Your company's logo is the foundation of your business branding. It is probably the first interaction that you will accept with your customers. An constructive logo can establish the right tone and set the proper ethos. Afterward years of crafting logos for different projects, I've come up with a set of questions that I e'er enquire myself before delivering a new logo.

1. What emotions does the logo evoke?

Above all pattern guidelines, the most important benchmark is whether the logo reflects the graphic symbol of the visitor. The emotions that the logo evoke should exist appropriate to the company values. For example, the Disney logo evokes a sense of happiness and optimism. The curvy, fun typeface is appropriate for a company that has been making cartoons and animated pictures for kids. However, a similar logo style on a sales platform would non be advisable.

Designers should empathise the psychology of colors and the event that typeface has on the blueprint of a great logo. For example, dark-green promotes relaxation and usually reflects growth, health, and the surround. Red, on the other hand, may evoke danger and passionate emotions. Similarly for typefaces, Garamond, Helvetica, and Comic Sans all elicit very different sentiments. Serif fonts similar Garamond promote the idea of respect and tradition, and are hence more suitable for an environment that demands integrity such equally a academy or a news publisher. Sans Serif fonts like Helvetica are clean and modern, and are well suited for high-tech businesses. Casual script fonts like Comic Sans are probably all-time left for fun companies such equally toy companies. A practiced understanding of the psychology of colors, typefaces, and shapes is an important part of making a bully logo.

The styling of the Disney logo is appropriate for a company that aims to be fun, simply such a fashion would not be appropriate for a sales platform company.

2. What'due south the meaning behind the logo?

Behind every great logo is a story. A great logo is non nigh slapping your business proper noun on a generic shape, which is why choosing from gear up-made logos is a poor idea. A logo has to have a meaningful story. A good designer first understands the culture of the company, the tone of the product, and the vision of the business, much before embarking on ideas for the logo. The end result of a quality logo is reflective of the philosophy and values of the company.

The arrow in the logo represents that Amazon sells everything from A to Z and the smile on the customer'due south confront when they buy a product.

3. Will the logo stand up the examination of time?

How volition the logo look in two, 10, twenty years? Designers should avert getting sucked into flavor-of the-month trends. Trends like ultra-thin fonts and apartment shadows are design styles that volition probably not stand up the test of time. Simple is far better than complex. A simple yet memorable logo can be used in 20 years without looking dated.

A proficient fashion to test the logo is to let it sit with you lot for a while earlier releasing it. Some logos grow with you–the more you look at it, the more yous like it. Some logos start to experience nauseating after a while–the more you lot wait at it, the more you hate it. If later on a couple of weeks with the logo you find it ho-hum, the logo is probably not strong or timeless enough.

The simplistic outline and shape of the Apple tree Inc. logo allows it to endure the test of time. The outset epitome of the logo would definitely not be suitable today.

4. Is it unique? Tin can it exist instantly recognizable?

A great logo is distinctive, memorable, and recognizable. Even if you have but seen it once, you should nevertheless be able to remember what it looks similar after a menstruum of time. A proficient manner to exam this is to show your logo to a friend, then cover information technology upwards and have your friend describe the logo in a week. A fresh pair of eyes can be very effective in figuring out the most memorable components of a logo.

In addition, if the logo reminds you of others you have seen, it is not distinct enough.

The logos of Path and Pinterest are very like.

5. How does it look in black and white?

When I begin designing a logo, I always start in black and white. Designing with this limitation first forces you to make sure that the logo is recognizable purely past its shape and outline, and non past its color. A strong logo is 1 that is withal memorable only past its contours.

A ane-color logo likewise provides the benefit of using your brand hands in multiple mediums with unlike backgrounds and textures.

It is much harder to recognize the National Geographic symbol in one case we remove its signature yellow color.

6. Is it clear and distinct in small dimensions?

Some other way to make sure logos are simple and recognizable is to scale it down dramatically. Even at tiny resolutions, a strong logo should nonetheless be recognizable at a glance. This is besides a good test to make sure that the logo is not complicated with unnecessary design flourishes. Here, yous see that the Nike, McDonalds, Twitter, and WWF logos are nonetheless very singled-out at modest sizes. The GE and Starbucks logos are far more cluttered, and less recognizable when they are small.

These are not hard-and-fast rules, simply guidelines for making an constructive logo. Information technology is even so possible to make a stiff, complicated logo, but understand the trade-offs.

This commodity was edited and republished with permission from the author. Read the original here.