What Makes a Great Logo You May Ask?
A great logo is distinctive, appropriate, memorable, practical and simple in form. It conveys the owner's intended message, as well as being able to be printed at any size while remaining effective without color needed. But what makes a good logo...great?
A great logo boils down to two things: a concept that resonates with its audience created by an execution of it which also reflects on their value system - both are equally important for success!
What is the Function of a Logo?
To understand what a great logo is, we must first consider its purpose. A logo is essentially a tool for conditioning. The function of a logo is to identify and represent the company it stands for, in one simple graphic!
It is a means of communication between the company and its potential target audience and customer.
A logo tells you what to expect from their products, services or even culture; it's an indicator that informs us about how they operate internally as well. A great logo design will inform people about your business values and brand personality too!
Creating a Logo is Easy Right?
Designing a logo seems like an easy task, and it can seem even easier when you only see the finished product. However, it’s not always as straightforward as some might think. A good design is the result of creativity and thought, combined with several elements including shape, lettering style, color scheme and visual design to name a few.
Why Does Your Business Need a Logo?
Why does your business need a logo? A well-designed logo builds trust and gets people to stick around. It tells potential clients who you are, what you do, and how that benefits them. It communicates to people with no prior knowledge or experience with your business that you do great work.
Principles of a Great Logo Design
So what really make a good logo great? Great design is such a subjective nature. Nonetheless, these are a few principles that make up great logo design.
Stand Out From Your Competition
Be distinctive and unique, not too similar to other logos. It is important to review your competition and make sure that you do not have the same logo or something to similar! This builds brand identity recognition - people remember the more they see it! When this happens, you can charge higher prices for your services without raising eyebrows from clients about why you're so expensive. You want them to think "I'm paying a premium for this product or service because I know that if I give them my hard-earned cash, I will get something amazing from these experts."
Keep it Simple
A great logo should also not be overly complicated and busy. The more complex something looks, the less memorable it tends to be! Remember: simple works better for logos than cluttered designs with too many fonts or images in them. This leaves space for your audience to remember what they're seeing after two seconds instead of having their eyes glaze over from all the information on screen at once (which is never good!)
Memorable Logos
Some of the biggest brands have the most simple, yet recognizable and memorable logos. Look at the Nike logo as example with their Nike Swish. Or the Apple logo with their iconic..well Apple. Your logo does not need to be over-designed to be great. Many times when you focus on a simple idea it will end up becoming a more timless logo that will not look dated in 2 years.
The Visual Design Elements of a Great Logo
What Fonts Should You Use For Your Logo?
There are near infinite amounts of fonts to choose from when considering what typeface to use for your logo. As long as you stay several light years away from Comic Sans and Papyrus, you are headed in the right direction. That being said, you also do not just want to pick any old font that you find. You need to be mindful of how your font looks and feels alongside the rest of your brand.
Something else to consider is the readability of the font in relation to the font size. You want your logo typeface to be clear and readable at a smaller size, as well as when it is viewed on screen at a larger size. Typical our recommendation is to select a simple font so that it will be readable at any size.
The following sites are great for finding some font inspiration and to break out of the default fonts that you might be used to using:
What Colors Should You Use For Your Logo?
After choosing a great typeface, deciding on colors can seem like an overwhelming task. But it should not feel impossible! Colors affect everyone in different ways so it is important to think about what you want people to feel when they see your colors. Colors also should never clash with the message you're trying to convey. For example, if your brand identity is all about youth and happiness then it might not be a great idea for you to choose dark colors like black or purple because that could potentially make people feel sad or depressed when they see them.
Looking for some color inspiration? Check out these amazing color palette generators and color trend websites:
How many colors should a logo have?
It can be easy to get carried away with selecting multiple colors for your logo, however it is never a good idea. When selecting colors for your logo, you always want to pick two that compliment each other nicely. If you think it might be difficult to choose the perfect color pairing then there are tons of great tools online that will help you find the right ones!
When a logo is properly balanced, it appears well-organized and polished. Not too much in the design is shifted to one side or the other; when your design is off balance, it can appear chaotic and make it difficult for viewers to absorb all of the information at once.
Alignment, spacing, and symmetry all help in creating a balanced design. Proper alignment can make an otherwise busy composition feel more cohesive.
Visual Hierarchy
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of design elements (such as shapes, lines and text) in a way that guides the observer through your work. All other principles of design work together to create strong visual hierarchy with framing, typography, color palettes and more.
There’s a lot of information a good logo must convey. A clear way to visually differentiate between the different types of information is your concept of visual hierarchy.
White Space
A good logo often has less elements than what you think it should. Otherwise known as negative space or blank space, plenty of white space in your design is essential for achieving balance. This is simply what parts of your design have no visual content in them and allows the logo to breathe bringing a sense of balance to an otherwise chaotic layout. It is important to remove any unnecessary elements from a logo to make it the most effective and timeless.
How Much Does a Logo Cost?
The cost to design a logo is different for every company and cannot be easily answered without understanding what they need it to do. There are some designers who will charge a flat fee for any job, while other designers may have packages or require you to meet with them to discuss your exact goals before providing a quote.
For example the cost of a logo through Eternity at the writing of this blog averages $2,500 but reaching as high as $7,500. There are lots of options online for cheap logos, but the investment in a great logo is time and money well spent. There is no second first impression, and the impact it has on your business is long-lasting. One might say, for an Eternity (we know — punny) But this is why you should be thinking about your logo as a worthy investment, and not an expense. Our in-house designers take that investment very seriously.
Can You Make a Logo Yourself?
The short answer. No. You really should not try to DIY your logo because at the end of it, you will find that your logo is either not great or just okay. It's better to hire professional logo designers to do this for you because they are trained in what should make a good logo and know how to execute that idea perfectly - plus they're willing to go through all the hard work when there are so many other things going on in running your business!
Every Brand Deserves a Great Logo
If you take these tips into account when designing your own logo, chances are it'll become memorable for all the right reasons too! Remember to balance marketing benefits of uniqueness vs practical considerations for creation time and cost. When done well, logos build lasting relationships between companies and customers.
Now that you know what qualities a great logo should have, it’s time to take off and create a logo you are proud of. If you need help with the execution of your brand and logo, feel free to give us a shout!
P.S. — If you are looking for some really heavy lifting in terms of market messaging, branding, logo, print design, persona building, you should also check out the dynamic duo of Mike and Seth over at Methodikal. We work with them all the time on collaborative projects!
