A logo is the face of your business. It should be memorable, attractive, and easy to remember. In this article we discuss Logo Design: 15 Golden Rules for Crafting Logos.
Logos are designed to be versatile and can be used on various mediums like websites, marketing materials, and products. To create a logo design that will stand out and be remembered, follow these 15 golden rules.
Table of Contents
Why is Logo Design Important?
A logo is a small image or symbol that represents your brand. A logo is a way to attract prospective clients and increase brand awareness visually. Although small in size, logos must be designed with the utmost care because they are one of the first things people will notice when encountering your business.
Considering that a logo represents a company’s (or brand’s) overall image, you must take the time to create an effective logo design. Choosing a typeface based on brand identity and branding strategy in the logo design process would be best.
The best way is to start with a font that can be used for virtually any text-based logo design need. For this purpose, consider using a serif or sans-serif typeface.
Your logo design process needs to follow a logical order in which you should start with brand identity and branding strategy, then the logo design rules, followed by the typeface selection.
15 Golden Rules for Crafting Logos
• Do the Groundwork
Before starting to design a logo, it is important to do some research. Make sure you understand your brand and what type of Logo will best represent it. You can try playing with some ideas by using an online logo maker. This will help you avoid creating a logo that doesn’t fit with the rest of your branding strategy.
The design process also won’t be as time-consuming if you have a solid concept in mind. Often, the success of a company projects in the first impression. A proper logo is apt to prove the business’s credibility in terms of product quality and customer service. But on the other hand, if your Logo looks shabby, then it would pose a big obstacle that can affect your business’s professional image.
• Use a Sketchpad
Creative thinking is an immensely powerful tool when it comes to designing logos. The process of brainstorming on paper first and then sketching is an enjoyable, effective, and productive way of establishing a personal connection with your client.
In fact, designing logos on paper before you jump into Adobe Illustrator will help you discover more effective and unique solutions for your logo design project than you could ever conceive of before.
• Start in Black and White
Though logo design is a visual art, you must not forget that it has to be legible and straightforward in design. For this purpose, logotypes are usually created using only black and white typeface styles.
Using color can distract the eye of your clients from focusing on the Logo itself. The Monochromatic logo design process is a great way of developing logos. It helps achieve the desired level of simplicity and branding identity, which can help your brand stand out. The rules to be followed while designing monochrome logos are as follows:
• Keep Your Logo Design Appropriate
Your logo design should be appropriate to the branding of your business. If you are designing a logo for a fashion brand, it will not make sense to use a corporate logo design style.
Be creative and think outside the box while creating an appropriate logo design for your business. Crafting Logo is a renowned symbol creation agency that provides a wide range of professional logo designs to companies across the globe.
From small businesses to large corporations, Crafting Logo has helped clients in many different industries, achieving excellent results. Our goal is to fulfill every client’s individual needs with our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee!
• Aim For Easy Recall
Your logo design should be easy for your clients to remember. Keep the colors simple and avoid over-complicating the design. If you can achieve a memorable logo design that is also simple, you will have done a great job.
A good logo is unique. It attracts clients’ attention, reflects the idea of a brand, and works as a good advertisement. But creating an effective logo often requires creative designers who can offer you the right combination of colors, shapes, images, and words.
If you are on a budget or entrust the task to an ordinary employee, this will not be enough. Let’s consider how quickly a logo should catch your eye to get noticed among other signboards.
• Strive to be the Difference
While branding is a process of setting up an identity, logo design was always considered as the first step. A logo design should be unique and creative to engage customers in your brand. It must have creativity within it and simplicity so people can easily identify with the meaning or value you are trying to convey.
If you design a logo that is not creative and simple, people may not perceive your brand as a new and innovative business. It will be hard for them to relate to it, even if that logo design is well-designed and creative. Your logo design should also reflect the essence of your business values or personality so customers can quickly identify what you are offering through your logo design.
• Consider the Wider Brand Identity
A logo design should be the main identity of a brand. It is not just an adornment that can add value to your business but also essential in branding businesses and customers with a clear message they want to communicate.
This logo design must provide some way for customers to recognize or identify you from other brands in a crowded environment. Suppose you design an identity that can easily be recognized, and people recognize your logo design. In that case, they will have a clearer image of who you are, what type of business you offer, and why customers should choose to pay attention to it.
A logo design must also blend with other branding elements that represent your business. This logo design should not come off as a brand in itself but rather a cover or backdrop for your brand’s identity. Creating a unified brand image must also complement other branding elements such as typeface, color palette, and graphic design.
• Don’t be too Literal
A logo design should not be too literal. A logo design that is very simple in its concept will work better than a complex and difficult-to-understand one, especially if your brand has a product or service that requires simplicity as part of the identity.
The logo design must also provide customers with an idea about what they can expect from your business. Exaggeration of ideas or concepts will not work well when it is used in a logo design because customers may confuse the idea with what you are offering, but this type of logo design often works better for music bands and other creative businesses that create new ideas to express a new type of identity.
• Remember Symbols aren’t Essential
Logos have been used throughout history to help people identify certain organizations, products, and services. They impart a message with meaning delivered in a format that enables people to recall the information.
The first use of logos was in Ancient Greece, where businesses would paint symbols on the backs of their shop shutters to identify their companies, products, and services. The design on the back of the shutter indicated what they sold, who they were, and how they should be treated in some cases.
Symbols are a great way to use design elements, and logo design can be a fun way for businesses of all types to help customers identify them. However, symbols don’t have meaning in the same way that letters do, so it makes sense for designers not to overuse them.
• Make People Smile
A logo design should be designed in a way that makes people smile. People are attracted to logos and images that make them happy, which is especially true for design elements used in branding.
A logo design should be colorful, cheerful, and visually appealing so customers will often want to look at it. Smiles are contagious. It is hard to keep your face straight when people around you smile.
This kind of phenomenon is known as the smile contagion. We subconsciously mimic someone else’s facial expression when we see it being formed or completed on another person’s face. When the two expressions match, they are more likely to be imitated correctly than when they do not.
• Always Get a Second Opinion
In some instances, logo design is a collaborative process. This might be done when a logo design needs to work with another type of graphic or artwork that makes up the company’s brand identity and branding strategy.
In this case, it’s always best to get two different opinions before you finalize a logo design. If you decide to go with the design that another person has suggested, make sure it is consistent with your brand identity and branding strategy, so customers will recognize it easily.
Another way of using logos in branding is by using them as part of an image that can be used on a website or social media page. This type of branding is known as logo design for images.
When you are creating an image that will be used with a logo, it’s important to make sure the logo design complements the overall look and feel of the image. If the logo design is too strong, it can overpower the image and make it difficult for customers to understand it.
• Develop the Rest of the Brand World
Many logo design companies also offer branding packages that include other design elements such as typeface and color palette. When you hire a logo design company, ask about the process for developing brand identity concepts of these other types of graphics or artwork. This is important because it can help you make better-informed decisions about which logo design you want to use.
You should also be aware of branding elements that are not a part of a logo design process but can still impact the image your customers see when they visit your website or buy from you. These branding elements include typeface, color palette, logo design guidelines, and typography rules. These branding elements are commonly called brand identity or design standards.
• Consider How to Bring Your Logo Design to Life
Logo design plays an important role in shaping the brand identity of a business. It is often used as the flagship of the brand. However, many businesses have failed to bring their logos to life because they have not used them to their full potential.
Even if you have created a beautiful logo, you must make sure it is practical as well. To do so, you need to know how to integrate your logo into your business’s marketing strategies appropriately. You also need to understand how to design a logo that is capable of attracting new customers.
When designing a logo, it is important to think about how your customers will see it. It would be best to consider how the logo could be used on different types of marketing materials such as business cards, brochures, and website graphics.
When designing a logo, make sure that the overall design and branding elements fit your brand identity. The design must be not only simple but also attractive and unique.
• Help Your Client to Roll Out Your Logo Design
When you design a logo, it is important to help your client roll it out properly. This means providing them with the necessary tools and resources to use the Logo effectively in their marketing efforts.
You should also be available to answer any questions or provide additional support as needed. When you design a logo, you must also consider the type of branding elements used to bring your design to life. The design standards for each brand should be followed in the final logo design.
These branding rules are already established by business owners and graphic designers alike who have worked on different logo designs before.
• Accept Public Criticism of Your Logo Design
We deliver the high-quality logo design that you need. We aim to improve the look of your business by giving it an elegant and modern look through the best logo design. It is not just about making an average mark that would fit in wherever possible, but we aim to create a clear meaning and stand out as a corporate identity.
You change businesses now and then, and so do logos. Some businessmen also switch logos once they run out of ideas or public criticism. Yet, many people are under the misconception of what designing logos involves. A logo design should reflect the business, not just be linked to it by chance.
Conclusion
Golden rules are the basic cornerstone of a discipline. They are a shared set of guidelines that most professionals of that discipline follow. These rules, best practices, and other standards help lay the foundation for their actions and ensure they maintain a consistent approach to fulfilling their responsibilities.
A professional programmer knows never to print out an array because it will not work but has no idea what an array is. A professional designer will understand when specific fonts are better suited than others and how they can create meaning in design. I hope that these golden rules for crafting a logo guide will help you create the perfect logo for your business.
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Author Bio
Efa Yasin, exhibits her witty personality, through her intriguing writings. Her works have been published on various websites, like NOGOZO and THETOPTOURS. With her forte being in English, she has conducted research and concocted articles on various niches like marketing, travel and tourism, information technology, and many more. Currently, she is writing for a digital marketing blog: aregs.com.