When you see McDonald’s golden arches or Nike’s swoosh, you know what it is right away! That’s how strongly a logo can impact your business, giving your brand a unique identity. A logo plays a crucial role for any business to succeed and have a known brand identity.
If you are creating or finalising a logo design for your business, don’t just think of it as a simple process. The logo is integral in defining your brand’s identity and is the first thing a customer notices about your brand.
Each colour, symbol, or visual representation that you choose will have various interpretations, so you need to make sure you’re sharing the right message to your audience.
To help you make this vital decision, here are a few key areas you should look into when choosing the perfect logo for your business:
How to Create a Professional Business Logo
Here are 7 important steps you need to follow when creating the perfect logo for your brand:
Define your brand identity
Before you start creating your business logo, it’s important to be clear about who you are as a brand. Once you define your brand, you can create a visual identity that effectively communicates your brand story to your customers.
Your brand identity is made up of a few key elements:
- Your mission (Why did you start the business?)
- Your values (What values does your brand represent?)
- Your brand personality (If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have?)
- Your brand differentiation (What can you offer that customers won’t get anywhere else?)
- Your brand messaging (How does your brand communicate its values?)
Once you have a clear understanding of each element, it’ll be much easier for you to design a logo that complements your brand.
Find inspiration for your design
When designing your logo, it’s helpful to draw inspiration from other designs. Luckily, there are enough resources for great inspiration. You can pull inspiration from social media, blogs you or your ideal customer follow, or anything around you. Everything that makes you happy or excited is a good starting point for a great idea.
You can create a mood board of images, color palettes, illustrations, or even logos, that connect with you and give an accurate representation of your brand.
Keep in mind that pulling inspiration from outside sources doesn’t mean imitating or copying their work. The goal is to figure out what you like and don’t like, to think outside the box, and to broaden your creative horizons.
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Consider the design factors
There are three vital design factors you need to consider when you begin creating the logo design. These are:
Uniqueness: Is your design helping your brand stand out from the competition?
Simplicity: Is the design simple enough for your target audience to understand? Can they relate it to your brand or services?
Recall value: If your logo is memorable, it’s easy for people to remember your company. So, think of whether your logo has substantial recall value, and if it can help add a visual identity to your brand.
Focus on these critical aspects instead of just going for what’s trending. What may be a rage right now will fade away soon, so it’s better to focus on your core aspects and incorporate them into your design.
Know what the colours represent
Many first-time designers and business leaders make the mistake of thinking of colours only as visual elements and not as elements that send a message across.
Each colour has its own emotion, and your brand colours need to capture them well. Some of the standard colour codes are:
- Red – Courage, energy, passion, excitement
- Orange – Optimistic, fun, creative, adventurous
- Yellow – Enthusiasm, opportunity, positivity
- Pink – Love, compassion
- Blue – Honesty, loyalty, responsibility, trustworthiness
- Green – Stability, harmony, safety
- Violet – Spirituality, mystery, sensitivity
- Black – Authority, discipline, elegance
You also need to select colours depending on the industry you serve. For example, most technology companies use the colour blue.
In contrast, sports brands, entertainment companies, and the food industry, often use red to ignite action.
Select the right fonts
The element of typography comes next. Will your logo be a symbol, or will it spell your company name?Will it be a combination of both?
Your logo font needs to fit your brand principles and styling as well.
Understand what font families are and how they are used in the industry. For example, B2B businesses may want to avoid script fonts, but these fonts can be appealing for B2C companies.
Another thing to remember when selecting a font for your logo is readability over design. If your font isn’t easily readable or if the colours don’t blend, you might need to make some necessary changes.
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Bring your logo to life
Now it’s time to put on your artist hat and get your logo designed.
When you start designing your logo, it’s easy to get overly excited. While it may be tempting to try to incorporate a variety of themes into your design, doing so will do nothing to make your logo stand out. Instead, try to keep it simple and make sure that it communicates what your brand stands for.
If you’re short on budget and have little design experience, there are many online logo makers that will get the job done. Most of these sites offer hundreds of professionally designed templates, which makes it fast and easy to create a logo design for your business.
Think of the message
When finalising a design, try taking a simple survey by asking your colleagues, friends, or business partners what they think.
Ask them about the message or emotion they get when they see the logo.Use these responses to know if you‘re on the right track.
When finalising a logo, you need to be very confident that it communicates the vital message you intend to send!
Get the perfect logo for your business
Now that you know the crucial aspects of logo design, it’s time to get it done. Whether you’re planning to outsource it or make it yourself, the most important tip to remember is to make it about your brand and the audience you’re serving.
