Creating an Effective Business Logo Design

One of the first things that you’ll need to do when starting a business is to create a logo to represent your company. It seems like this may be a simple thing, but it is often more difficult then you think! 

Some Logos Are Timeless 
There are certain logos we’ll never forget: Apple, CocaCola, McDonalds, Google, Nike, Target, etc. I don’t even need to show these, because we all have them imprinted in our minds. Pretty amazing! 

We don’t have any magic formula, but we know one when we see it. Creating a timeless and effective logo is not an easy undertaking. Large corporations often times spend millions of dollars on their brand. 

According to the site, the 5 characteristics of a highly successful logo include: 
                    
                      *    Uniqueness 
                   *    Relevancy 
                 *    Appealing 
                   *    Consistency 
                     *    Contrast 

How To Design A Logo :

1. Learn What A Logo Is & What It Represents
Before we design a logo, we must understand what a logo is, what it represents and what it is supposed to do. A logo is not just a mark – a logo reflects a business’s commercial brand via the use of shape, fonts, colour, and / or images. A logo is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create a logo that will do its job.

2. Know the Principles of Effective Logo Design

Now that we know what a logo is supposed to do, and what it should represent; the basic rules and principles of effective logo design.

1. A logo must be simple 
A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unexpected or unique without being overdrawn. 
2. A logo must be memorable 
Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo. 

3. A logo must be timeless 
An effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will stand the test of time. 
4. A logo must be versatile 
An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. For this reason a logo should be designed in vector format, to ensure that it can be scaled to any size. The logo must work in just one colour too. 
5. A logo must be appropriate 
How we position the logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if we are designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & colour scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a law firm.