Dos and Don’ts to Know When Designing or Creating a Logo

A logo isn’t a visual design only. But you need it to market your business and turn it into a brand. Logo design also contributes to the success of Your business, so make sure You use the dos and don’ts when creating one.

Logo Design: Dos and Don’ts of the Creative Process

Moreover, it serves as an identity of your brand while communicating your brand message with your potential client base. Your logo also plays a crucial role in making a robust first impression. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that a logo can make or break a business.

Since it’s essential for branding and marketing purposes of your business, you need to consider the following dos and don’ts and design a compelling logo.

When Designing a Logo, Do:

– The first Dos on the List is “Researching Your Target Audience” During the Logo Design Process

Research is incredibly important before you start working on a logo. Know that the primary purpose of a logo is to attract your potential customer base. Therefore, use the research phase to help define your target audience.

It’s better to learn and explore who you’ll be targeting using colour theory, fonts or other interesting symbols. You can also analyze your competitors; observe what they’ve done in terms of colours, shapes, and fonts in their logos. Then, use this information to create a design for your logo that help engages ideal clientele.

– Understand the Use of Colors 

Colours are a key component in graphic designs. Because they carry meanings and transmit various emotions. Before you decide on colours for your logo, it’s best to understand colour theory and colour psychology.

Studying colours will enable you to understand different meanings associated with colours. And that’s how you’ll come up with an eye-pleasing yet meaningful colour palette.

Remember, applying colour psychology to your brand’s symbol is crucial as it allows you to convey your brand’s message and evoke the right emotions. So, think about the emotions you want your client base to feel when they look at your brand.

– During the Logo Design Process One of the Dos is Choosing Fonts Wisely and Don’ts is Rushing to Choose One

Quite similar to colours, fonts have their own meaning and character. That’s why it’s essential to focus on the font pairing. When it comes to choosing fonts, you’ll find bold, strong, as well as, elegant, and thin varieties. So, you need to go for a font combination that depicts your brand values genuinely.

More so, avoid using more than two fonts in your logo, as it may confuse your audience and make your design look cluttered. And if you’re into unique fonts or typefaces, you can opt for bespoke font, as it’ll amplify your design. Take Coca-Cola for an example, it’s bespoke – and not to mention timeless!

– Focus on Spacing, Composition and White Space

You may have seen logos that look “perfect” at first glance. This happens when a designer pays attention to the entire space and doesn’t restrict focus to images and text only.

To design a flawless logo, you should consider different ways to utilize spacing, composition, or even whitespace. A quick tip is to use a grid to ensure that your spacing is consistent and on point.

When Designing a Logo, Don’t:

– Go for a Detailed Logo 

Logos are fun creative symbols that attract and engage the target audience to a brand. Being too detailed or literal with your design can make it complex or even boring. For example, if you own a restaurant, there’s no need to go for an actual restaurant setting or vibe in your logo

Instead, take a creative approach, such as the mascot in the KFC logo or Burger King written in the middle of buns.

If you design a literal or detailed logo, it’ll look crowded and distracting, which doesn’t sound like a smart idea. Know that your visual identity should look simple, eye-catching and colourful enough to deliver your message quickly. On the flip side, if look at a logo loaded with information, you possibly don’t want to look at it again.

– Follow Competitors Completely (Make Sure You Take Note of this as it’s one of the Core Logo Design Dos and Don’ts)

Following your competitors or other companies won’t work and might earn you negative publicity. The sole purpose of having a logo is to appear distinct in your industry. You can analyze or take inspiration from other brands’ logos but following the completely won’t make you unique.

More importantly, when you follow your competitors, chances are you end up getting a plagiarized design which can land you in bigger trouble. And you certainly don’t want to associate yourself with such claims, especially when you’re starting out.

– Go for Every Trend

Trendy logos look great, but trends change constantly. And if you’re going to follow a trend, your logo will end up looking outdated within a short time. Then, you’ll need to redo or rebrand it which is a time-consuming process.

Although keeping an eye on the trends for marketing purposes is useful, it doesn’t help much in terms of branding or creating a logo.

– Tweak it Constantly

You don’t need to update your logo like your marketing strategy. Remember, consistency is necessary when it comes to logo designing services. If you’ll tweak or revamp your logo constantly, it deters your client base and drastic changes might make them not recognize your logo at all.

For example, McDonald’s logo features two yellow arches. And this has been the brand’s consistent symbol since 1961, not to mention it has become iconic. Coca-Cola did tweak its logo since they’ve started out in 1886. But the branding has been consistent since they’ve found their voice.

Take Away on the Above Logo Design Process Dos and Don’ts

There’s no denying that logo designing is a time-consuming process. And the process involves a lot of thought in terms of colours, typography and other elements. While there’s nothing wrong in studying your competitors to see what they’re up to. However, you need to avoid intimidating their symbol.

Brainstorm the kind of design you want for your logo and think about ways to make it unique yet visually interesting. And while you’re working on it, don’t forget to focus on the dos and don’ts of logo designing, as this way you’ll come up with a logo that resonates with your brand and target audience.

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Madago Emuobo
This post is authored by Madago Emuobo A.K.A Mobo, the founder and Admin of Naijschools. With nearly a decade of expertise in the education sector, Mobo started with Naijschools providing up-to-date information on educational and tech-related topics on breaking news, and daily opportunities for students and graduates.

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