A logo is often the first thing people see when interacting with your business. It is important to make a good first impression, and that’s why it is crucial to design a logo that accurately represents your company. Here, we will discuss 10 top things to consider before designing a logo!
The Objectives
The objectives of your logo are important in the initial stages of designing it. Good objectives will ensure that you avoid design choices that do not align with your brand values or personality, and they will help guide your design process.
The following questions should be considered before you begin:
- How do you want to be perceived?
- What is your business all about?
- What is the brand personality?
- What are the brand values?
- How would you like your logo to be used?
Target Audience
If you are a small business, your logo will probably have more significance than it will for a large corporation. Small companies need their logo to be an extension of their brand. The target audience for a company will determine how well the logo is accepted and perceived. The more you know about your audience, the better you can design the logo to appeal to them.
It would help if you did some research before designing your company’s logo. There are many research methods out there; surveys, interviews, and focus groups are good methods of research that are not too expensive or time-consuming. Understanding the audience will help designers create better logos, which will lead to higher recognition rates among customers, resulting in greater customer engagement with the company brand.
Competition
Now you’ve mapped out your audience and your brand, it’s time to look at the competition. You may have already done this during the research stage, but if not, start by looking at all kinds of competitors in different countries and industries and those who don’t sell the same product. The idea is to get a very broad picture of other brands and what they look like.
Next up, look at your direct competition: those who sell similar products to similar audiences. What logos do they use? How do their logos differ from your brand identity? What makes them unique, and how could you create more differentiation between yourself and them?
Colors
The colors you choose can profoundly impact how others perceive your brand. Make sure the colors you choose to match and reinforce your brand personality. Before creating a custom logo design online, consider this thing.
Fonts
- When choosing fonts, make sure they support your brand image. The font on your logo should be a good representation of what your brand stands for simplicity. If you’re an edgy, forward-thinking company that wants to appeal to the younger generation, you want to choose something modern and bold (not Comic Sans).
- Choose easy-to-read fonts. As long as it’s understandable and conveys the message properly, the font is good. It doesn’t have to be intricate or fancy—it just has to work well with your brand.
- Limit yourself to two different fonts. There is plenty of one for the logo itself and one for the tagline/slogan. Using too many fonts can take away from the overall simplicity and impact of having just one great font choice.,
Illustrations or Symbols
An illustration or symbol is another way to convey a concept about your business. For instance, if you are designing a logo for a restaurant, and the food served has an ethnic theme, you might want to include something in your logo design that represents the culture of the cuisine being sold. If it were Thai cuisine, perhaps including an elephant in the logo design would be appropriate. If it were Mexican cuisine, then perhaps an image of cacti could represent Mexico or tequila and sombreros.
If you decide to use symbols or illustrations in your logo design (beware, though; too many graphics can detract from your message), be sure that they have meaning and are consistent with what you are trying to convey about your company/or products.
Example: When you choose the trucking logo design from Trucking Designs, you’ll get a custom trucking logo designed just for your specific trucking business.
Budget
This can be considered a spin-off of the previous point. While you may have an unlimited budget, that is not a reality for most people and businesses. Knowing how much money you have to spend on your new logo will also help you decide between using a service or doing it yourself.
If you are using one of the many services out there, then having a budget will help you determine what quality and options are available to you within your price range. Let’s say that your budget is small, around $50; then you would want to look at services like Fiverr because they have tons of talented freelancers who can offer great designs at very low prices. However, if your budget is $2,000 or more, then using 99designs might be more appropriate because they offer multiple designers submitting multiple designs for only your perfect logo design!
If doing it yourself, knowing how much time and resources (computer programs) are available to you will help greatly in determining what type of design and elements can go into your logo design, as well as whether or not it should be simple so it can be recreated over different platforms or complex but unique. Logo design designhill allows you to choose from thousands of high-quality designs.
Consistency
Consistency is key to creating a recognizable brand. Use the same logo and color scheme in your marketing materials, from business cards to product packaging. If you use different logos for your various social media platforms, consider choosing one of them as the consistent brand logo and using it for all your marketing materials. The same goes for the fonts on your website or other online marketing materials versus printed material.
Next is choosing a logo that reflects your company’s personality and values. Begin by researching the brand personalities of companies in similar industries or those whose branding you admire (even if their products are unrelated). Look at how they market themselves; this will give you ideas about what type of image they are trying to create and help you determine what makes them stand out from their competitors.
Be Memorable
In any industry, there is a lot of competition. You need to have a memorable logo to stand out and be noticed in a sea of products and services. You know the kind: they are recognizable at first glance and leave a lasting imprint on your mind long after you’ve encountered them. A great logo has simplicity, one idea, and lots of memorabilities. Develop an image that features easy-to-remember symbols that represent your business well to achieve these qualities.
Be Unique and Differentiate Yourself!
Do you want to stand out from the crowd? Do you want your audience to recognize and easily identify your logo? Make sure it’s unique! It’s not only a question of design but also about the color palette and overall concept. Remember that many other companies will be using the same font as you. The last thing you want is for people to confuse your business with another company because their logos are similar. Make sure your logo stands out from the competition so that people can identify it instantly.
It’s a good idea to check what your competitors are doing to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t work in the industry. It would be best if you then looked at making your logo unique by creating something original to your business and brand.
Avoid copying someone else’s logo or design. For obvious legal reasons, don’t use any logos that have already been created or use stock images or clip art.
Conclusion
Your logo is one of the most important aspects of your business. It’s what customers will see first, and it will reflect your company’s values, mission, and identity. A great logo should be simple, unique, and memorable. It should also be consistent across all platforms and marketing materials. When designing a logo, keep these things in mind to create a successful design that will help your business stand out from the competition.