Logos are, in short, how consumers identify a brand. Logos are the medium through which customers can instantly connect with a company, the products they offer, the industry they serve, and the message they convey. So what are the qualities of Great Logo Design your business should be aware of?
Start browsing any website and you’re bound to come across examples of both stellar and not-so-awesome logo designs. What exactly makes some logos great and others hard to stomach? What are the specific differences? And what can they teach us about how to effectively craft a logo that represents our own brand in a positive light?
The Top 5 Qualities of Great Logo Design
1. Keep It Simple
You want – nay – you need your website to be quickly and easily recognizable. You want strangers to look at your logo and remember it, even if they’re only sub-consciously aware of it, you want your logo engraved into the customers psyche.
This is why simple logos will always outperform, out convert, and out shine their complex counterparts. A complicated, bulky logo is harder to remember, and difficult replicate across all off and online marketing channels, and your target audience won’t be impressed or as engaged as they will with a clean, simple logo.
You don’t have time to cram every minute element of your brad into a logo design. If your logo can’t be described in less than two sentences, then it might be too complicated.
2. Scalability and Versatility
You can hire the best graphic designer in the world and have a limitless budget, but if the logo doesn’t efficiently scale in and out with ease, then it won’t be very eye pleasing across each marketing channel.
A truly great logo design can be scaled to fit any format, (i.e. social media banners, business cards, clothing, billboards, newsletters, etc.) and still maintain all the essential visual elements without sacrificing quality.
For this reason alone, nearly every great logo design you see will be created with a vector format. Vector images can scale to any size and still maintain that detailed, pristine look.
3. Ageless
Dating is another design quality shared by great logo designs.
You don’t want consumers to be able to pinpoint the decade the logo was created in, especially if you’re still relying on a vintage logo from the late 1990’s. You might be attached to the logo’s look, but you want your brand to appear up to date, fresh and relevant, right?
In order to achieve this you want your logo to be completely and utterly timeless. For this reason, stay away from the generic copy and paste designs that have been circulating for years. You also want to steer clear of any and all logo design trends due to the fact that trends are just that – trends. Trends get old, they shrivel up into a ball, and then they die.
If you’re not sure your logo is ageless, just ask yourself if this logo will be able to stand its ground 30 years from now. If the answer is a resounding yes, then you have a winner.
4. Design For Your Target Audience
If you make the mistake of using a design that focused more on pleasing your own brand’s image than it focused on your own customers wants and needs, then you definitely do not have a great logo design.
No matter the industry, business module, product being sold or service being offered, if your logo doesn’t speak to its intended audience, then no connection can be made, and in the end, potential customers will be lost.
By this point in establishing your brand you should already have a clear definition of who your target audience is, including their age, yearly income, gender, likes, dislikes and so on.
Will your logo speak to this group of people? Will they understand it, relate with it and inevitably want to share the company behind the logo with others?
5. Strive For Originality
This is where having an experienced graphic designer by your side pays dividends. Having an original logo design means not following the masses and the year by year trends that follow.
Using free clip art and stock images will not result in an original-looking logo. Standing apart from the rest of the pack can be hard, but having a logo designer who is able to infuse creativity with flair and vision can really help turn a simple idea into an original piece of memorable art.
Each one of these design qualities are shared by established brands who know exactly what it takes to turn an idea into an unforgettable logo design.
We hope you now know the top Qualities of Great Logo Design.
Not sure about your company’s logo design? Need guidance in the right direction? Feel free to contact us right away for more information.
Fancy a coffee to discuss your creative brief?