A logo is a graphic representation (or symbol) of a company, organization, or individual that is used to aid and promote instant public recognition.
Graphic Designers often take the following points into consideration, when designing a new logo. A successful logo should:
- be recognizable
- be scalable
- look good without color
- be memorable
Recognition
Your logo should be the first thing that pops into someone’s mind when they think about your company. It has to be simple enough that people can recognize it instantly, anywhere they see it. It doesn’t have to convey what type of business you’re in or what your company does. It simply has to stand out and be different from everyone else.
Scalability
A successful logo looks good in all sizes and across all media. If your logo is too complex and has overlapping fonts and shapes, it won’t look good when you make it smaller, say for your website. Design you logo in 300 dpi and use large dimensions (for example 5×5 inches), you can always scale it down later.
Colors
Your logo should look good in color and in black and white. You should use no more than 2 colors in your design and make sure the logo stands out even without the colors. In fact, most logos start out as black and white sketches and colors are added later. Use the CMYK color scheme (instead of RGB) in your design to ensure it will look good on print.
Memorability
The last thing you want to do is make sure that people will remember your logo and save that image in their memory. People will only look at your logo for a split second. So make sure it is easily recognizable and doesn’t require a lot of thinking (humans are lazy!). Keep your logo as long as possible without redesigning it too often, as it stays in your memory for a long time (humans also don’t like change!) and can be hard to replace.
Great logos are hard to come by and sometimes develop over time. But the best ones never change!
