What kind of conditions must a logo meet in order to be a driving force of your business?
Frequently, a person, who orders a logo design doesn’t have a clue how his or her visual identity will ultimately look like. Logo designers do not sell ready-made products with parameters that can be easily compared. Hence, it is difficult to unambiguously assess the quality of their work.
After you find your ultimate design, it may turn out that it is only you who likes it or it’s indeed a well-designed and professional creation that will build customers’ trust for years. The following rules will help you identify the key advantages of high quality logos. This knowledge should save you a lot of money.
Make sure your logo..
- is unique
This is one of the most important tasks of an effective logo: to distinguish itself among the multitude of other logos. Your logo under no circumstances can be a worse version of any of the existing, successful brands.
If you want your company to be valued for its uniqueness, it has to stand out from the competition from the very beginning.
- reflects the nature of the company
A logo is supposed to be a carrier of the corporate philosophy. A logotype should match your company’s activity; should be appropriate for the product or service you sell. For example, a logo of a boxing club would most likely boast a lot of dynamism, while a medical logo would focus on oval shapes and calm, reassuring colour schemes.
It’s worth asking, for example, whether the chosen font matches the fonts most commonly used in your industry.
- carries a clear message
The logo speaks through simple, transparent graphic forms combined with appropriately selected colors. Unclear structures and small details distort the message. A similar chaos may be introduced by using too many colors. Limit the number of colors to a maximum of three.
An overdone logo is not taken seriously by the recipients.
A logo that tries to impress with too many tricks is not only unreadable, it’s also not taken seriously by the recipients.
- is long-lived
The best logos prove themselves useful and adequate for its company for several dozen or more years. Once in a while, they are refreshed but these are not significant changes. The brand’s name that has existed on the market for years is the brand’s manifestation of strength and popularity. This is company’s most precious capital.
Avoid designing your logo basing your ideas on the current trends in the industry. It would be the same as knowingly placing a short-term product on the market.
- is easily recognizable
A glance at your logo should be enough to get into everyone’s heads. Being recognizable and memorable are the characteristics that really determine the value of a logo.
- works well with all of your marketing materials
A good logo works well on banners, inside your store, on cups, mugs, flyers, packaging… Remember that the logo is only a part of your visual identity, which has to be taken care of as a whole.
For example, if the package of your product contains some spelling mistakes, not even the greatest logo won’t save your face. Always remember to compare artwork on your package before releasing it to the public.
- is clear and unambiguous
Logotype cannot cause any false associations. In different cultures there are many signs and symbols that are associated with different meanings.
Check the elements of your logo in terms of symbols and verify whether they are relevant to what you really want to convey.
- is functional
Logo must be suitable for a variety of applications. It has to work well on a poster as well as on a small newspaper ad.
Logotype cannot lose its values after changing the format from vertical to horizontal or even after reversing colors (what forces, for example, an exposure of a bright background).
- wasn’t created with ready-made elements
Using stock photos or ready-made mockups (widely spread on the Internet) as a part of a logotype design, disqualifies a logo as a professional one. It’s not only obvious at first glance (it looks “cheap”), but it also allows the competition to copy your logo legally. And naturally, this kind of logo isn’t original at all.
Of course, you may find successful logos that don’t meet any of the conditions outlined here, but these cases are extremely rare, very bold and, paradoxically, well-thought-out.
- is a vector image
A logotype should be created in a vector graphic software. Only then, thanks to the mathematical definition of image points, we have the possibility to change the scale without losing the quality.
Raster images, which consist of pixels, don’t keep the same quality when you change their size. This means that this kind of logo would be useless if you enlarge or engrave it.