Having a logo is an important part of your branding, but how do you design the right logo for your business? What should it look like, and how should you use it? All of these questions are answered in this blog post.
The importance of a great logo
A logo is a quick and easy way for customers and potential customers to recognise your brand. When someone sees your logo, they should instantly associate with it and the great products and services that you offer (for more information on branding and perception, read our blog post The Importance of Building Brand Identity.
So, with that in mind, try to create a logo that’s memorable and that reflects what you do.
Criteria for a great logo
In addition to the above, a logo must also be consistent with your overall branding. A business should use a limited number of fonts and colours in its marketing materials, including on the website and in any social media posts and marketing flyers.
Those colours and fonts should also be part of your logo. If you use a different font, for example, then it might not fit so well on your website which uses other text fonts.
The style of your logo should also reflect your overall branding. Is your branding bright, colourful and with wavy text and lines, or is it more of a sturdy, solid style with darker, more professional colours and design?
A travel company might use brighter colours and wavy lines (that reflect waves or undulating mountains for trekking) while a professional firm of solicitors is more likely to use a more business-focused design that comes across as professional and serious.
Here are some further tips to consider when designing your logo:
Do your research
Before starting to design your logo, make sure to do research to understand what might work best, as well as what you can and can’t do.
This should involve researching competitor logos and what style and designs they are using. Ask yourself “How can I create a logo that stands out from the competition?”.
It’s also important to make sure that your logo is in line with any industry standards and that you aren’t copying anyone else’s logo. Your logo should be unique, as well as easy to recognise and remember.
Create various design concepts
Deciding on the exact design of a logo can be a tough decision, and a great way to get the best logo for your business is to create various concepts that you can review.
Yes – this might make the decision-making a bit tougher with more options, but it helps you to ensure you nail down the design that’s best for creating a long-term brand for your business.
If you get the wrong logo and want to change it then it can have a range of negative impacts – from having to change all of your marketing materials (so that they incorporate your new logo) to the short-term loss of brand recognition (as your target audience doesn’t recognise your new logo).
In other words, make sure you get it right by looking at various designs.
Test it before adoption
Another way to get your logo right the first time is to test it. Asking close customers, colleagues and friends what they think of the new logo might bring up issues and challenges you didn’t think about. There have been some huge marketing fails over the years (even by big corporate brands) and having a poor logo design can be one of them.
Limit wording
Your logo might incorporate your company or brand name (and possibly your strapline), but it shouldn’t have any more words than that.
Logos should be visual so that customers can instantly recognise your brand and who you are.
If you use logos in your marketing copy (and you should!) then too much wording can make a logo look unprofessional and even blurred. A website with a word-packed logo, for example, can be difficult to see or read when looked at on a mobile phone.
Have different formats
We live in a world where digital marketing requires images to be of different shapes and sizes.
We believe that the best logos are more of a landscape format (2-3 times wider than they are in height although this can vary depending on the overall style) but the favicon (which is the icon or picture at the top of each tab in your browser) requires your logo to be perfectly square. This means that your logo can look cropped, chopped and unprofessional when used as the favicon at the top of your website.
Similarly, logos tend to be placed on different backgrounds that range from being bright and clear (like white) to a darker texture. If you are using your logo in your social media post images then a dark-coloured logo will be unreadable on a dark background.
For this reason, it’s best to have a couple of variations for light and dark backgrounds, as well as size formats. This allows you to maximise the impact of your logo in different circumstances.
Have a transparent version
It’s also worth having a logo with a transparent background. This means that you can be more flexible with the usage and positioning of your logo. Transparent background images blend in better and provide a more professional, stylish appearance.
Use a professional designer
Unless you are an expert with graphic design tools, it’s best to work with a professional designer to create the best logo. Their experience and skills mean that you can have various design concepts to consider – and even versions that might have otherwise taken you days to try and design (assuming you manage to succeed!).
Your logo is at the heart of your marketing and your branding, so it’s worth getting it right – and a graphic designer is the best way to achieve this.
Where to use your logo
Would it be too straightforward for us to say “Use your logo in all of your marketing materials”?
Maybe, but it makes sense. When a customer visits your website, sees your social media posts or reads a printed flyer from you, they need to know that it’s your business. Having your logo on all printed and digital channels makes sense.
Here’s a short list of places to consider using your logo:
- On social media post images (in the bottom left or right-hand corner)
- At the top of your website for every page
- As a favicon on your website so that your logo is in the tab
- In your email signatures for you and your team
- In any customer-oriented documents such as user guides and manuals
- In printed marketing materials and flyers
- On PowerPoint slides when presenting
- In any quotes or proposals that you send to potential customers!
Need help with your branding?
At Kamreno, we work closely with businesses to help them build a brand that customers want to buy from. If you are considering a new logo, why not give us a call to help make sure it’s designed correctly for your brand? Get in touch today for a free consultation.