In a truly global, progressively online market ensuring your branding is unique is more important than ever, but how do you go about designing an eye-catching, ‘kickass’ logo?
The team at Logo Design Company have analyzed logo designs from far and wide and come up with these 8 key design principles for designing a kickass logo:
1. Keep It Simple
An awe-inspiring logo needs to be simple and impactful, connecting with people who may not have any knowledge about your industry.
Keeping your logo simple will also mean it will produce a far greater instant impact, and with 92.6% of consumers saying they put most importance on visual factors when purchasing products, it is clear how important your logo design needs to be.
2. Think Globally
Even if you are mainly targeting local businesses, your logo needs to be easily understandable across a range of countries and cultures to allow for appeal to a multicultural audience.
Design a universally accepted logo means understand the significance of colors and certain objects in different regions. A red logo may be more appealing to a Chinese audience, where it symbolizes good luck rather than the Middle East where red is the color of danger and evil!
3. Vary the Background
The ultimate kickass logo needs to look good with a variety different backgrounds, making it adaptable when featured on other websites and marketing material.
You should start by creating your logo color scheme where it is most visible – usually this will be your website and then adapting it to suit a darker/lighter background. Think of your logo like your favorite football team’s jersey –they usually have at least two, maybe three variants to avoid any color clashes with their opponents.
4. Pick Your Colors Carefully
The color scheme you choose for your branding is a key aspect for any business. You should always endeavor to use colors which appeal to your target demographic– whether they are young or old, male or female, modern or traditional etc.
The color of your logo is one of the first things people think about when they think of your brand so think carefully and test out the response it receives.
5. Don’t Follow the Crowd
You may think that choosing a clear logo associated with your product or service is the best way forward, however it can make the logo look generic and low-quality.
For example, the Starbucks woman in their logo has no connections to coffee, yet it somehow works as a fantastic logo. If they just used a coffee cup, would this really set them apart from the competition – or would you just think of your local café using stock imagery to create a cheap sign? Think outside the box and set your brand apart from the competition!
6. Use Custom Typography
Custom lettering is another fantastic way that businesses can look more individual as it means the type in the logo cannot be easily copied by other businesses.
The best way to create custom typography is to use a pen and paper to sketch out your ideal font, which can then be created by a professional logo designer.
7. Try it with your Tagline
Your company’s tagline summarizes what you do in a memorable and succinct way. In an ideal world this should integrate seamlessly with your logo, meaning your branding remains consistent and eye-catching.
Try out your logo design with and without your tagline to see if it works seamlessly together with your logo.
8. Target Your Audience
It’s not only the color that appeals to your audience, you also need to make sure the imagery used appeals to the right demographic.
Ralph Lauren chose a polo player for their logo as it gives off the appearance of wealth and style, something which their customer base aspires to. Get inside your ideal customer’s mind and design your logo around them.
