7 Design principles of a great logo
Is your logo working for your business?
In a competitive island market, how do we stand out from similar companies that claim to be as good, if not better? One of our first opportunities to impress potential customers is with our logo. As the identity of our business, our logo is tasked with the important job of making the first impression. As business owners, we want that impression to be a positive one.
The importance of a well-defined icon, paired with an appropriate font, executed in an appealing color palette will properly reflect and elevate your brandʼs value, however, these elements are subjective. Whatʼs not subjective are the principles of good design. Knowing these seven design principles of a great logo can help you evaluate whether your logo is effective at representing your business, product, or service?
Does your logo serve it’s function?
A logo’s function is to be recognized and remembered by your customers. Perception is key. As the face of your business, a professionally designed logo can immediately communicate to your customers vital details about you and your business:*
- What you do
- What your values are
- Your business’ status or culture
- Trustworthiness and credibility
Does your company’s logo and identity matter to your customer?
A polished and professional logo gives legitimacy to your business and is a powerful communication tool. People are more likely to purchase from a business that appears trustworthy. Poor logo and identity design have the power to harm how your business is perceived.
Many mass-market brands have logos that are meaningless shapes or letters. They also spend $1,000s if not millions of dollars in advertising and branding so we can recognize and connect their logo with their product. If you currently don’t have that marketing budget, consider utilizing your logo as a way to communicate who you are and what you do.
Is your logo legible?
The sole purpose of a logo is to be easily recognized and remembered. Logos that are difficult to decipher are better forgotten. If your logo isn’t legible or is too complex, it will negatively impact your perceived credibility and reputation.
Illegible logos commonly use:
- Script or frilly fonts with overlapping letterforms
- Letters spaced too far apart (kerning)*
- Letters that are too condensed
- Bitmapped or logos with low resolution
- Clashing colors: competing color values
To fill up space, designers often kern out words (spacing between letters), which negatively impacts legibility. Kerning pushes the letters too far apart, causing each letter to look like an individual graphic instead of a name.
Is your logo visible?
Where is your logo being placed? Too much or not enough contrast between the elements of your logo and their background negatively impact visibility. Is your company’s logo positioned in a way that helps or harms its visibility?
Common logo visibility issues:
- Placing a light colored logo on a light colored surface
- Placing a logo on a busy background
- Cramming content around a logo
Is your logo iconic?
Your logo is an opportunity to communicate what you do graphically. Iconography isn’t necessary, but an icon is the most powerful element for communicating an idea quickly. Putting a name in a font and calling it a logo is a missed opportunity to inform and communicate.
Is your logo relevant to your target market?
A successful logo’s ability to communicate with the use of a word or mark is most impactful when it’s relevant to its audience. Tapping into your customers’ preferences and demonstrating your understanding of those preferences through style, font, and color choice makes your logo relevant. Relevancy is powerful as it inspires resonance, which builds trust which creates loyalty.
Is your logo design simple?
A logo is a singular brand identifier. Assisted by typography and iconography, a good logo can be highly conceptual however, it should be symbolic, not a literal depiction of what you do. Even with its complicated business model, the Amazon logo uses a single word with an arrow symbolizing “from a to z ”. In other words, a very complex concept is communicated simply.*
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Is your logo design adaptable or responsive?
More important than ever is the adaptability of your logo. Where will it be seen? Printed on boxes or displayed on YouTube? A good logo design should be suitable for mobile and web, digital and print, for every scale and shape.
Can your logo stand the test of time or is your logo based on the latest trend? Adaptive can also imply timelessness which is important but with regards to a modern and quickly evolving marketplace, not essential.
At Creatively & Co. we use these 7 principles of design along with our extensive creative process in every logo design. Helmed with the knowledge of these design principles, push for a logo designed by a professional that is legible, simple, relevant, adaptive, and functional. You’ll have an iconic logo that is timeless, recognizable, and communicates effectively.