I would venture to guess, and this is one designer's point of
view, out of the 50,000 or so logos I see every year, on everything from
food items to gas stations to sneakers, there might be 5,000 well
designed logos in the world.
Designing a logo is much more then picking a font that looks neat, drawing a pretty picture, slapping them together and picking a color scheme you think looks pretty. There are a lot of variables you have to go through to decide on a good design, and then as a designer you have to convince your client that the design you made is the correct one.
To start, you have to think of the logo as the brand of the company, every time someone thinks of a product or service that you offer you want them to think of you. You also want the design of your brand to stick in their mind, and stay there forever. One almost has to think of the process as branding your identity into a consumer's brain, much like a cattle brand, leaving a permanent mark that won't go away.
Well, the first step of this process is the old adage K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid). Complicated logo designs might look attractive when you are looking at them, but what is the target audience going to come away with? Odds are 5 minutes from the time they first saw your logo they will have completely forgotten what it looks like. When one looks at a simple logo, it tends to stay in the brain longer, which helps them remember your company, which will hopefully bring them to you when they require your services, which is the goal after all.
The second step is color and shape psychology. There is a reason most restaurant logos are red in color, red on a subconscious level makes you hungry. Blue makes you feel comfortable, black makes you look elegant, and the list goes on and on. I chose orange for my logo because when someone sees the color orange it brings a subconscious feeling of wanting to do something new, which is exactly the feeling I want when they are looking at my site and thinking of getting a web design created by me.
Shapes are also an important factor when designing a logo, as shapes can mean just as many different things as colors can. A circle gives the feeling of community, wholeness, perfection, and has feminine qualities. A Rectangle gives a feeling of logic and security, while a Triangle gives you strength, structure, and masculine identity. These should all be factored in when designing a logo. For every color and shape there is a feeling or thought associated with it, the goal is to come up with the right combination.
The third step is readability. You want them to see your logo and business name, you don't want them to take 5 minutes to figure out what it says. Good clean crisp fonts are the answer here, very rarely are logos memorable when they have curvy fonts and lines going every which way. Quick, think of 5 logos off of the top of your head (not including your own); do any of them have cursive writing or letters not on a straight line? Most likely not.
The fourth step, which is often overlooked, is scalability. Will your logo look as good on a promotional item like a pen as it will on a billboard? Most of the logos out there won't. I blame the recent widespread use of Photoshop to create logos for this reason. Sure, someone can use all sorts of neat filters built into Photoshop to make a pretty design, but what happens when you have to put it on a billboard? Odds are, it was not created large enough to print correctly on a large surface, and you will either have to pay someone else to recreate it or forget about that advertising opportunity.
Or better yet, what happens when you want to get some promotional pens made and your logo won't transfer well because all the complicated drop shadows and gradients just bleed together on such a small surface that you can't even read what your logo says? These things all have to be thought of before you even begin designing a logo, and sadly most of the time it is the farthest thing from both the designer and client's mind.
The four steps above are usually a good start to the design process, but not everything. They will, however, get you on the right track towards making your brand a memorable one. Below, I will give some examples of what I personally think are the best logos currently in use today.
One designer's list of the top 5 logos in use today
1. Nike - this logo has been so engrained in our minds that they recently stopped using their name in the logo - all it is now is the swoosh.
2. FedEx- many people don't realize this, but look between the E and the x, see that arrow moving forward? Subliminal advertising at it's best. There have been some other memorable logos using this technique, for instance the now defunct Hartford Whalers, at first you don't see it, but look at the white space between the blue tail and green W, see the H? I love this technique.
3. McDonalds - another company that doesn't have to use their name in their logo if they don't want to, the golden arches are memorable and identifiable on sight.
4. Apple computers - again, just a shape, no need for a tagline.
5. Volkswagen - Classic, clean and memorable, exactly what you should be striving for.
Do you think it is a coincidence those are 5 of the biggest companies in the world? Their logo has defined the company brand so strongly that it was definitely one of the factors in their growth. Now, I admit it is hard to convince a client paying good money for a logo design that going simple and iconic is always better, but hopefully you can show them the above examples of some of the largest companies in the world and how a memorable, not exotic, logo is a strong foundation to building a good brand.
Designing a logo is much more then picking a font that looks neat, drawing a pretty picture, slapping them together and picking a color scheme you think looks pretty. There are a lot of variables you have to go through to decide on a good design, and then as a designer you have to convince your client that the design you made is the correct one.
To start, you have to think of the logo as the brand of the company, every time someone thinks of a product or service that you offer you want them to think of you. You also want the design of your brand to stick in their mind, and stay there forever. One almost has to think of the process as branding your identity into a consumer's brain, much like a cattle brand, leaving a permanent mark that won't go away.
Well, the first step of this process is the old adage K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid). Complicated logo designs might look attractive when you are looking at them, but what is the target audience going to come away with? Odds are 5 minutes from the time they first saw your logo they will have completely forgotten what it looks like. When one looks at a simple logo, it tends to stay in the brain longer, which helps them remember your company, which will hopefully bring them to you when they require your services, which is the goal after all.
The second step is color and shape psychology. There is a reason most restaurant logos are red in color, red on a subconscious level makes you hungry. Blue makes you feel comfortable, black makes you look elegant, and the list goes on and on. I chose orange for my logo because when someone sees the color orange it brings a subconscious feeling of wanting to do something new, which is exactly the feeling I want when they are looking at my site and thinking of getting a web design created by me.
Shapes are also an important factor when designing a logo, as shapes can mean just as many different things as colors can. A circle gives the feeling of community, wholeness, perfection, and has feminine qualities. A Rectangle gives a feeling of logic and security, while a Triangle gives you strength, structure, and masculine identity. These should all be factored in when designing a logo. For every color and shape there is a feeling or thought associated with it, the goal is to come up with the right combination.
The third step is readability. You want them to see your logo and business name, you don't want them to take 5 minutes to figure out what it says. Good clean crisp fonts are the answer here, very rarely are logos memorable when they have curvy fonts and lines going every which way. Quick, think of 5 logos off of the top of your head (not including your own); do any of them have cursive writing or letters not on a straight line? Most likely not.
The fourth step, which is often overlooked, is scalability. Will your logo look as good on a promotional item like a pen as it will on a billboard? Most of the logos out there won't. I blame the recent widespread use of Photoshop to create logos for this reason. Sure, someone can use all sorts of neat filters built into Photoshop to make a pretty design, but what happens when you have to put it on a billboard? Odds are, it was not created large enough to print correctly on a large surface, and you will either have to pay someone else to recreate it or forget about that advertising opportunity.
Or better yet, what happens when you want to get some promotional pens made and your logo won't transfer well because all the complicated drop shadows and gradients just bleed together on such a small surface that you can't even read what your logo says? These things all have to be thought of before you even begin designing a logo, and sadly most of the time it is the farthest thing from both the designer and client's mind.
The four steps above are usually a good start to the design process, but not everything. They will, however, get you on the right track towards making your brand a memorable one. Below, I will give some examples of what I personally think are the best logos currently in use today.
One designer's list of the top 5 logos in use today
1. Nike - this logo has been so engrained in our minds that they recently stopped using their name in the logo - all it is now is the swoosh.
2. FedEx- many people don't realize this, but look between the E and the x, see that arrow moving forward? Subliminal advertising at it's best. There have been some other memorable logos using this technique, for instance the now defunct Hartford Whalers, at first you don't see it, but look at the white space between the blue tail and green W, see the H? I love this technique.
3. McDonalds - another company that doesn't have to use their name in their logo if they don't want to, the golden arches are memorable and identifiable on sight.
4. Apple computers - again, just a shape, no need for a tagline.
5. Volkswagen - Classic, clean and memorable, exactly what you should be striving for.
Do you think it is a coincidence those are 5 of the biggest companies in the world? Their logo has defined the company brand so strongly that it was definitely one of the factors in their growth. Now, I admit it is hard to convince a client paying good money for a logo design that going simple and iconic is always better, but hopefully you can show them the above examples of some of the largest companies in the world and how a memorable, not exotic, logo is a strong foundation to building a good brand.
