While designing a logo for your company or brand, there is often a dilemma about how the right logo should look.
Most people try to imitate logos of known brands or doing a mix and match of two or more brand logos ending up in poor lookalike versions.
These logos are prone to copyright issues and also showcase the brand in a poor light.
Keeping the following things in mind would ease out your logo design journey and make it fruitful.
1. Typeface or Fonts
Typeface or fonts are a significant factor that defines how your logo would eventually look. Fonts can make your logo look aged, modern, ethnic, kiddie, etc. Fonts are of four major categories.
Serif fonts
Serif fonts are old style fonts that you would see in old literature books.
These fonts are identified by small outshoots at corners in each alphabet. Using these fonts make the logo a bit dated. So if you want to design a logo for a local church, using Serif fonts may be a good idea.
Sans serif fonts
Sans serif fonts are often square or geometric and look more modern than serif fonts.
A significant difference is due to the serif itself, which is missing in these fonts. Such fonts often look good in clean style new logos.
Script Fonts
These fonts are generally formal and calligraphic. In some cases, they may also look professional. Script fonts are used to show old-style luxury like in hotel logos.
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Decorative Fonts
These are the fonts that don’t belong to any of the above categories.
2. Lines and Shapes
Lines and shapes play an essential role in conveying the overall message and also draw attention to specific areas.
Lines
Lines can be curvy or straight. Curvy lines often draw attention and focus on places where you need user’s attention. Lines are a potent tool for differentiation and emphasis too and can perform a compelling role when used in the right way.
Shapes
Different shapes convey different messages. For example, the circle means continuity whereas the square implies stability.
They are an essential part of the logo and many times a combination of shapes is also used to bring out the right message.
3. Colors and shades
We all love colors, and you will be amazed to know that every color has a distinct meaning. Black stands for authority, boldness, and sophistication. Red for life, anger, love, etc.
Blue represents professionalism and trust. Every color has a different effect on the subtle message given out by your logo.
4. Logo types
There are different types of logo designs..
Wordmark logos
These logos are simple and contain only the name of the brand. Such logos are suitable for start-ups, as they want their name to be known and have a “name only” logo. This avoids any possible distractions that could be caused by using symbols, illustrations, etc. An example of wordmark logos is the facebook logo.
Lettermark logos
These are the logos designed using some shape along with the initial letter(s) of the company name. These logos are suitable for established brands. In most cases, the company initials are brand names. A good example is HP (Hewlett Packard) logo.
Combination mark logos
These are the logos that use a graphic (generally a symbol) along with the brand name. Adidas logo is an example of such a logo.
Emblem logos
These logos use the full brand name or its initial letters merged with the symbol. An excellent example of this type of logo is Harley Davidson Motorcycles logo.
5. Place of use
One crucial factor to be considered while designing the logo is its place of use.
If you want to use the logo on your business cards and letterheads, then do not go for emblem logos. In an emblem logo, the text inside the symbol may not be readable.
Similarly, emblem logos may be the best choice if the logo has to be used on some products in an etched out fashion.
So, when creating a new company logo, you may also want the designer to show you concepts of the wordmark and combination mark logos.
Lettermark and emblem may not be the right option when you want people to know your name. It makes good sense for established names with known symbols to use those symbols with the new name as a combination mark or emblem logo.
