18 Apr 7 Things You Need to Know About Your Business Logo

You may be happy with your current business logo, but have you checked if it’s well designed? Does it have all the basic elements it should? Does it fit your needs? Here we will summarize in seven points the common logo mistakes that you may not have noticed, but that impact on your brand.

• TOO COMPLEX 

  Some people (and their designers) go crazy and want to put every single detail of a business in a logo when a logo should mainly say one thing – the one thing you want everyone to see right away. Sure, there is more in a logo than just text, there could be a pictogram, a monogram, a little illustration, colors or a combination of those; either way, think about it like this: can you print your logo on a pen and still read all the text and distinguish all the images? If not, then it’s not optimized and it needs to be decluttered, so it can speak louder and clearer about the one single thing your company represents.

• NOT COMPLEX ENOUGH 

  This seems to contradict the first point but it doesn’t. Some logos just don’t include enough elements to make it a real logo. The main thing that makes a TERRIBLE logo is not being able to read the name properly, or even worse, the complete lack of a name or title. Pretending you’re already Nike and everyone is going to recognize you by an abstract symbol, a monogram, or a weirdly shaped typography is a crime, not only in the design world but also from a marketing perspective. As a startup or even a mid-sized company, you need your clients, customers and everyone to know the name of your business, a name that they can google and remember. Make sure your name is always present in your logo.

• DEPENDS TOO HEAVILY ON COLOR 

  Yes, color is one of the most important visual elements, it changes the look and feels of any design, but your logo must work using only one color too. If it relies too heavily on color (or even worse on transparency or other effects) then your logo won’t be flexible to all the surfaces it will have to occupy; for example, when printed on bills or the top of an image for social media. If you don´t consider this your logo will suffer, it won’t be legible, and your whole brand will take a step down. To be a professional logo it must have the right color choices.

• IT’S COLORED ACCORDING TO YOUR TASTE, NOT YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS 

  “I like purple so I’ll make my restaurant’s logo purple”. Ack, such a big mistake! You must build your entire corporate identity around your customers and what would make them feel comfortable buying from you or working with you. Some more intimate brands, such as those that make handmade products, or in-person business may use logos according to the owner’s taste, but as a way of making them more relatable to their customers not just to make it “pretty”.

• YOUR LOGO DOESN’T REPRESENT YOUR BRAND 

  This is such a major deal breaker! Everything in your company should go along with the same principles, as well as your logo. A bad business logo doesn’t reflect the company’s spirit.

• NOT CHECKING YOUR COMPETITORS’ LOGO 

  Let me clarify, this means you can check them but not copy them! If the typography on all their logos is in caps and bold it’s probably for a reason, but that reason may or may not work for you, so you can’t just follow the crowd. See what elements you have in common and what sets you apart from them and work on those. Get the most out of what makes you unique.

• VISUAL ELEMENTS THAT CARRY THE WRONG MESSAGE 

  Keeping critical thinking in perspective, it’s fundamental to ensure that only the right message is being conveyed. This is particularly important if a logo will represent you or your brand across different cultures, countries or even age groups. Designers need to apply a critical perspective that makes them able to translate visual elements into a clear message. Thus, they must be able to identify and avoid shapes, forms, or possible perspectives that might be misinterpreted, mistaken, or might distract the viewer from the desired message to be transmitted.

There is no exact recipe for having the perfect logo. It depends on the values of your brand, on the style of your service, on the status you want to represent, on the cost of your services, among other factors. Therefore, when deciding your business logo, you should hire designers that know how you could get the best representation of your ideas into an appropriate logo. At Design106 you can count on us to create an effective and good looking brand that will drive your customers, guaranteed!

About Design106:

We are a Fort Lauderdale design firm built on the idea that high-quality work is the only way to work. We offer our best concepts and talent to create well-executed brands and position them for long-term success at a fair price. We offer a wide variety of services with expert and talented professionals who work together to come up with the best-customized strategies for your business. From marketing collateral design to a full new e-commerce website, check out our services and let us help you ensure your success.

Note: the graphics in this post were designed specifically for Design106’s blog, some were used as an example extracted from freepik.es. The pictures used where freely extracted from pexels.com