Logo Design Tips from a Professional Designer

Ensure your logo is both scalable and usable on any medium. Get something that works in the real world.

Finding a great logo for your business can be hard when you don't know what to look for. A logo is the first impression. You want something catchy but not too complicated or busy. It needs to convey the right message. And it has to look good in colour on both black and white backgrounds.

The design industry is saturated with designers who have no idea how to create a logo that will work in the real world. They provide logos that are neither scalable nor usable on any medium, and they don't put enough thought into the concept behind it. If you're looking for a great designer, please call for a free consultation.

What makes a good logo? A good logo will, directly and indirectly, suggest what can be expected from you as a company. Often this ties your logo to perceived quality and customer service.

Here are some tips:

Simplicity - Your logo should be simple enough to draw with one continuous line without any gaps or breaks. This signifies balance, strength, unity, and consistency. It doesn't always need to do this, but assume it does unless you know better.

Stability - When designing your logos try not to use any symbols or shapes that need to change for different mediums. Avoid including taglines that won't be readable on small prints or greens that can't be printed. Everything needs to appear the same in every occurrence.

Versatility - Your logo needs to be in vector format. Vector designs can be scaled way up to massive sizes with clean lines. Free logo design generators or discount logo designers rarely provide anything versatile. Make sure you read the fine print because you take a lot of risk with versatility when you use them.

Familiarity - Have someone else review your logo to see what they think the product or service is. Also, see if they can tell you similar brands that they think of based on your logo. If you can piggyback on the existing familiarity, that can help if you start. But keep in mind this helps the other brands too.

Visibility - Don't use more than two colours. Ok, maybe three. Max.  Make sure you have contrast. You can arrange the colours differently for light and dark mode (which is a real thing this year), but the three colours should be the same. Many designers make lovely designs; sometimes, they trade off contrast for softer lines or better colour pairings. But when it comes to your logo, there is nothing more important than contrast.  Make sure one of the colours can be used on black and white backgrounds. You can make a negative and dark version by inverting only one of the colours.

Need professional help?

I've seen my fair share of logos. The design process is complicated, and it's easy to get stuck at the beginning stage. Start by brainstorming on paper with different designs or shapes using pencils, pens, markers, crayons or anything else you can find in your office drawer.

You'll want to come back again and again until it feels proper. Take your ideas to a professional graphic designer, and they can help you make your vision a reality.

The design of your logo is essential. A well-designed logo can make all the difference in how you are perceived.  If you need a little logo love from a professional, contact us today! Let us know what we should talk about next time!