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In its simplest form, a company logo is a symbol. A logo is a visual representation that is an essential part of a company’s brand identity.  Logos are made of text and images. They are unique to a business. It is a complex process to design a great business logo. Companies spend weeks and months until they have a business logo they want.

Why is a logo important for business?

A logo is the most widely used image of any business. It is the symbol through which people identify your business. The logo doesn’t make your business, but the wrong logo could damage your image.

Your customers recognize your business because of your logo. It is a critical foundation for the branding of your organization. A well-designed logo can quickly get the attention of your target customer. People should easily and immediately recognize your logo, regardless of where it is printed.

Logos: What Differentiates Great Logos from Bad Logos?

Great logos offer a versatile, consistent, and memorable way to identify your brand. Unfortunately, many businesses settle for less than a great logo. They accept business logos that completely miss the mark.

Many people don’t understand the importance of business logos. Great logos are instantly recognizable. The best logos make a lasting impression. If done right, your logo will help your business stand out.

A business logo is such a simple thing. A few characters. Perhaps, some graphics combined with text. Yet, to design a great business logo is hard.

The simplest things, such as creating a business logo that accurately represents your company, can be a complicated process. Think of a company’s logo that you really like. Their logo is likely memorable to you, and you associate it with their company.

A poorly designed logo, like the one you get from an online logo generator or from an unqualified person, will hurt your business.

What are the most common colors used for business logos?

The most common colors used for the biggest brands in the world are:

  • Blue
  • Red
  • Black
  • Gray
  • Silver
  • Yellow
  • Gold

The color of your logo is crucial because it is often the first impression your brand makes. Although it is difficult to say which color is best, it is true that it is difficult to go wrong with blue. Blue symbolizes trust and security.

How many colors should a business logo have?

The most effective strategy is to have one or two colors in a business logo. The overwhelming majority of successful companies use no more than two colors for their logos. Only five percent use three or more colors.

What font should your business logo have?

The font you choose can make or break your business logo. You could have a great design, but the wrong font could damage the effectiveness of your logo.

Any of the following fonts might work for your business logo:

  • Trajan
  • Didot
  • Choplin
  • Helvetica
  • Impact
  • Futura
  • Bodoni
  • FF Avance
  • Univers
  • Frutiger
  • Horizon
  • Garamond
  • Walk On

How many fonts should a logo have?

A business logo with more than two or three fonts will look too busy. It is best to use one font for your brand name and another for additional text.

A trademark search is critical before using a logo or filing a trademark for a business logo. With a trademark search, you can find out if anyone is using the same trademark name or design.

Why is trademarking your business logo important?

Although there is no legal requirement to trademark your business logo, there are many benefits for trademarking.

  • A registered trademark gives you a priority to use that mark.
  • If someone uses your mark, you have legal grounds to sue.
  • With a registered trademark, you have the right to collect money for damages.

What does a logo say about your business?

Your business logo combines multiple elements to describe your brand’s overall picture. The logo of a business is a critical part of your brand identity.

How can you create a logo for your business that will remain in people’s minds and visually represent your company?

The first step is to hire a professional logo designer. It is true that you could create a logo, but should you really? It is true that you could save money by designing your own logo, but you could also hurt your business prospects. Professionals designers understand the required elements of a great business logo. Even if you work with a professional designer, you can still communicate your color, font, and design preferences.

Strive to create a logo that provides an immediate sense of what your business is all about. When people see your logo, they should get a feel for your unique brand personality. If you get it right, your logo will differentiate your business.

How to create brilliant logo design ideas?

Even though a business logo is a simple image, creating a logo is a complicated process. The logo is the one simple graphic the represents your business to the world. The best logos begin with design ideas.

You can develop logo design ideas through the following steps:

  • Consider your mission and vision. What does your business stand for?
  • Research competitor logos. Consider what you like and dislike about their logos.
  • Brainstorm logo design ideas. Let your ideas flow freely.
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment with logo ideas. There are no rules here; let your imagination run freely, and develop multiple design concepts.
  • Revise as needed. Test multiple versions with your target customer. Be ready to hear feedback about your designs. Don’t try to convince people that your logo is great, just listen to what they have to say, and make adjustments as necessary.
  • Give yourself time. The best business logos take time to design. You could spend days or weeks to come up with a logo you like.

What business logo design mistakes should I avoid?

Your logo is a long term investment, and an ugly or amateurish logo can damage your brand image.

You should avoid the following logo design mistakes at all costs:

  • Plagiarism
  • Trend driven look and feel
  • Silly or unprofessional fonts
  • Clashing colors
  • Too abstract design
  • Overly complex design
  • Using raster images

How Are Great Logos Designed?

It is difficult to define what makes a great logo, but it is easy to see why there are so many poorly designed logos. A great logo is impactful, professional, and polished. To create a great logo, you need to follow proven design principles.

Here are the key elements of great logo design.

CREDIBILITY

Does your logo communicate trust?

Your logo design should be based on the simple rule that a credible company is more inspiring. Create a business logo that symbolizes what your business does.

A credibility based business logo is the foundation of a unified brand promotion system.

Incorporate credibility traits within your logo. What credibility traits are unique to your business? Use colors that compliment a credibility trait.

Your business logo must symbolize your business to be credibility based.

SIMPLICITY

Logo designs are created to be simple. It is the face of your company. You want your logo to be made out of a simple shape or diagram.

The apple logo is a fine example of a logo that excels at being simple and distinctive.

Another reason behind a simple logo design is that you want all age ranges from old to young to be able to identify with your logo. Granted, making simple logos are actually quite challenging. That is why good logo designers exist.

Pay the piper and invest in a fantastic logo; it is certainly worth it!

Below are a few of the simplest Fortune 500 company logos.

logo designer san diego

MEMORABLE

As we know, logo designs need to be simple, but they also need to be memorable. If you want people to remember your brand after seeing your logo for a few seconds, it has to be memorable.

Think of the well-known Nike logo; you can likely spot it anywhere. If someone asked you to draw it on a piece of paper, you’d probably be able to easily do so.

So how do you make a logo memorable?

Well, it’s a good idea to test it. A great test to do as mentioned before would be to show someone your logo for ten seconds after that proceed to ask them to draw out the logo from what they’ve seen. Even better, you can show them your logo, and then ask them to draw it a few days later. If they can easily do so, then you’ve done a good job creating a memorable logo!

UNIQUE

For a logo to be truly memorable, it must be unique. Your logo should stick out from the competition, especially within the same field.

Copying other logos is making you destined to fail.

By doing this, you are sure to deter people from your brand and lose sales. Stay away from popular logo trends like overused icons, globes or arrows, etc. Whatever the year, maybe that you’re reading this, make sure to check up on popular logo trends. With every year comes a new design fad. Once you’ve done research on it, you’ll have a better idea of what to avoid in order to have a truly unique logo!

TIMELESS

Making your logo design timeless basically means that your logo would look good in the present as well as twenty years into the future. Granted, this doesn’t apply only to the design but also the brand and the company itself.

A great example of a timeless logo is Coca Cola’s logo. It’s been around for decades, and it’s still as pertinent as ever.

There are many ways for you to create a timeless logo. For example, have you ever bought a piece of clothing that you really liked, but a few years later, it didn’t fit, or worse, it went out of fashion? The same happens with so many logo designs nowadays. The best way to counter this by asking yourself, “what do I see my company being in ten years?”. Whatever you answered, it would be wise to have your logo be influenced by what you envisioned. This will help you project your brand into the future, and not just the current state.

It is also important to note that even the best logos need some updating. A great example of that is the Google logo. You can see below the evolution the Google logo went through between 1998 and 2015.

VERSATILITY

Your logo is a visual representation of your company in a small shape. It needs to be able to fit on myriads of different platforms. Hence why logo design isn’t really seen as art, but more as problem-solving.

Often times, when people are considering different logos, they love one idea and tend to get tunnel vision. However, something you might encounter with a logo you think is amazing is that it might not work on everything you want to print it or place it on.

You have to keep in mind that a logo isn’t just a standalone concept. The logo will be put on social media, merchandise, websites, and marketing materials. This ties in with making your logo timeless. It is essential that your logo is scalable, as it will be placed on all sorts of different platforms.

RELEVANCE

If you own a law firm but make your logo look like something out of a comic book, then it’s obviously not very appropriate.

It is crucial that everything about your logo is appropriate for your business. You can achieve this by looking at logos of other companies in your field. It can be helpful to compare logos. Making your logo relevant to your company might be obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many logos don’t match their company.

INTENTIONAL

Anything you do with your business needs to target your audience. And your logo is no exception.

Your logo needs to communicate and make a connection with your audience.

For example, if you run a candy store, it is not as important to have the word “candy” in your logo or to have it containing an illustration of a piece of candy. Rather you’d want to make sure your font and color scheme matches that of a candy store.

To target a logo at a certain demographic means, you first have to know exactly who they are. Consider their age, gender, income, etc. Surveys can help greatly with pinpointing exactly who you want to target.

How to choose a logo designer?

Don’t settle for cheap logo design mills. They are only interested in volume. Logo design mills take advantage of a lot of desperate designers, and customers don’t get the best possible logo for their business.

Consider the following as you choose a logo designer:

  • Ask to see samples of their designs. Only work with an experienced logo designer.
  • Look for customer testimonials on the logo designer’s website.
  • Check to see their design process. They should be able to share a step-by-step process they use to design logos. If they don’t have such a system, you shouldn’t work with someone else.
  • Find out how long the logo design take. At the beginning of the project, the designer should give you a specific completion date.
  • There should be a fixed price for the service.
  • You should have several emails back and forth with the designer to see how responsive the designer is. If the designer takes more than one day to respond to you, you might have difficulties reaching the designer during the project.
  • An important point here. The designer won’t be able to create a great logo unless they as a lot of questions about your business and your goals. If the designer is more interested in talking about their own business or how great they are, you should hire someone else.

If you are using a business logo and you are offering products or services utilizing your logo, you should file a trademark application. You can register a trademark for your logo, or anything else that contributes to the brand identity of your company. The trademark is to notify others that your logo is your property.

Copyright registration is to protect original works, such as software code, movies, music books, and various works of art. Copyright registration may be necessary if your goal is to protect your logo from someone copying it. In other words, copyright protection is appropriate if you are considering your logo as a piece of art.

CONCLUSION

You can have a great business logo if you follow the above steps. Designing the appropriate logo for your company can be very tricky, but once you have it, it represents your company in a way that you can be proud of. Best of luck on your way to creating the best possible logo for your business.

This portion of the site is for informational purposes only. The content is not legal advice. The statements and opinions are the expression of the author, not Topofy.com, and have not been evaluated by Topofy.com for accuracy, completeness, or changes in the law.