5 Steps To Logo Design

Things to consider for a logo.

The logo is one of the most important aspects of your organization. It is the face of your company. People are going to remember your brand by the look, the presentation and appearance of the logo.

The organization is more important than an individual or a team. The individuals may change, the team can be changed but the business must go on to last for many years to come. How do you choose a universally appealing timeless logo for a business venture that appeals to a larger audience sometimes being loved not only in a small community or country but over continents all over the world?

When a logo is such an important aspect of your business other than the name and quality of the product, what are the important ingredients to choose and to use to give it that grand "Look"?

Out of many important things to consider about the logo I am going to discuss the TOP 5 RULES.

Before you even consider designing a logo consider the following carefully.
#1 First of all note down the qualities and values of your business or organization.

#2 Identify your target customers. Do you know your customers well?

#3 What are the services and products do you offer? 

The look of your logo will depend on the all these things put together.

Let us assume that the name has already been chosen.

Before we even start to keep one important rule in mind.

"KEEP IT SIMPLE"

Now that we have clearly put this rule above all the rules let us discuss the 5 rules.

#1 Appearance

A logo should be pleasing to the eye. When you take a look at a logo it should have a striking look. It should appeal in such a way that one can remember it. Logos are meant to leave a deep impression on the mind and memory. 

#2 Font

The font should be a clear typeface with serif or sans serif. These days many organizations use sans serif fonts.

This is not a good example of a logo.

Curved alphabets are sending confusing signals.

The most loved and famous logos are the ones that do not have intrinsic or complex details that make it difficult for the human mind to remember it. The font should be easy, clear and readable from a close-up and from a distance. It should be a font that is visible in any font size be it small or large.

The above example is a simple font but so many curves used with logo D that it makes it difficult to imitate.

#3 Color

Modern logos carry hidden, subtle and also many obvious meanings to the logo to stir emotions. 

For example, Orange and Yellow are connected to food and it can make a person feel hungry. The black colour is mysterious and classy. Blue colour emanates soothing and calm effect. Red is for energy and action. White can stir emotions of peaceful nature. Green is for herbs and mother earth. Pink for passion. Purple is for royalty and deep loving emotion. By now you can understand how the colours work on the emotions and hence colour is the most essential step in determining the look of a logo.

#4 Shape

A logo can be the name of the company itself or some companies like to choose a symbol with the name of the company. 

A circle gives the sense of a community. Squares or rectangles or lines with sharp edges are masculine in nature. Curves are usually associated with feminine products. Triangle is associated with power. These can be used to decide the shape of a logo. 

Best examples are Apple logo with a bite or facebook logo with alphabet f placed towards the right side inside a square with rounded edges. Human mind perceives things in shapes and sizes. Hence a shape is very important to represent the product in the logo.

#5 The Golden Ratio 1.6

Since ancient times mankind has been in awe regarding the universe. The beautiful plants, flowers, the human body and animals. It is believed that the most beautiful things in the whole universe are based on this Golden Ratio of 1.6. 

A logo should be clearly visible in small size as well as big size. Some logos with script font are not readable when the size is reduced. Such things should be taken into consideration when designing a timeless logo.

Armed with the knowledge of these rules one should give a close look at the mission statement of the company, the spirit of the company and the product they want to sell or portray. Then keeping these values of the company in mind one should use the rules to design a logo.

Let us say you want to start a business of fashion products then the logo should be stylish for example Chanel. It has a classy symbol logo with two half rings conjoined together.

If it's jewellery product then use a more classy font that appears to be handwritten, more personalized for example Cartier which uses a semi script font.

One can use sans serif fonts keeping in mind the budget oriented products.

There are no hard and fast rules for using a script or straight fonts for luxury or budget oriented products. But one can use these rules as guidelines to come up with a logo matching with the product and mission statement and values of the company.

After a beautiful and meaningful logo is created one must work on presenting the business to the world by branding the business.