Your brand’s logo is an essential marketing asset. It’s a shorthand representation of your brand and quickly becomes recognizable by your beloved consumers and coveted by all your competitors. A great logo is worth millions in free advertising when the design is done well and done right. Not only does your logo inspire trust and admiration, it also creates loyalty and implied superiority in your industry.
So, what exactly goes into the thought and design of a logo? We’re glad you asked! We’ve put together five factors to consider when you set out to design the perfect brand logo. But first, let’s dive deeper into what a logo is and what it does for your business.
What is a Logo?
We’ve already discussed that a logo is your brand’s identifying mark. But what does this mean? Think of the iconic ‘swoosh’, or the cursive font across soda cans. These are both logos: identifiable without words and do not require an explanation of ownership—the market already knows. Your logo can be a combination of fonts, literal illustrations, or abstract symbols. Over time, and with some effort, these marks become associated with your business and the products you offer consumers.
The goal of marketers everywhere is that their company logo will be identifiable at a glance and can easily spark emotions, thoughts, and feelings. But this can be difficult to do, which is why we’ve highlighted key factors for you to take a look at.
5 Factors to Consider for the Perfect Logo
1. Simplicity
Simple is often associated with being boring, but when it comes to your logo, simplicity is best. Your goal is for your logo to be quickly identifiable, which means you shouldn’t overcomplicate it with fancy fonts or busy images. Keep your logo simple so that it can be rendered in all sizes and shapes. You’ll want to be able to use your logo on letterheads, business cards, banners, and social media posts. Remember: Some of the most iconic brand logos are simple and easily spotted amongst competitors.
2. Timeless
The longevity of your logo is essential to its success. If you want your logo to withstand the test of time (and you’re in business for the long haul, anyway), then it’s best to stay away from trendy images, fonts, and color combinations. Leave the sexy, trendy designs and colors to your yearly or monthly campaigns and let your logo be. This will ensure that when trends come and go, your logo remains purposeful and effective. Remember: Your logo serves your business with purpose and is the identifying mark for your company.
3. Innovative
Innovating your logo means that you can make minor adjustments to help make your current logo stand out from all the others that came before it. With an innovative logo, it still looks good and still represents your business in all its varieties and forms. A great example is Apple. Apple Records, the recording company that featured the Beatles in the 1960s, used a simple, plain apple as their symbol. When Steve Jobs started Apple, his design team took it a step further and took a bite out of the plain, simple apple. This logo is innovative and recognizable globally and still stands out from the one used by the recording company.
4. Versatile
You plan on using your logo in a variety of ways. Versatility extends beyond the overall appearance of your logo and fonts. It also refers to how it looks on banners, in black and white, on a social post, combined with other marketing assets, and when shrunken down to be used on business cards and company pens. Flexibility is an essential factor to consider when designing a symbol for your company, and the more marketing tools you can print with it, the more trust, recognition, and following you can build.
5. Meaningful
Logos are not only meaningful to the consumers who use your products, they’re also a meaningful representation of your company’s story. Having that meaning built right into your logo makes your brand stand out from all the rest. This design element can be tricky to implement, especially if you’re planning to use a design element that has no singular meaning. If you choose a new symbol with no inherent relationship to your company, prepare to spend some marketing dollars on advertising and ascribing meaning to your new symbol. However, your campaigns should pay off when people begin to associate meaningful experiences and memories with your brand and logo, picking your asset out from all the rest on the shelf.
Let Charley Grey Help Elevate Your Brand!
The team at Charley Grey has all the tools necessary to help you elevate your brand, including your logo. When you are a Managed Web Client of ours, you can not only rest assured we’re taking care of your company on the web, but you can rest assured that our team of designers are on your side when it comes to your brand. Let’s freshen up that logo and display it well on your shiny new website! Contact us today to get started!