Questions answered in this post
How do I design a logo?
Why is a logo important?
Starting a new company? Rebranding your idea? A well-designed and catchy logo is fundamental to a successful venture. A strong logo design will be memorable, unique, and develop your loyal consumer base that stimulates growth.
Recognize these logos? Without a single letter, these images immediately remind you of the company they belong to, inform you of the products they offer, and drive you to buy their goods. Therein lies the power of a logo: a single image that communicates the mission and purpose of a brand.
But how do you design a memorable logo?
There are 5 major steps to logo design.
- Determine what industry your company falls under
- Research items related to your company that could be cleverly integrated into the logo
- Identify your mission and values, and research a color scheme that reflects them
- Determine whether to include text or just use an image as your logo
- Create your logo with the items and color scheme previously identified
Determine Your Industry
Determining what industry your company falls under is paramount to a successful logo design. Identifying what industry your company falls under allows you to select related images and a color scheme to base your logo on. Moreover, you can look to major companies within your industry, and study their logos to identify common themes.
Research Related Items
Many times, logos consist of items related to the industry. For the Cleveland Browns, their logo is a football helmet as that is the “industry” they fall under. While many companies choose a logo that reflects their name (Target selecting a literal target for their logo), others choose to integrate industry items into their logo.
Consider the logo we designed for shelfCheck: the magnifying glass represents the app being made for finding scarce items a clever play on an industry theme.
Color Scheme
Studies have shown that “color influences 85% of shoppers‘ purchase decisions.” Moreover, different colors actually have substantially different meanings, and usually, connect to company missions and values. For example, red represents passion, yellow represents happiness and purple wealth. Thus, identifying what values your company embodies precedes choosing a color scheme. Write down a list of traits your company represents and look up the colors that represent them before selecting a color scheme.
Text or Not
This decision is purely up to you. Towards the beginning, we recommend that you include a name with all logo images. We suggest this because, without an established brand, no one will recognize your logo. However, as your company grows, you may create an additional logo that abandons text in favor of an image. This can be seen as a sign of success, due to its implication that the company is large enough to have a memorable logo.
Logo Creation
Finally, the most important part. Now that you have your industry identified, related items selected, and color scheme determined, you actually need to create it. We recommend first drawing out a sketch of your logo and proceeding to build it in vector-based software such as Adobe Illustrator. This will allow you to geometrically craft your logo to the pixel, which will make it significantly more appealing.
Conclusion
Your logo is the face of your brand and as your company grows, it should become independently recognizable. While changing your logo is possible, logos are meant to be recognizable, and changing them counteracts this effect. Thus, we recommend you change it infrequently, if at all. To avoid crafting a poor logo, make sure to follow the aforementioned steps to successfully create your logo.
Want to have our logo design experts help you create your logo?
Check out some of our work on our portfolio page.
Request a Consultation to see how we can help you.
Looking for additional reading? Here is a helpful post from Toptal Designers about the key aspects of logo design and how to choose the right logo designer for your needs.