Tips for designing your company logo

A company logo is one of the most important design decisions a business will ever make. It’ll be used everywhere; on your website, on digital or print documents, on advertisements, and any other property in the public eye. It’s important to get the design right the first time.

If you’re thinking to have your logo professionally designed, either by an agency, a freelancer or through a crowdsourcing marketplace, you need to communicate a couple of important things to your designer so the final design best represents your company and is able to support your strategic (and occasionally-  tactical) goals

Below are three key things to share before the design process begins.

Define what your company stands for and its audience

Although designers spend some time learning about your company before they begin working on your logo, it always helps to get some information from behind the scenes. Communicate what you do, what makes you different, what you think your customers/audience love about you, what you want them to think about you, and more.

Help your designer create a logo that stands for your company. Explain the personality of your brand, are you a B2B company, or a B2C company? Retail, Online, or wholesale? These different elements & considerations could determine whether your logo is corporate, or even slightly playful. Pragmatic, or more aesthetic.

Identify the logo style you want

There are three kind of logos, and knowing the difference between them will help you choose what’s best for you.

Icon/ Symbol – Some logos are simply a graphic icon, a simple yet accurate portrayal of the type of company and image. Many big brands use only a symbol logo because they’ve built up their brand in association with this icon.

Word/ Letter Mark – Other brands use a unique typographic representation of their business name. It may be the full name or just initials. Usually the font is custom designed.

Combination Logo – Some logos are a combination of an icon/ symbol and a word/ letter mark. Brands often choose this type of logo when they want to use an icon but need to establish their brand name.

Deciding on the colours you want

Blue – Blue indicates strength, security, dependability, cleanliness, and focus. It is often used in medicine, high-tech, law, dental and science.

Green – Green portrays  wealth, relaxation, growth, and nature. It is used in organic products, ecology, human resources, tourism, and even education.

Red – This color is full of energy, movement, and boldness. Studies have shown that red increases the heart rate and creates a sense of urgency, so is often used for big sale events. It also increases appetite, so many food brands and restaurants use red.

Orange – Orange represents energy through movement. It is used for food, drink, retail, and online services.

Yellow – This is an optimistic colour, youthful and warm. It also indicates clarity, so is used in caution signs. Some studies indicate that, like red, the color yellow increases appetite, which is why many food brands use it.

Purple – Purple often portrays wealth, imagination, calmness, luxury, fantasy, spirituality. Many beauty products use this color.

Black – Stands for luxury, sleekness, accuracy, precision, power, and credibility. Not surprisingly, many companies within the mining, mineral, financial, and manufacturing industries use this color.

Providing your logo designer with these pieces of information in your brief will only improve your experience in getting the right design. If both of you are on the same page from the beginning, it’s much easier to reach a final product you’re happy with.

Dan Ferguson is chief marketing officer of DesignCrowd.com.au