Three Tips To a Great Logo

You’ve built your business through hard work and planning, but sometimes a companies logo is an afterthought. Your logo says a lot about your business and is often a customers first impression.

Here are a few tips to think about if you’re considering a new logo design or a re-working of your current logo.

Plan Ahead
People get so wrapped up in the planning, structuring and day to day tasks of their business that the logo becomes a last minute item. To have an effective logo means planning and thought.

A few items to consider are:

What do you want the logo to say about your business?

Your logo is your first chance to make an impression. Whether it’s seen on a website or the side of a work vehicle it’s what folks see first. If your logo is silly and fun, that’s the impression people will walk away with. Silly and fun is great if your business is providing clowns for kid’s birthday parties, but not so great if you’re an insurance agent.

Where and how will your logo be used?

Your logo is going to appear in a lot of places. Give some thought as to exactly where your logo will be seen. Will it appear on signage, billboards and large scale formats? Will people see it on a moving vehicle? Print, web, or both? These things all effect the design of your logo.

If a person has a hard time seeing your logo in small print or on the side of a moving vehicle then your logo is not working for you.

Keep it Simple
It may sound great in concept to have a logo with your company name, phone number, four unicorns and the New York City skyline in the background but how is that going to look at 1 inch wide?

Your logo is used in many places and has to be visible wherever it is used. Overly complex designs can be easily lost when they are sized down. They also tend to get lost when used in conjunction with other designs or against backgrounds.

A simple logo that can be seen from a distance is going to stick in somebody’s mind. Think about the logos used by companies like Target, Apple, and McDonalds. Bold simple designs stand out!

Color Matters (sort of…)
In the process of planning a logo, lots of folks like to jump straight into color. Reds, greens, and purples oh my.

However, your logo will not always be presented in dazzling color. Sometimes it will be presented in black and white, sometimes in only two colors, sometimes in only one, and sometimes you don’t get to pick. Your logo needs to work in all of these arenas. A good logo should have the same impact in black as it does in four or twenty four colors. In fact, you want to start in black and build from there. Get your basic design down and then start adding color, it’s much easier to add color than to take it away.

Think about your color choices. Does the color you pick reflect your business? How do you want your customers to react when they see your logo? Colors like red have been proven to stimulate and excite people to action. Blue on the other hand has a calming effect and tends to make people feel calm and reassured.

When people see your logo do you want them to feel excited and take a risk? Or do you want them to feel safe and confident? It all depends on the particular business, but the color of your logo has the possibility of saying the wrong thing about a company if you’re not careful.

Your logo says a lot about your company. Make sure that you are making the right impression.