A logo is not just words, an icon, or color. It tells a story about your company, presenting your brand worldwide. Creating a logo is a challenging task which requires profound knowledge both of marketing and specific features of your brand’s business.

Every day we meet logos…did you know the average resident of the US sees more than 1o thousand of advertisements, logos, and labels a day? If you look around, you’ll probably notice a few dozen of logos around you. Why there are so many companies spending thousands, hundreds, or even millions of dollars to create these little icons?

Why is logo design crucial? What are the primary benefits?

Increasing the brand awareness. A logo’s strength lies in the power of its visual nature. Studies have shown that people perceive images better than text. Therefore, creating a good logo, you help customers to understand better what your company is, saving time and money on business promotion.
Increasing the marketing effectiveness. A logo is not just graphics but the image of the company. Companies spend millions of dollars to make strong associations with customers’ minds. A well-designed logo boosts business while low-quality one just slows it and makes customers confused. Your logo is the tool that helps people to distinguish your brand from the competitors. But people appreciate the quality of your too, not just the beauty of the logo.
Presenting the brand visually. That’s the point the corporate identity begins from.
The tool to strengthen customers’ loyalty.If you create a positive image of your business, then every time the client looks at the logo of your brand he feels pleasant emotions associated with your company. So you get an asset that will work for you day and night.
Setting the ownership. The logo is your signature that proves you are the product manufacturer. Seeing your logo at the goods or services, your customer sure that he cooperates exactly with your brand.

Types of Logos

There are five types of logos:

Symbolic logos, presented in the form of a symbol, often abstract. The most popular kind of logos among companies. Symbolic logos are easy to perceive; they help to create great images in the subconscious of a person, associating the picture with a particular service or product.

Text logos, presented in the form of stylized corporate letters. They are easy to remember and efficient for highlighting the brand’s advantages over competitors. The verbal elements for the text logos can be in the form of existing words in the company name, abbreviation, numerals, or letters.

Combined logos. Such logos use both text and symbols. The graphical elements make the logo memorable and help company’s name to sound distinctive and attractive.

Emblems. Logos of this type contains the name of the company within the special art form.

Alphanumeric. Many companies prefer to use this type of logos since the initials illustrate their name in a better way. Just look at General Electric’s and Hewlett-Packard’s logos.

Logo Design Principles

We already know a lot about logos. Therefore, you may have the impression that it will be too difficult to create a valuable logo (you need to know a lot of rules, meet all the requirements, etc…). On the other hand, many say that there are no any laws in the design at all. So where is the truth?

We don’t say you’ll need to follow the rules. Just, to successfully break the rules, you need to know them at first.

The basic principles and rules for creating the logo are the ingredients for the tasty dish called the “selling” logo.

Simple. A simple logo is seen and remembered better. Also, a simple logo is well-read and recognizable even in a tiny size. Simple logo attracts the viewer’s attention, even if he’s busy.
Memorable. A memorable logo must contain elements that immediately catch the eye or associated with something familiar.
Timeless. Please, create the logo with the future in mind. Look at Coca-Cola’s logo. Trends just come and go. Do not follow the crowd. Stand out.
Versatile. The logo should look great in a variety of environments (on company letterhead, advertising, in applications, etc.) and different sizes. To check whether the logo is versatile, ask yourself whether your logo looks awesome when printing in different forms. If it looks well, then you have every reason to believe you’ve created a versatile logo.
Appropriate. When designing a logo for a shop of children’s toys, it would be appropriate to use icons associated with toys, children, etc. On the other hand, the logo does not have to depict literally what the company produces.

Crucial Mistakes When Creating a Logo

Bitmap Images. Raster images are undesirable because they look like a mosaic when significantly increased. Therefore, a standard practice in the development of a logo is to use programs that work with vector graphics – Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. Vector graphics consist of pixels, calculated with mathematical precision, which ensures uniformity of visual perception, regardless of image size.

The main advantages of vector graphics are:

Scalability without loss of quality.
The logo can be easily modified.
A vector image is much more easily to customize for other media than the bitmap.

Following trends. Trends turn into a cliché, so better ignore them.
Excessive complexity. If the image contains too many details, it’s poorly perceived in print and in a miniature. In this case, the complex details are often lost or just look “dirty”.
Bad font. The font should be consistent with the image style. But there may be tricks: if the match is too close, the image and font may compete for the attention of the viewer. Please, try to find a right balance. The concept of your brand will be a blank shot if the selected font does not display the characteristics of the image.
Logo design just for yourself. Often, creating a logo, there is a desire to use your favorite font, color, or style. Do not do this! Better ask yourself one more time whether the font and color are suitable for the business.
Printing chaos. Do not use too many fonts or variations of thickness. Do not use predictable, frilly, and too thin fonts. Pay close attention to kerning, spacing, and size. And most importantly – make sure you select the correct font for the particular project.
Use of visual clichés. The lamp as a symbol of ideas, a cloud with the text as a discussion, etc. These ideas first come to mind when brainstorming, and for this reason, you have to abandon them first. How can your design be unique if many other logos present the same idea? Avoid visual clichés and offer an original idea.

Stealing the design. It is sad that we have to talk about it, but these days the practice is common. A developer sees the idea that he likes, a bit converts it, changes the colors and the words, and, finally, gives the idea as his own.

You can create a quality logo. And you will. Just approach the issue professionally and without haste. Learn the basics of the theory and try to put them into practice. Do not hurry. Remember that creating a logo is not routine work. The logo is a unique promotional tool that can magically affect your brand. Be wise and unleash all your fantasy.

Bio:

Brian is better, Brian is faster, Brian is smarter, and Brian is more creative – all these facts are true talking about the website design and blogging. Brian Jens is a man that will keep you up with the latest trends in the world of design fashion. He’s responsible forwww.designcontest.com/logo-design/ section. Brian loves to research and share the results with the world.