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A logo is the very first impression consumers receive from your business. Wouldn’t you want to make a great impression?
A great logo has five key characteristics.
· Simple
· Memorable
· Timeless
· Appropriate
· Versatile
Simple
Ever hear the acronym K.I.S.S or keep it simple stupid? A simple logo allows the customers to experience you image without being hit with sensory overload. Compare these two Kraft Food logos. The one on the left is far from simple, the one on the right very simple.
Memorable
The whole purpose of a logo is to be remembered. Does your logo look like the hundreds of other company logos? If so it isn’t memorable. Compare these two logos of DJ Deadmau5 vs Disney.
Memorable logos do not look like anything else. You can see them a mile away and they are unique. McDonalds, Starbucks, Fedex, Nike
Timeless
A timeless logo is one that lasts the ages. The best example bar none is the Coca-Cola logo. Compare it to Pepsi to see the radical difference between timeless and not.
Use this exercise to determine if your logo is memorable. Swap you logo with another company’s logo. Can your logo work with another companies name and tagline and make sense?
Appropriate
Without thought for appropriateness, it would be easy to make a unique and memorable logo. That being said, a logo should not “describe” what the business offers. The top brand in personal audio devices is Apple. Apple is a fruit and has nothing to do with audio devices or even computers. Apple is simple and memorable.
Versatile
Logos are being place every in every medium possible. Brands are not confined to only the print medium. We have tv, video, social channels, graffiti, tattoos, and just about everything else you can think of.
Use these exercises to see if your logo is versatile.
· Place your brand’s logo on something the size of a postage stamp
· Place your brand’s on something as large as a billboard
· Design your brand’s logo in just black
· Reverse the color of your brand’s Logo (light logo dark background)
The purpose of a logo is for identification. A logo allow for immediate recognition, loyalty, trust, familiarity and credibility. A logo is one aspect of a business’ brand.
The shape, color, font, and image of one business logo generally differ from others in a similar market. Logos serve as a business storefront. They display your brand and product or service for consumers to view and compare to others in the industry.
What is the process of creating a great logo?
Development of a logo starts with an intensive research phase. Starting with your brands needs, why the redesign, and what a successful outcome looks like. The best way to achieve a desirable end result is to have a clear target to aim at.
From there, do research on the industry in which you conduct business, history and competition. Next a look at the target market is in order here to determine appropriateness.
Then it is time to conceptualize and sketch ideas for a logo. An exercise we like to call the “one-minute logo”. In one minute the designers sketch as many logos as they can come up with. They don’t worrying about the quality—it’s just a free flow of ideas.
From the one-minute logo we take the best ideas and build from there. Designing and redesigning the logo concepts with meticulous detail until perfection is born.
After sketching the best ideas we take time to rest and reflect. What we have found is letting an idea sit for a few days allows it to mature. After some time away from the project gives us fresh eyes to look at the ideas. Sometimes we scrape the idea after and sometime the idea works perfect.
Shhhh…A top-secret trick we use to create that perfect logo is to solicited other designers for input too.
When the time is right, we present only the best concept(s) and design(s) to the client. Thankfully we have consistently nailed the design, but if for some reason the design needed a change we would make it at this stage.
Upon finalization we have one last step that is of the utmost importance. Celebrate! This may or may not involve dancing in the office, going out on the town, catching up on sleep or even beginning on the next project.
What is the difference between Branding & Identity?
Brand – The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.
A ‘Brand’ is a business with an attitude and personality shaped by the perceptions of the audience. You don’t make a brand, but your customers do. Branding is setting up the experiences so customers can feel the emotions you wish they felt about you.
Identity – The visual components that are part of the overall brand
Identity design is comprised of many visual devices to emphasize and allow a business to be easily recognized. Some but not all of the components that make up the visual identity are:
· The logo
· The stationary (letterhead, business cards, envelopes, etc.)
· Marketing collateral (flyers, brochures, books, websites)
· Products and packaging
· Apparel Design Science Group signage
· Message and actions
· T.V/Youtube advertisements,
· Anything else that visually represents the business
Last Tip: Have an understanding of the Psychology of Color
Colors express emotion and ideas quickly. Using certain colors in your identity and/or logo can assist you in building your brand with a certain emotional response to your messaging. The quick reference guide was made by The Logo Company
