Tips, Rules and Ideas for Creating Logos for a Business

A logo is an integral part of the branding of a business. A logo which is made up of various elements of design and carries the name of your business forms the basis for all the other stuff like stationery, packaging and promotional messages. Your logo should thus reflect the true identity of your brand and be able to tell people what your business stands for. The creation of a good logo may seem to be a simple exercise but thought-provoking and great logo designs require a deep understanding of the company vision and persona, sound knowledge about the personas of your potential buyers or audience and a proper reflection of the various logo design guidelines.

Logo Design Guidelines: Logo Types

There are broadly two fundamental types of logos:

1. Abstract Logos
2. Logotypes

It is often said, especially in the context of small businesses, that selection of any abstract logo will prove to be a costly proposition as they are traditionally hard to recall as compared to a wordmark or logotype which are much easier to remember. Even if you want to make use of any abstract symbol you should take care that it is related to the name of your business.

Steps to Great Logo Designs

• Get Started with a Story: There is a general consensus among marketers that people are able to strike a strong connection with stories rather than plain facts. Thus the first step towards amazing ideas for logos for business is to work out the story behind your business. You should be able to recognize why your business is into that particular product/service and not just the product/service itself. It is the answer to this “why” which will define the theme of your story. That message should be conveyed by colours, forms and even the typeface of your logo.

• Look for Words which describe your Business or Brand: This is one of the most simple and effective steps. You have to open the Thesaurus and look for words which best describe your business or product. This will open new vistas in your mind about what your business stands for in literal terms. It might also outline the brief for a designer as they could do with such tips for logo design. You may now narrow down by picking a maximum of 10 words which best describe both what your business does and what it stands for. Each of the words so selected will guide you to refine the concept of your logo.

• Sketch: At this time you do not have to worry about the logo design guidelines but have to start sketching all ideas which have hatched in your mind based on your ‘why’ search for keywords. There is no right or wrong at this stage. Every sketch you draw will lead you to the next one. You may just choose to focus on the name or some shape. Just remember the following:

1. A small trick is that you should try to draw any kind of symbolic component in a maximum of 10 seconds. This means you have not picked ideas from clip-art or dived into more trendy symbols like globes, star, sun, etc. This stage is a test of your creativity. Here quantity matters over quality.
2. Once you’ve sketched 20-25 ideas on paper, start the elimination process. Simplicity has no best alternative and is always in vogue. So lean towards the cleaner sketches that aren’t completely obvious.

• Match your Sketch with Persona of Buyers: At this stage, you will have a number of sketches on paper. Finetune the best three and try to get feedback from your friends, family and definitely one person who best fits in the persona of your buyers. The latter will form the most productive viewpoint as you will come to know exactly how others will perceive your logo. Any criticism at this point will only help you to improve and has to be taken professionally. Now based on the feedback you will get many tips for logo design. Putting all these into use you have to refine your best sketch even more.

• Develop a Layout: This relates to the technical phase and putting all the logo design guidelines to work as you will have to transform your paper sketch to a workable digital format. Many design platforms are available on the internet which offers to recreate your sketch in the digital format. E.g. Logo Crisp, Logojoy, GraphicSprings, etc. Here you also have to think about the technical aspects and design a great layout i.e. you need to check for alignment of your graphics and also the surroundings. It’s best to hire a designer at this stage, who can take your sketches and recreate a clean digital format.

• Color Options: Color variations of your logo should fit both light and dark backgrounds. This may involve changing the font color or the color of the entire logo. This color scheme should also make sense when you want to launch other items regarding your business like cups, t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.

• Font Considerations: This stage involves combining your text with imagery especially if your logo is a symbol or a shape. Now you will have to include the name of your company on the same. It is very important to give consideration to the typeface which your logo will carry. One should try to stay away from the generic fonts which are generally used with Word like Times New Roman, Calibri, Comic Sans, etc.

• Scalability is Must: Great logo designs are highly scalable and can be easily replicated on different platforms with similar effects. Thus, you have to ensure that your logo should have the same appeal when used in print, social media pages, and all across the internet, on billboards or even on an item like a pen, etc. It should be legible irrespective of the size and medium.

Great logo designs are a result of a great forethought as they ultimately come to resonate with the business persona and take up the central part of the brand identity. The process may seem to be overwhelming but it is definitely worth the time spent. 

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