How to decide on your logo design

Your logo is one of the most important elements of your business. It’s a necessary part of your branding and can be responsible for how people understand and interpret your work, how memorable you are, how people perceive the quality of your products or service, and how interested people are in working with you.

It serves as an instant visual reminder in which your whole reputation, branding and products hang – and getting it right is key. In a single graphic, it should capture your ideologies and industry cohesively.

Keep it simple

Firstly, a logo needs to be simple. Think of some of the most iconic ones on the market – Apple, the London Underground, Coca-Cola, Tesco… when you summon these to mind, instantly you’ll think of basic graphics, block colours and memorable fonts. Making it detailed doesn’t necessarily make it better, even if you look at your logo and think it seems too simplistic for what you do.

Stick in people’s minds

Ultimately, it’s about ensuring whatever graphic you choose is memorable. The simpler it is, the easier it’ll be to recall. It’s also important it relates to your industry, both in terms of associated colours and style. This will ensure people are able to instantly bring it to mind when they think of what you do. It’s important to research your audience and get a sense of what they’re used to seeing. The more unique your logo is, the more it’ll stay in their mind – but it still needs to fit within the overall market so have a look at your competitors’ logos.

Getting the colour right

You may have a favourite colour you want to use, but the top logos on the market can all be categorised into the types of emotions they evoke – and this is something you need to tap in to.

For example, monochrome colours (black, grey, white) evoke a sense of balance, calm and neutrality. These include logos such as Nike, Apple, The Telegraph and Puma.

Green is often used for health brands and is considered peaceful. It symbolises nature, growth and health. Think brands such as Whole Foods Market or Tropicana. For leisure and relaxation, there’s Land Rover and Holiday Inn.

If you want to suggest your business is dependable, strong and trustworthy, then blue is the colour for you; think Wikipedia, Vimeo, Dell, HP, Facebook, IBM and Oral-B.

Purple gives the sense of creativity, imagination and wisdom – ranging from Barbie to Hallmark, Cadbury to Yahoo. It’s also a very rich and luxurious colour.

Red has vibrancy and impact on its side and denotes excitement, boldness and youth – there are many brands that have this colour for their logo including Coca-Cola, Virgin, Lego, Canon, Kellogg’s and Nintendo.

When it comes to feeling friendly, cheerful and exuding confidence, there’s orange – used by the likes of Fanta, Amazon, Nickelodeon and Firefox.

Finally, yellow creates an aura of optimism, clarity and warmth – think Ikea, GHL, McDonalds, Subway, UPS and Ferrari.

Font choices

Often, a logo will feature your brand name in a specific font. In this instance, it’s important you pay a lot of attention to getting the font right as this will hold a lot of meaning to your branding and message. Firstly, it needs to be clear and legible to read. It also needs to be unique – don’t opt for something that looks too similar to another logo as it’ll feel confusing.

It’s also important it feels right for the industry you’re working in – something very strong, bold and macho won’t always work for a creative, female-led industry that may suit a more relaxed, cursive script. You’ve also got to imagine how it will look on all your products and branding and whether it would actually work cohesively. It’ll be with you for a long time and will be hard to change further down the line, so it’s important it works from the get go.

Get in touch

Ready to launch a new business with a new logo? Contact us today at Yellow Marshmallow to find out how we can help you with your logo design and branding, as well as web development, social media management and search engine optimisation.