If you are reading this article you are most likely about to embark on the fun creative process of designing a logo for your business or hiring a graphic designer. This is an exciting task because a logo will turn your business idea into something real and capture what your venture stands for visually. Here are 5 golden design rules to follow when creating your company logo.
5 Logo Design Rules and Principles
Before you put on your creative hat it’s worthwhile understanding some design principles that should guide you during this process. If you are hiring a designer he or she should already be familiar with those. Let’s dive in and explore the 5 logo design rules to follow when creating your business logo.
1. Capture What Your Business Stands For
Your logo isn’t just a visual representation of your business name. It’s an opportunity to communicate what your business stands for. Some logos are much more efficient at capturing the attention of their core demographic. This can be achieved by deliberate and careful design choices.
When you choose a logo don’t just choose a pretty color palette but rather understand what each color stands for. Once you understand the message each color conveys you can then make your choice based on what’s best aligned with your business offerings and core values. The same goes for fonts. Don’t simply choose and pair fonts that look nice together but rather find out what speaks to your target audience.
2. Make Sure Your Logo is Memorable
The goal of your logo is to create something memorable and recognizable. Any business stakeholder or potential lead should recognize your brand simply by glancing at your logo. The way to achieve a memorable design is simplicity. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs tend to go with complex designs, so this is one of the important logo design rules to remember.
Of course, a very detailed icon and lots of pretty colors can look impressive but designs like that are generally too busy. A simple design is more memorable and recognizable than an intricate concept. Avoid the temptation to introduce more than 1-3 colors. In addition, select an icon with clean and simple lines and don’t overdo different fonts either
Try a free design application like Logo Creator to see what your company name looks like with different style icons.
3. Your Logo Should Be Scalable
It’s one thing to create a logo that looks great on your tablet or laptop. In many cases, you won’t have much control over how and where your logo is displayed as your company grows. However, make sure your logo is scalable. In the future, you may want to place the logo on a large banner, park bench, or reduce it in size for a traditional newspaper ad.
Before you finalize your logo make sure it scales well by testing it in very large and small formats.
4. Your Logo Needs to Look Good in Black and White
Similar to scalability it’s important you ensure your logo still looks good when the color is removed. There are instances where your logo can only be displayed in black and white, whether that’s in print or on the web.
It’s a good rule of thumb to design your logo in black and white first. If your logo comes across strong without color then you have laid a great foundation. From there you can add your preferred branding colors. Of course, there are also famous brands that successfully went to the black and white route.
5. It Should Be Balanced Artistically
Once you choose the right colors, fonts, and graphic, it’s important it all works well together. You can do that by making sure your logo is artistically balanced. The layout you choose is important. In addition to finding a perfectly balanced layout your decision on weight of lines also places a role. If your colors, fonts, and layout all work together, your logo will be visually pleasing to the eye.
Before deciding on a final concept it’s best to get some feedback from your business partners, leads, and friends and family. It’s your logo and it’s important you love it but you also want to make sure it reads well for others.
Final Thoughts: 5 Golden Design Rules to Follow When Creating Your Company Logo
Designing your logo is exciting and many entrepreneurs rush this process just to finalize something that they can then show off to their loved ones and business stakeholders. Slow down during this process and make sure you get the logo absolutely right.
If you follow the logo design rules highlighted in this article you are on the right track. Of course, there are famous logos that break these rules but that takes an experienced designer. Keep it simple and consistent and your logo will be timeless and memorable.
For further resources, take a look at the logo and graphic design section of our Resources for New Web Design and Development Projects page.
