Logo Design 101

What is a logo?

There are many definitions of what a logo is. But one particular one struck me. It said logos serve to represent a given organization or company through a visual image that can be easily understood and recognized.

Logos give identity and make it easy for you to introduce your company without words and this is more than the design of the logo even though it shouldn’t be taken for granted.

In my school, every second-year class is required to create a company from scratch. That meant getting a company name, logo, colors, vision, mission and all that goes into starting a company and for me it was the most enlightening experience ever. So today I will be taking you through the importance of having a logo as a company, how to differentiate a good logo design from a bad one and most importantly, qualities of good logo design.

Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos said, “A brand is the very identity of a company” and I couldn’t agree more. Creating a brand for your product or service can give you an upper hand over your competitors. And you can start by taking a critical look at your company’s logo.

Why do I need a logo?

· Identity: See how cattle breeders burn them with a hot iron to mark them? That’s how a logo gives a company a mark of identity. We all attribute a bitten apple to Apple Inc. and the swoosh to Nike. So, a logo tells your potential customers who you are and what you do. And this boils down to giving you a brand.

· Gives You A Professional Look: When you have a logo, it sends out a message that you mean business and you know what you are about. This will make your potential clients take you seriously before contacting you. There this saying that goes like this “you get what you give” so if you want to be accorded the respect, get yourself a good image and it starts from your logo. In short, the logo is the face of the company.

· Separates You From Competition: When you get a logo design for your product or service, you set yourself apart from your competitors. People’s attention gets caught when they see something that's not in the status quo. So go ahead and turn heads with your logo.

Are you ready to turns heads with your logo? Now I’m not trying to sound like a motivational speaker but hey, we all need that sometimes. So let’s look how a good logo design looks like because logos no matter what you do cannot be escaped.

· Speaks: A good logo speaks to its target audience the moment they see it. It tells them who you are and what you do before they actually approach you to ask for details. So choose images that give your audience an idea of what your company is into. For example, if you are in the food or fashion there should a symbol representing it in your logo.

· It's Unique: A really good logo like I stated earlier turns heads. I remember admiring the logo of Nike because it was like nothing I’d ever seen. Simple yet pleasing to the eye. That’s the effect a good logo should have on a person at first sight. In fact, a good logo should make a person believe in love at first sight.

· Corresponds: A good logo should match the content of your website. Imagine visiting the site of a company whose logo design is a man baking bread only for you to read the copy of the site which talks about their ability to make the best beads in the world. That’s a no-no.

· Uniformed: A good logo must be uniformed in every way possible. From the colors to the text. A logo that has colors that don’t blend, tiny fonts and too much information makes it painful to look at. 

• Relevant: A good logo should be relevant to the company and what it stands for. Last semester in school, my class had to start a company and that included getting a logo. Our name was Spektrum Concepts and our logo had an S and C but was uniquely designed to be related to what we stood for as an event planning company.

Now that we know what a good logo looks like, let’s see what a bad one looks like.

· Vague: A bad logo doesn’t transmit any message. It can barely be read or understood. And when this happens you cannot achieve the aim of making your audience fall in love with your brand at first sight. According to research, a person’s interest is grabbed for five seconds when they see an image. If it takes longer than that to appreciate your logo, it needs work. Long story cut short, if people can’t easily understand your logo, your brand is headed for massive failure and we can’t have that.

· Cliché: Lea Michelle said “Uniqueness is what makes you most unique” and I believe truer words have never been spoken. See, if your logo is just like every other one flying around town, then you should know it’s nowhere near uniqueness.

· Not catchy: Aside from the obvious fact that your company should have the easy-to-understand logo, it should also be catchy. The colors should blend well. For example, black goes really well with yellow, red goes nicely with white and so on. An easy of indicator of a bad logo is that its color doesn’t correspond with the kind of business the company is involved in. Create mentally a hospital’s logo made with pink and black instead of green and white. You'd agree with me that it's not an appropriate color for a health facility. Thus, the colors we use for our logos is key.

So, this just a quickie on logo design. When next you are lost as to which ideas to look to for your logo, remember what Jeff Bezos said “A brand is the very identity of a company” and logos are part of your company's branding. 

Do you have questions or contributions? Email me on elise.esihazel@gmail.com and let's get talking!