Admit it, you’ve seen them:
- Logos with details so small or blurry you think you need an eye exam,
- Logos with so much going on that you are unsure what product they’re even selling,
- Or, no logo at all!
Your logo design is very important to your business’ brand identity and yet it is often taken for granted or given a half-hearted effort because of uncertainty about how to create a logo. Designing a business logo can be fun and is actually very straight forward when you follow the logo design basics below.
Think simple, clean, bold—Remarkable! Ready to dive in?
How to Create a Logo
A well-designed logo includes these properties:
Your
brand message must be established before you can begin designing a logo. Your logo represents the feeling behind your brand so your brand message must be clear and one that resonates with your customers. Incorporate your
brand message with the following design properties and you will create a memorable logo!
When brainstorming logo design images and words, keep in mind that you want your end product to be unique and remarkable. You want your logo to be easily identified compared to competitors logos and you want your business to stand out!
Keep your lines and your design clean and bold. (Fine lines disappear in most logos and woven labels). If you must have a complex logo, also create a simplified version. Further, many logos are both an image and text; however, you can also have either just an image or just text, and use only your image logo or only your text logo when appropriate for your business needs.
Crisp and clear when scaled up or down in size. Test your logo by clicking on its corner and dragging it to scale the logo up and down. Does your logo look clear and defined, or does it become blurry or unreadable? A well-designed logo will look good whether very small or very large.
Vector files by nature are easily scalable up or down and always look good. A vector file has a *.ai extension. Other image file types will work but need to be very high resolution. Additionally, there are special rules for creating images in other file formats, such as *.jpg or *.jpeg, *.png, and *.gif, as well as standards for resolution, file size, and logo size.
Each color in a logo adds additional cost for printing, even black. Keep the number of colors in mind when developing your logo, especially if you will be doing any printing of your logo, such as for labels, stickers, brochures, business cards, letterhead, woven clothing labels and tags, etc.
It’s a good practice to match all the colors of your business collateral, including logo and website colors, to Pantone or CMYK colors so that your brand colors are always consistent across all platforms—which brings me to my next point—
Make sure your logo looks striking in plain old black and white. Occasionally you will need your logo to be in black and white, so make sure from the start that it looks good! Also, reducing your design to the pure visual of a black and white image is a great way to truly see how well your logo performs—without the bells and whistles of color. Search Google Images for
“black and white logos” for inspiration!
Header and profile pic sizes are constantly changing across social media, and have yet to be standardized across any of the social media platforms, however, your business needs its logo on all of its social media.
Consider having your social media headers, profile pics/images, blog header and footer, etc., created at the same time as your logo so you can launch your new brand identity consistently and immediately across all marketing materials.
Christine Urban Media Logo
The Christine Urban Media logo symbolizes the initial letter of our founder’s first name, Christine, ‘C’ and last name ‘Urban’ through the distinctive cityscape used on the ‘C’ logo and across all Christine Urban Media brand collateral. It’s strong, bold, and clean. Simple.
In summary, make a clear statement about your brand through your logo and your business will be remembered!
Now, go forth and make your mark on the world!
Banish poor logo design!
Logo Design Basics Checklist
- Clearly Represents Your Brand Message
- Easily Identified
- Simple and Bold
- Clean Look when scaled up or down in size
- A Vector Image is best
- Minimum Colors
- Looks Amazing in Black and White
- Update Your Social Media to include your new look!
Does Your Brand have a Memorable Logo? Post it below and share! Please ensure you include your website address.
Still have questions about designing a new logo or identifying your brand strategy? Contact us today, we’re happy to help!
Christine Urban Media is located in the Seattle, Washington area.
