What Makes a Good Logo?

When you begin to develop your brand you will most likely start with the design of your logo. Logos do a lot of heavy lifting for your brand impression combination from the start. They provide the framework for relationship building and give off subtle cues to give a solid first impression. What makes a good logo? It should be a quick read that conveys clearly what your name is along with colors and shapes that indicate further what your brand represents.

When designing a logo there are 5 principles that you should keep in mind while you are creating…

 • Simple

• Memorable

• Timeless

• Versatile

• Appropriate

Simple

A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unique without being overdrawn.

Memorable

Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo.

Timeless

 An effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will endure the ages. The logo will still be effective in 10, 20, 50 years.

The best example of a timeless logo is the Coca-Cola logo… if you compare it to the Pepsi logo below, you can see just how effective creating a timeless logo can be. Notice how the Coca Cola logo has barely changed since 1885. That is timeless design.

Versatile

An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. The logo should be functional. For this reason a logo should be designed in  vector format, to ensure that it can be scaled to any size. The logo should be able to work both in horizontal and vertical formats.

Ask Yourself, Is the logo sill effective?

• Printed in one color?

  Printed on the something the size of a postage stamp?

  Printed on something as large as a billboard?

  Printed in reverse (ie. light logo on dark background)

One should also familiarize themselves with the commercial printing process so as not to come into printing problems further down the track. Learn to know the difference between the CMYK, Pantone and RGB color systems. When designing logos, the Pantone color system is recommended.

Appropriate

How you position the logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & color scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a law firm.

It is also important to state that that a logo doesn’t need to show what a business sells or offers as a service. For example, car logos don’t need to show cars, computer logos don’t need to show computers. The Harley Davidson logo isn’t a motorcycle, nor is the Nokia logo a mobile phone. A logo is purely for identification.

Does your business need help designing a Logo for you brand?

Let Thrive Creative Group assist you!

Email hi@thinkthrive.com for more information