The Major Principles For Designing A Logo

They might look small on paper, but logos hold a different kind of important for every brand. They’re what convey your brand’s message before your audience ever gets the chance to read it on their own. At times, before a person even gets the chance to open your post, your logo is what makes them decide between whether they even should invest time knowing about you or whether they should just walk away.

Hence, an attractive and unique logo is the difference between new leads and lost leads. Therefore, it’s vital to your organization to have a logo that brings out your brand’s identity in the most meaningful ways possible. In this blog, we describe the major principles for designing a logo that can either make or break your branding strategy.

1. Research

The first thing you need to do is research the logo designs of your competitors and other industries with relevant subject matters. This is a necessary first step as it gives you an idea of what your rivals are up to and not only that but also gives you the inspiration to do something entirely different and also aligned with the theme of your industry.

It’s also important to do some research on your client’s background. Questions such as “What does the brand’s name literally mean in different languages?” and “What niche the brand represents?” can go a long way to define what you can do to make the brand’s purpose be visible through the logo.

2. Generate Ideas

Once you’re done with your research, the next step is to brainstorm ideas on a sheet of paper to get a better idea of what you want to incorporate in your logo. Write down the concept you want to show, and combine these concepts into a whole logo. E.g. if you’re making a logo for a food business, write down which equipment (if any) that you want to show, what is the equipment doing, i.e. showing a whisk in a bowl, or a whisk and a spatula making a cross, etc. Making mindmaps is also a good technique to generate your ideas.

3. Simplicity

Simplicity is always emphasized when it comes to designing a logo. People are drawn to simple and easy to understand ideas. Similarly, their aesthetics also focus on simple and decent colours and designs in a much better way than complex and bright colours. Your Logo needs to be simple and easy to recognize instead of complex and confusing.

4. Type of Logo:

When it comes down to psychology, you should know that our brains are designed to focus on shapes before colours and words. Keeping that in mind, make sure what kind of logo you want regarding what your brand represents and how much you want to give away about it with just its logo. There are 3 different types of Logos that every brand comes to choose from.

a. Typographic

The art of arranging words and letters such that it makes it appealing for the readers to pay attention to. Whether you want your logo to be typographic depends upon your brand’s tone. The following image shows an example of typographic logos. They’re mostly used in hue corporations that have serious tones eg. law companies etc.

b. Illustrations

Illustrations include visual representations of the message behind a particular brand. They’re not ideal for corporations, mostly preferred by cafes and fast food chains.

c. Icons

Icons are logos that have an image and the name of the brand is displayed underneath the image. They’re strong images with powerful typography done to the brand’s name. Often, the icon itself is enough to show the brand being talked about.

Whichever type of logo you choose in the end, you need to ensure it goes well with your brand’s tone and theme. Your audience has to get attracted to your logo in order to create a favourable response from them.

5. Abstract

Whether you want your brand’s logo to be abstract depends entirely on your brand and the message you choose to send through it. They offer a unique style to the brands and trigger curiosity among its audience. One of the most famous examples of abstract logos is that of the symbol used by Nike. The following image shows some more examples of globally recognized brands.

Abstract logos are unique and make audiences remember them through their novel approach to branding. A lot of experiments can be done to explore different themes around abstract art, but most famous brands use a simple design to make their brands stand out.

6. Match the Brand’s Tone

Whether you run a vibrant clothing store or a serious corporate agency, your logo shows the tone your brand is following. From sophistication to playfulness, from humour to professionality, from food to music; whatever your brand is about, your logo should represent, Moreover, whichever voice your brand uses to get your message across, your logo should match that voice. This is what makes the audience listen to what you are saying. Your brand’s aesthetic should be apparent in your logo for you to exude professionalism and authenticity.

7. Colour Scheme

Colour psychology is of vital importance in every marketing strategy and visual content creation process, so how could it go unnoticed while designing your logo? Human brains have quick responses when it comes to colours, and your brand needs to cater to that trait to gain attention from your customers. Your brand objectives become a defining point in your colour scheme.

When it comes to Mainstream, our team chose blue as it is the most common colour to gain social attention, as it’s clear with brands like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. But the team didn’t want to be exactly like those social media giants, hence the choice to mix up the colours a bit, which also added a vibrant touch to the theme of Mainstream. Furthermore, it’s said that this particular colour combination caters to people’s creative, innovative, and passionate aesthetics. Hence, all the more reason for us to have this as our official colour scheme.

8. Make the Logo Memorable

Lastly, but definitely not the least, your logo needs to be memorable. In a good way of course. You need your audience to remember you by your logo in order to keep them attracted to your brand. And when it comes to recognizability and memorability, you need to ask yourself that will your logo stay evergreen through the test of time? Of course, brands go through rebranding procedures and change their outlook a little from time to time. But even then, their colour schemes and underlying ideas remain the same. As can be seen through Pepsi’s rebranding overtime.

As you can see in the image above, this is what we mean when we say evergreen. This consistency despite the many changes is how you make your brand memorable and recognizable no matter how much time passes.

Now that you know the basic principles of designing a logo, it’s time you start putting yourself to work with designing your first sketches. At the end of the day, designing a logo is more about what works for you and your creativity as much as it is about audience understanding. Of course, it’s an extensive process that requires a huge amount of research, knowledge, and sketching. But when you come up with something that moves you, you will find a way to make it move your clientele too.