How to Design a Logo
What is a logo?
This question probably conjures up vivid images of a famous swoosh or an apple with a bite taken out of it. After all, we all know what a logo is. A logo is a symbol or design used to identify a company or organization, as well as its products, services, employees, etc.
In its simplest definition, a logo identifies. It’s how your company is recognized and remembered among others. It also functions as the face of your business.
Your logo can also be an opportunity to make a statement about your organization. Take Amazon’s, for example. The smiley arrow communicates that the company sells everything from “A-Z” and also represents how happy customers are when they shop with them.
Start With Your Story
Companies are created to make money — it’s not the most poetic statement, but it’s the one you need to start with. And in order to make a profitable business, you need to be able to sell yourself just as well as your product. Marketers today tend to agree that buyers connect much more strongly to stories than they do to the basic facts of your product. What does this mean to you? There needs to be some story in your logo.
Before you even think about what this logo will look like, take some time asking yourself what the story behind your company is. When we look at Coca-Cola, we don’t see a brown, carbonated beverage — we see polar bears and thick, white script letters.
Lay the groundwork
Logos such as Mercedes and Woolmark have become priceless assets for their respective companies. One of the most interesting parts of being a designer is that you get to learn new things with each new project. Every client is different, and even in the same profession, people do their jobs in many different ways.
To make it easier for consensus to be reached on your design idea, you need to ask your client the right questions from the outset: Why are you here? What do you do, and how do you do it? What makes you different? Who are you here for? What do you value the most?
Research your brand
Most of us dislike doing research — why can’t I just get started already?! — but it’s an important step in any major project.
To make your logo successful and long-lasting, you’ll need to set a solid foundation. And to set a solid foundation, you need to do your research.
Choose Design
The next step is to browse our large selection of templates. You can sort by category or search by specific keyword. Once you find a logo design concept you like simply click on it to start the customization process.
Identify Three Colors That Reflect Your Website
Picking the colors for your logo design doesn’t have to be hard. If you have your brand guidelines already defined, use those colors for your logo. You might have to tweak the colors a bit as you’re developing the logo’s design, but those brand colors are where you’re going to start.
However, if you don’t already have pre-defined branding guidelines or website colors to work with, don’t worry. What you’ll want to do instead is take some time to research appropriate colors for your niche, industry, and target audience. So, if your business is in the automotive industry, targeting mostly older men, you’ll want to pick colors that are maybe darker or richer in tone. But if you’re in the beauty industry and target a younger, feminine audience, then going for lighter colors, perhaps even metallics might be a better call.
Pick Fonts Carefully
Many designers just do not pay attention to the selection of typefaces and chose them randomly. The fact is that typefaces speak about the personality of a brand. For example, a typeface used for a toy company’s logo will most likely be a handwritten typeface. This is because the children are the target customers and you want to project your brand as a child-friendly business.
Refine, refine, refine
Step back and take a long, hard look at your masterpiece. Ensure it’s legible in all colour variants and sizes. Check the spacing between characters and the relationship between the symbol and type.
Okay, you’ve created a lot of different logo design ideas. Now step back and take a long, hard look at the masterpiece ahead. Make sure that your logo designs are legible in all different variants, sizes, and colors, and check the spacing between the characters, the symbols, and the typefaces you’ve used.
Once you’ve got a final logo design selected, it’s easy to simply sit back and take your eye off the ball. In fact, even the most qualified logo design agencies do this. But it’s important to remember that the devil is in the detail. Make sure that you double check everything. That means making sure that the curves in your brand marks are as smooth as can be. Make sure that the spacing between each character is perfect, and that all shapes and symbols are in complete proportion.
