The process of developing a visual representation, or logo, for a business, organization, or brand is known as logo design. In order to aid clients in recognizing and remembering a firm, logos are often straightforward, identifiable graphics that are used on business cards, websites, products, and advertising materials.
They can contain symbols, words, or a combination of both and are often created to be memorable, significant, and instantly identifiable.
A logo designer is usually hired to take up the task of creating a logo for the client. This is an arduous effort as there are many things to take into consideration when making a logo. Such as the client’s wishes, how they want it to turn out, conceptualizing the ideas in their head, keeping the company’s values and goals in mind, etc.
As the task of designing a logo is strenuous, mistakes are unavoidable, and they are made more often than you would think. That’s where this article comes from. The purpose of this article is to highlight the dos and don’ts of logo design, as well as the common mistakes which are made that should be avoided at all costs.
So, if you’re an up-and-coming logo designer or even a veteran in the field, the following are some things that you should keep in mind when designing a logo:
The Dos of Logo Designs:
The following are some things that should be kept in mind as a logo designer that will propel you into the upper echelon of the logo design industry or simply polish up existing skills.
Simplicity is key
Nowadays, the best type of logo designs, and even the most sought, are often the most simplistic and minimalistic ones. Take, for ex, Facebook, Instagram, Pepsi, google, and many more major corporations. They have all rebranded to a more simple and minimalistic aesthetic. There are reasons for this.
A simple logo is easy to remember and recognize by consumers. The more difficult it is to place a brand to its product or services in a customer’s mind, the more negative the consequences will be for the brand as a whole.
You want your consumers to be able to immediately associate your brand image or logo with your products or services.
Another benefit of simplistic logos is the fact that it is more easily reproducible.
Unforgettable
The logo that you produce should be so unique and visually appealing that consumers couldn’t forget it, even if they tried to!
A memorable logo that people don’t forget helps the brand in more ways than one. Brand recognition is extremely important and should be treated as such.
Versatility
A versatile logo is the best kind of logo. The more places that it can be applied, the better. Whether this is on t-shirts, billboards, posters, merchandise, etc, it should be able to fit in any context or medium, or at least it should try to.
This type of branding is important, as making it so that people can constantly see your product wherever they go makes it so that it becomes deeply ingrained into their minds, even without them necessarily knowing.
Make It Appropriate
Make sure that the logo that you are making appropriately represents the brand in every way possible. This means that it should represent the brand’s values, principles, future goals, etc. Whatever the company represents, the logo should represent it in full.
The following are what you should not do as a logo designer.
The Don’ts of Logo Design:
The following are mistakes that logo designers tend to make, that are easily avoidable. The following are some of these common mistakes:
Over Complicating The Design
As stated previously, the world’s brands and companies are shifting to more minimalistic designs. The landscape of logo designing as a whole has changed in this sense. In order to keep up with your competition, you need to ensure that the designs which you are making are as simplistic and minimalist as possible.
Skilled designers fall into the trap of attempting to create the best designs, and by trying to do so, they end up over complicating the logo. The end result may be aesthetically pleasing, but the chances of it being memorable are very, very low. As discussed previously, a forgettable logo is never a good thing to have. The more complex it is, the more forgettable it is.
In order to void this from happening, try not to use too many colors, as not only will this make it difficult to produce, in both physical as well as digital form, but it will make it less memorable as a whole.
Complicated shapes and effects should also be avoided at all costs if possible. If the shapes are odd and unrecognizable, consumers will not be able to identify the brand.
Trying Too Hard To Keep Up With Trends
The world is constantly changing, and so is the world of logo design, which is changing at a rapid pace. This tends to make logo designers feel the need to keep up with trends as much as possible, but this is a tremendous error on their part that you should look out for.
What they fail to take into consideration is the fact that trends tend to die quickly. In order to make a unique design that could even potentially start a trend in the industry, you should try to make a completely original design that encompasses the values and goals of the brand itself.
Stealing Someone Else’s Logo
Originality is criminally underrated in the logo design industry. There are more frauds in the industry than one would think. Since there are so many designers and logo designs out there, it is unavoidable for there to be thieves who steal the work of others, claiming it to be their own.
The worst part is that since there is such a vast amount of logos in the world, it is extremely difficult for the client to tell if the design being presented to them is genuine or not.
Even if you get away with selling a stolen logo design to a client, it will inevitably be found out to be plagiarized. The question is not one of it, it is one of when.
If you are caught, you will undoubtedly face legal trouble, along with having your reputation of a designer stained forever.
Using Stock Images
Stock images refers to already-created images that are made available for license by paying a fee to both the photographers who took them as well as the stock agencies maintaining them. This grants the licensee the right to use the images legally in a variety of ways while retaining ownership of the original work.
Using stock images is illegal and is a form of plagiarism. It is irrelevant whether it was purchased or not, as the client did not hire you to simply send them pre-made images.
Conclusion:
There are many dos and don’ts in the logo design in the logo design industry. Many logo design services make common mistakes that have been mentioned previously in the article, and they make it more often than you would think.
Hopefully this article gives you more clarity, whether that be as a designer or as a client, of what mistakes not to make, and what traps not to fall into.
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