subject: Logo Design- The Leafgrafica way by:Team Leafgrafica [print this page] Team Leafgrafica has been in the 'trenches' for years, with quite a few successful logo and corporate identity projects under its belt.
Here's some design advice from some of the best in the field. It should be noted that most of these tips are not absolutes & you'll probably be able to find examples in our logo design portfolio that will contradict each and every one.
They are, however, a decent set of guidelines that will help you narrow in on the best logo/Identity for your particular requirements.
Learning What A Logo is & What it Represents
Before you design a logo, you must understand what a logo is, what it represents and what it is supposed to do.
A logo is not just a mark - a logo reflects a business's commercial brand via the use of shape, fonts, colour, and / or images.
A logo is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create a logo that will do its job.
Know the Basic Rules & Principles of Logo Design
1. A logo must be describable (Most of the cases)
2. A logo must be memorable / have strong recall value
3. A logo must be effective without colour
4. A logo must be scalable i.e. effective when just a few inches in size
5. A logo needs longevity
6. A logo should be original
A logo doesn't always have to convey what your company does
Think of the FedEx logo. No trucks or planes or crates or cartons (though a cool 'hidden' arrow).
Think the Nike swoosh. No sneakers or golf shirts, no tennis apparel.
While sometimes having a logo that portrays an element of the company is appropriate, it's often better to have a logo that's graphically void of detail - a logo that can be adapted to whatever direction the company takes in terms of growth, service, vertical, products, stakeholders, region etc etc
The Apple logo looks just as cool on an iPod as it does on the top of a Powerbook.
Proper Aspect Ratios
Aspect ratio is the relationship between the height and width of a logo, which is very critical. A logo that is too tall and skinny, or too wide and short, is not visually pleasing, and you'll end up with all sorts of layout issues when it comes to setting up your logo in artwork, especially when combined with other elements (ie: business card,letter heads,Marketing collaterals,staff merchandises, websites, etc).
A logo that is closer to the aspect relationship of a business card, is much more pleasing and more adaptable to working in other artwork, though square is pretty cool and circle logos are very strong visually due to their 'square aspect ratio'.
Logo has to be simple to elicit 'instant impact'
Your logo will probably not have the luxury of being in your audience's eye for a lot of time. In fact,
you probably have a few seconds to 'grab' the viewers attention. If your logo needs to be deciphered,
or has an elaborate 'back story' there's probably little chance that it will communicate the essence of your company, service or product effectively.
The Tagline
A tagline is the phrase or few words that describe a company, or the company's mission/vison/goal or purpose.It is especially relevant if the service/products offered cannot be showcased graphically or if the graphical representation is abstract/different....
They're cool and all, but it's not advisable to include them in the initial design phases of your logo, because the ideating & visualising may get restricted to fitting the tagline to what ever designs that come out.
Long taglines will require a small font that will become illegible at smaller sizes. Also, a tagline can create a lot of visual clutter in many applications. It's always better to have that ever-so clever tagline as a separate element that you can add when appropriate or when doing so will not interfere with the design integrity of your logo itself.
Strive to be meaningfully 'different'.
You'd be surprised how many clients have asked that we design logos that are very similar to their competitors.
Kind of misses the point, no? The idea of your own logo is just that - your own logo. While it can be helpful to look at logos that your competitors are using (or even people in the same industry), this should never be used as a guide to creating your logo.
The idea here is to be different than your competitors. To stand out in a cluttered marketplace.
To have a logo that's better than theirs Or, at the very least - different.
Some web colors cannot be reproduced
In traditional media some web colours cannot be reproduced. And vice versa. Some WEB colors are beyond a CMYK range - meaning that the color cannot be printed using CMYK or Pantone equivalents. To make things more complicated, sometimes WEB safe colors CAN be converted successfully. Best advice - if there's a particular WEB-safe color you wish to use, Leafgrafica's designers will be glad to tell you of it's usability outside of your monitor
If your logo has a metaphor try to keep it as light as possible
While it's nice for your logo to actually 'mean' something (i.e. - the up arrow represents growth, this dot represents our products advantages, the colour represents wisdom etc etc) sometimes clients wish to write 'Shakesperean tale' with their logo's metaphors.
An overworked logo is not a pretty sight. The most memorable logos are also the most simple; the memorable complex logos are often highly rendered illustrations, not clear geometric shapes. Dozens of swooshes,dots and colors - all professing to 'mean' something will not mean anything to the first time viewer even though there might be a cool back story to tell.
Don't change the logo frequently
Once you've developed your logo, it's in your best interest to keep it for quite some time. Brand recognition takes time (some studies state that viewers have to see a logo 6 times - or more - before they'll remember it the next time).
There's an awful lot of logo clutter out there, so only through repetetive sightings will your logo break through.
If you're going to change or update your logo, think very, very long and hard about it. If you decide to go ahead, then make sure you get it right that time. Changing a logo dramatically more than once (in a short period of time) may tell your audience that you're unstable and unreliable.
Isn't it about time you invested in a professional logo/Corporate identity design?
Feel free to contact me at shankar@teamleafgrafica.com or call me on +91 9886048848 to take your Organisations identity to a new level.You could also view our varied portfolio at www.leafgrafica.com
About the author
Team Leafgrafica is what happens when you put maverick designers and geeky programmers with a dash of Creative strategy, in the same room.
For us, growing brands is not about any one discipline.
We are an eclectic mix of people with one thing in common - a passion for design and success, by working on the most challenging briefs. Highly experienced and professional, each team member is committed and competent.
Our approach to visual communication is driven by our close attention to context. We believe that design can only be original and relevant if it finds inspiration from (and specific to) the conditions and circumstances out of which it is required. This means every design project begins with us asking lots of questions. Visual communication is essentially a social process that can only proceed appropriately through collaboration with those people who ask for it and need it. We prefer to work with people and not just for them.
