Choosing your logo is perhaps one of the most important things to decide when you start up your business. Your logo is the symbol that represents your brand and company. Basically it is the core of all your communications synonymous with everything your brand stands for. It plays an important role in your marketing and every brand aspires to become iconic and be recognised by everyone.
Looking at iconic logos there are some hints and tips for every brand-mark. Iconic logos have 6 main things in common:
- They are simple
- Obviously they are unique
- They are relevant to the brand they present
- They are memorable
- They are focused
- They are timeless because they don’t follow the latest trend
At British Design Experts we apply these principles when designing logos and here’s why:
Simplicity
Simple is memorable and usually makes your logo easier to use in different sizes and on different platforms i.e. on your website, your printed materials and on your products. Also remember that the more colours used the more expensive it is to print.
Uniqueness
Avoid logo clichés and even if the symbol you choose has other connotations, the uniqueness could be about how your logo uses it. Think of the Nike swoosh which is essentially a common tick or mark of correctness. Cleverly Nike’s tick has been slightly embellished to give it more than one meaning.
Relevance
By relevance, we mean not only the symbol but also the typeface and colours. All should represent your product and brand. If your brand is playful then the typeface and logo should represent this – think of Innocent Drinks.
If however your business is more serious or classic, then this needs to be taken into consideration when typefaces and colours are used.
Memorable
Your logo must make a fast impression. We all see hundreds of logos every day, so yours has to stand out to be memorable. This doesn’t mean it has to be the biggest, the loudest or the most obvious. Sometimes incorporating brand graphics help to achieve this; think of Google or Amazon.
Focused
One idea which is simple and works over time creates focus; and one which will work in any medium.
Timeless
Keep your logo timeless by being of the minute without embracing trends or gimmicks. If you need to keep changing your logo it will become less memorable.
Like most brands, Apple’s simple logo has been updated over the years. Because the original symbol is simple just changing the colour from striped to one colour has brought it up to date without essentially changing the logo. This ensures the logo is still recognisable as Apple.
Your aim is to have a logo that is associated with your product. But remember that not every logo tells you what the company does; the ‘Golden Arches’ of McDonalds don’t say fast food for instance.
Functionality
Your logo must work in all sizes whether it is on the side of a van, on a leaflet or on any of your digital platforms, in fact on any form of advertising. Here again simplicity is the key in both shape and colour. The best logos work in colour, black and white and a variety of sizes.
British Design Experts’ team of graphic designers follow these rules when designing new logos. We hope these pointers help when you are creating your brief and making amendments.
