Tips For Creating The Perfect Logo

We live in a very visual world these days. While it is important to not judge a book by its cover, it can sometimes be hard not to when Instagram and dating apps have become things we look at every day. That said, having a logo that really speaks to your brand is critical. It’s a visual that tells people what you’re all about. You don’t want people to swipe right when they come across it so here are our biggest tips on how to create the perfect logo for your brand.

Ask yourself, what’s my brand’s personality?

Your logo should communicate your business’ personality. A good way to get to the bottom of this is to answer the question, how would you want your ideal customer to describe you? What are your business’ values?

Get inspiration.

What are some of your favorite logos? What are logos you don’t care for? Create a mood board of your favorite logos and one of your least favorite ones. Doing this can help you identify you what you like and what you don’t when it comes to design. Doing this can help you see if you want your logo to be classic, vintage, modern, minimalistic, or fun? If can also help you determine if you like certain colors and want them associated with your brand.

Keep it simple.

You want your logo to be easy on the eye. Don’t add to much detail. The most recognizable brands have simplistic logos. Check out this post which shows the evolution of McDonald’s logo.

McDonald’s original logo from 1940 is very different from how it looks today. Back then, it had black font and read ‘McDonald’s Famous Barbecue.’ In 1953, McDonald’s incorporated their then mascot, a chef name Speede, into their logo. Seven years later in 1960, McDonald’s  adopted its iconic red and yellow colors into its logo and dropped Speede. It added its name underneath the logo. In 2006, McDonald’s made their logo even simpler. For the past twelve years, it’s just now known for its’ golden arch.

Choose your colors carefully.

Color psychology is the study of how colors impact human behavior and emotion. Different colors can provoke different responses. For example:

Red is known for being an extreme color. It represents loudness, love, violence, anger, and adventure.

Orange is synonymous with joy, warmth, originality, enthusiasm, and creativity.

Because yellow is the brightest color, it represents happiness, optimism, enlightenment and clarity.

Green is an interesting color. On the hand it is the perfect color to use for eco-friendly brands as it makes people think of nature, growth, harmony, and fertility. On the flip side, green can also make people think of money so it’s another good option for financial businesses.

Blue symbolizes calmness and trust.

You get purple when you mix blue and red together. As such, this color is associated with power, royalty, and wealth.

It’s hard to not think of femininity when you think of pink, but it can also translate to sweet, playful, romantic, charming, and tenderness.

Brown provokes a sense of earthiness, rustic, strength, and reliability.

Black is a great color to use if your brand offers something that is sleek, modern, and luxurious.

White symbolizes clean, modern, and minimalism.

Gray can help you achieve a mature, classic, and serious look.

Make sure the logo can scale.

No matter what size the logo is scaled to, you want to make sure it is able to stand out. You don’t want it to be blurry if it’s reduced to a small size. You want people to understand it.

Consider using a symbol.

Symbols are powerful. We can’t deny that when we see a swoosh symbol we think of Nike, or when we see an apple icon our mind wanders to Apple. Maybe there is a simple symbol related to your business that you can design and incorporate into your logo.

Do public testing.

You may think your logo looks great, but what does the public think? Get a test group together and show them a few logo designs that you have. A test group can provide you constructive criticism and new ideas on what’s working and what isn’t. Sometimes it’s good to get out of your head and soundboard your ideas off of others.

Want some more logo inspiration? Check out some logos we’ve designed over the years.