An Advanced Look at Designing a Successful Logo

Designing a logo can be difficult. You must convey what you want to say about your business or organization in a tiny graphic without making it overcomplicated or too literal. The perfect logo has to balance simplicity while still representing your business.

Getting Started

When first starting a logo design it is important to get a full and clear understanding of the client. What do they do? Why are they special? Who is their target audience? Once you have answered some of these questions those buzzwords can be used to brainstorm some imagery. An important first step as you are developing some initial concepts is looking into the client’s competitors. This can generate ideas as well as ensure that your client’s logo is completely unique, represents their brand, and hopefully better than their competition.

Setting Up In Illustrator

Once you have some concepts drawn up you can start generating some rough logos in illustrator. In this step I always start out with the company name and/or tagline. If the client is unsure about either of those things I use a placeholder so they can see a visual of the overall logo. Once you have the text down you can change fonts and play with different arrangements. Do you want to have a graphic? Do you want the text to become the graphic? There are many different types of logos so playing around in illustrator can produce many different variations to present to the client.

Choosing Font Options

The font in your logo can make or break the design. A whimsical font could work for certain companies, but can also cause people not to take your business as seriously. Your design should never use Comic Sans, ever. As a general rule a logo shouldn’t use more than two fonts. If you choose to use two fonts instead of one you need to make sure the fonts work together and don’t compete.

Designing a Logo Graphic

The graphic element of logo can be the most tricky. You want the imagery to relate to the client’s field without being too obvious. Avoid any type of cliches that can make your logo and therefore your business look very amateur. A key concept to remember is that the logo may have to be used in a variety of different ways such as monotone or inverted for a dark background. Relying on color instead of shape and form can leave your logo unsuccessful if used in any other way.

Trendy Logos Won’t Last!

While shadows, bevels, and other effects can initial make your logo look cool, be wary of using them. These effects are trend-driven and design trends are always changing. You want your logo to last for the long haul because redesigning too often can confuse people. Brands like Coca-cola are highly recognizable because they have basically kept their original logo from day one.