5 ways to create a logo design that kicks ass

Ranging from Facebook’s iconic sky blue F to the golden M of McDonald’s, logos that perfectly represent brand personality can instantaneously lock the audience’s memory in. How did well-recognized brands come up with such timeless icons? Who was behind them? What factors in the perfect logo? Where to find a great team of designers? Or how to create a logo on a budget? Designveloper offers you two cents on this question.

Simplicity

(Nike – Apple – McDonalds – Olympics – Playboy)

If you are an independent business owner who is profiting from emerging e-commerce, you might want to opt for something simple. Try thinking about your first date. How you come up with a sketch of your business logo is the same way you dress to impress on your first date. Believe you and me, you would not want to be seen as putting on display, would you? Know your target audience, and dress properly. Something in your closet that you come across on a daily basis, something that screams out your personality, something that energizes you on the dullest day… Designing a brand logo is the same way you put together an outfit for a date night, or a date lunch if you are into daylight rendezvouses.

It takes 50 milliseconds for the digital audience to form an opinion about your logo which determines whether they decide to like it or not. Same as the dating game. It takes less than five seconds for someone to categorize you into a fraction. Reserved, geeky, liberal hippie, pure businessman, … the first impression truly counts. Simplicity speaks class, therefore, timeless. Standing by scads of existing logos, you need to stay true to your color- your business color aka your business service to your dear clients while standing out of the crowd.

A logo could be a letter, a text, an image, a lingo or a symbol. There is much power implied in a simple logo. It says “Cut to the chase and get down to business” with your client, which is what most of your clients would want to profess while searching for the right designers. The simplicity of your logo needs to be demonstrated on different digital platforms. If your clients’ kid can doodle your logo, you are up by half the game.

Catchy

Visa – Shell – Disney – CocaCola – IBM 

The element of catchiness not only lies in the brand advertising tunes as you might think but also lies in the spectrum of colors that are used in the creation of your logo. This means your logo cannot be hard to identify and perceive at first sight. It must be easy to recognize from afar. Imagine the internet users are fast-scrolling copious designs and your logo is one of the top 10 that pop out and can be known by sight. You are halfway there till one of the potential customers can call your logo to mind while they search for a service provider. Your logo simply has to catch attention, otherwise it would easily blend in the other thousands of designs.

Catchiness does not mean you have to the come-and-go clichés in designing. There is no certain formula in designing a logo. However, a single letter with a vibrant color might stand out, but it might lack personality. Remember your outfit on your first date? Choices of tops and footwear that are color-matching are impressive, but your outfit accessories might help you stand out of the crowd of ombre-looking outfits. A letter, or plural letters, with signature color and an unusual format or font can playfully stir the viewer’s mind.

As you know by now, that’s 50 milliseconds or 0.05 seconds you, as a logo designer, should not underestimate. The first impression in a great visual logo design makes or breaks – either resonates well with the audience or blends in the rest of millions of logo designs. Like a catchy tune that gets stuck in your head even when you resent it, you cannot help but humming to that tune while taking a shower, a catchy logo must stick to the mind longer than a second, especially with the fast reducing attention span of the internet users nowadays – 45 seconds.

Relatable

Tinder

Freedom – inspiration idea for an innovative company

If a logo enables a person to feel that they can relate to someone or something familiar and even themselves, you are halfway down the road of creating a kick-ass logo. The experience of emotions can be powerful as our memories are attached to it. A palm tree that speaks nature and chill time for a resort, a unique rough sketch of an elephant for a note-taking application that puzzles the users really hard – why an elephant”; an image of a furniture piece in grayscale resonates with the segment of customers that are scouting for vintage interiors… Anything that generates familiarity in the back of the customers’ mind will work since this type of memory would be triggered again anytime when the customers are in the environment that reminds them of the image – the concept of your logo.

The work of a logo designer lies outside of customizing a product as per the clients’ request. A designer must also be a magician who evokes emotions into customers’ mind, making them recall your service – your work – for as many times as possible.

Graphic

UPS – United Parcel Service, logistics company, NBC – National Broadcasting Company

A large audience of the internet are visual. Visual content like videos and gifs are on the upward trend in Southeast Asia since 2016. The ever-shrinking span of attention among internet users, from 4 minutes 45 seconds in 2012 to 45 seconds in 2018 puts up quite a challenge to content creators and designers. Something graphic, vivid and lively is more likely to rouse the audience’ emotions, which in turn creates a more lasting impression on your logo and induces engagement. Before opting for a graphic for your brand logo, make sure you have checked the appropriateness of the graphic toward to majority of the internet users.

Ask yourself who are you in your clients’ business venture – a consultant, a fellow, someone who brings changes, someone who is willing to shed some truth to your clients’ unrealistic ideas. If you are designing a logo for your own company, ask yourself these three questions – who are you to your clients, what values do you bring to the game and what can best represent your brand personality. The lush green of palm trees may suggest business in hospitality or a beauty and spa service but probably not a great logo idea for an engineering consultant company.

If you have trouble sorting through the right graphic options for your business logos, contact professional designers in Designveloper (insert a hyperlink here). We are more than willing to help you with thousands of available graphics options that best match with your brand personality.

Resizable

GE – General Electric, HP – Hewlett-Packard, Walmart

Your business logo will be shown and printed on various mediums – company website, T-shirts for outdoor teambuilding activities, your staff’s electronic signature, desk calendars, neon signs, advertisement billboards, promotional items like pens and pencils, etc… Whatever details and design twists you bring into your logo design, regardless of its complexity, make sure it can be seen on a miniature scale. Should you wish to have your logo appear on larger surfaces like billboards, make sure the proportion of the design is equivalent to the original one – this means the tail of the huge sky blue Facebook icon of the letter F cannot be too long or the stroke too wide.

The versatility of your logo design should be well-represented on promotional products. The Swoosh symbol of Nike can be seen in plenty of colors besides white – on socks, sneakers, trainer T-shirts, trainer shorts, caps, backpacks and even bootleg products such as wallets, scarves, and sunglasses. It’s best to consult with a professional marketer or a designer before you put forth a logo design on your products. With … years of experience in customizing logo design, Designveloper can turn the most abstract idea of yours into reality.