blue: security, strength, confidence.
- Green: peace, health, growth.
- Black: protection, elegance, sophistication.
- White: purity, simplicity, virtuosity.
5. Don’t make it too complex
Your logo will be everywhere: on your business cards, on your website, on your social networks, on your products, on posters… In short, everywhere! We need to think of a design that works on something as small as a business card and also works on something as big as an advertisement on public roads (dream big!). That is, we must design taking into account the scale of the logo.
If we design a very complex logo, with very small drawings or many details, when we have to shrink the size of the logo to put it in a small place, all those details will be lost.
For example, imagine this logo, but on a business card: