Helpful Tips for getting a Logo

Determine What You Need.

Make a list of descriptive attributes that embody your company. Ask the important questions:

Who is your client?
What are you selling?
Is it romantic or bold in nature?
Is it fun or serious?

Color Palette

Color carries a lot of emotional weight. Is your brand edgy and young or relaxing and prestigious. What colors connect to your target market (your clients)? There are countless sources of color psychology. All of it applies to your company’s identity. Safe, insurance blue is not what you want to use for kid’s toy. If you are targeting kids make it fun and colorful.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

We can’t stress this enough. We all know the KISS method, (keep it simple, stupid). Remember that consumers will be doing everything from quickly glancing at your logo to staring at it while stopped at a red light–make sure that it’s simple enough to remember and decipher. A logo needs to work in a business card, Website or Billboard. It should transfer from one to the other without loosing it’s strength. A photograph is not logo material. Logos need to be developed as vector art. And all text is a title, not a logo, unless the font has been manipulated in some way.

How is this logo going to be used?

Letterhead, business cards, Website, brochures, signage, flyers, banners, billboards, e-newsletter, etc. This logo has to stand up through all this collateral. If has to pass the billboard to business card test, and the black and white/color test.

Abstraction or portrayal?

Just because you sell shoes doesn’t mean you have to have shoes in your logo. An abstraction suggests the nature of your business. A portrayal creates an image that literally communicates the brand.

Abstraction gives a brand a better shot at uniqueness and offers the possibility of brand growth. Wrestle with this issue, make a decision and stick with it.

Look at the Nike “swoosh.” It’s not a literal representation of anything. It started with a wing but became a timeless swoosh. The meaning is created by a simple, distinguishable shape that embodies movement and speed…. go power… and reinforced by a consistent branding and marketing message tied to the abstract image. The swoosh gained meaning with that combined branding effort and it’s resulting credibility.

Who’s makes the decisions?

The more people involved, the messier the process.

  • Figure out who really needs a say in the process based upon expertise and responsibility. Those are two separate areas. Expertise means people with professional experience in marketing (and maybe production). Responsibility means the key stakeholders must be involved so you don’t go down your merry path only to be vetoed at the end of the yellow brick road.
  • Keep the group small.
  • If the CEO gets final say, have that person on the committee. Don’t allow a bunch of surrogates to imagine what the boss will think. It has been my experience that this usually leads to more work and redos.
  • Design by committee never works… trust me. The worst possible process is a free-for-all where a committee tries to make everyone happy by combining elements from different designs – the “one from column A and two from column B” approach. This almost never yields a happy result (or a strong design). And it is the fastest way to make your designers run for the door.
  • Get everyone to vote thumbs up or down, narrow the choices and keep voting until you have one favorite. And don’t ask the guy in the mail room if he likes it unless he owns the company.

Following these guidelines will help in making an easier design process and save you money in the end.

Let us help you with your branding. Get started today.