![What Makes a Good Logo? How to Create a Logo [Tips & Guide]](https://www.ephatech.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/pexels-christina-morillo-1181248-2.jpg)
The right logo is an important part of your company’s public image. Properly implemented and placed, logos can turn a company into a real brand, and create an identity that will be remembered by your target audience.
Think of the signature Nike swoosh, the famous bitten apple, or the curved M over fast-food restaurants.
But how is it possible to design a logo that identifies the company so to the point it can stand on its own? We explain the procedure for logo development and what is important for a good company logo.
The approach to logo designing: ask the right questions
Creative logo development is not a process that arises from nothing. Before you can start the creative phase, you have to create an appropriate information base. To do this, you need to answer a few basic questions.
The following questions will ensure you have the knowledge you need to do a good job. As always, there is never too much information. Gather as much information about your company as possible. All of this information is filtered at a later stage and flows into the logo development.
Only with this knowledge base is it possible to design a logo that your company reflects and unmistakably belongs to you. In the following part, we have put together a selection of possible questions, which are clustered according to general company information and specific questions about the design.
General questions about your business
- Which target group(s) should be addressed and what makes them different?
- What is your company and what does it stand for?
- What special features does your company have in relation to the competition?
- The Golden Circle: What are the why, the how, and the what of your business?
- Is there a clear style guide for your corporate identity?
Specific questions about the planned logo
- What objective (image, statement) should the logo convey? What should be communicated?
- Which character traits of the company should the new logo reflect?
- Is international use planned and if so, in which countries?
- Are there any references or inspirations that should flow into the development of the logo?
- Should the logo consist of a font or a pictogram or a combination?
- Is there a slogan in addition to the logo and what is it?
- Should shape, color, and font match the corporate image or should this be redefined in the course of the logo development?
- What font and colors (RGB and CMYK color values) should be used?
The 4 most important factors of logo design
The first letter of a company can sometimes serve as a starting point for a logo.
Each logo is unique. Nevertheless, there are some factors that have established themselves as universally valid. If you use this as a guide when developing your logo, you ensure that your logo can be used in a meaningful way.
A logo must be simple and clear
Why do steakhouses like to use abstract representations of beef in their logo? Why does a company called Apple use an apple as a distinguishing feature? And why does the NGO WWF use a panda as its trademark?
The explanation is very simple: It’s all about clear, unambiguous communication. Each logo should always be designed as simply and clearly as possible. After all, it’s about building a brand, and that only succeeds if your logo can be assigned to you immediately.
Your logo must be usable in a media-neutral way
Your company logo will be used in a wide variety of media. The logo can appear anywhere, from online media such as social media or your website to print advertising, advertising material, and posters to classic media such as television.
Correspondingly, it is important that you take this versatility into account when creating the logo. Your logo must comply with all applicable regulations and its design must work without problems when used in different media.
Your logo should work in black and white or inverse
As already mentioned, your logo will be used in a wide variety of contexts. While your website header might have a colored background, the appropriate spot for your logo on the flyer could be plain white.
So when developing the logo, keep in mind that the logo has to be varied. Therefore, it should also work in black and white or inverse. This is the only way to ensure that your logo can be used equally in every situation.
The logo should be clearly recognizable even if it is small
Your logo will be used in different sizes. Sometimes it’s very big on a billboard, and sometimes it’s very small, e.g. on the edge of a flyer or as branding in a social media post.
Therefore, when developing the logo, you must remember that the logo is clearly recognizable even in small formats. So make sure there is enough space between individual elements so that the display is not unclear and incomprehensible as soon as it gets smaller.
The procedure for developing a company logo
Ddid you ask the right questions and also have the 4 core factors for logo development in mind? Then the creative process can finally begin.
How this actually looks depends on the person who designs your logo. Some start with the letters, and others first try the corresponding pictogram and thus approach the design.
Others, on the other hand, work completely freely or go the way of comparable references. In the creative process, everything is allowed that ultimately leads to a meaningful result.
We would be happy to offer specific instructions here. However, creative processes are so different that it is difficult to present a corresponding panacea. Find the way that works for you. And above all: Try out a lot of different options!
No matter what this process looks exactly like: a complete derivation and documentation of the logo development are always helpful. So keep a record of the various steps that ultimately led to the finished logo.
This allows you to show exactly which elements were used or put together, why, and how. This also makes it possible to start again at an earlier stage if necessary.
Order, contrast & reduction
Test your logo on your target audience.
A logo always fulfills two core tasks: On the one hand, your company should represent itself appropriately, on the other hand, your target group must be able to understand and assign the logo directly.
Often times you may come up with multiple logo variations that work for you. Then it can make sense to test these different logos with the target group in order to make an informed decision for a variant.
Market research is the magic word. And you can also implement this as a small or medium-sized company without too much effort.
First, you can e.g. include your employees in the process and present the different variants to you in a completely unbiased manner. This gives you a good picture of which variant your employees feel represented by. It also gives your employees the feeling of being involved in important decisions.
You can then proceed in various ways. You can e.g. for example, go through a market research institute that tries out your logo versions on test persons.
Alternatively, you can also become active yourself and Let the community decide. If you embed the voting on a logo in a competition, this has the advantage that you will receive a large number of opinions.
The disadvantage, of course, is that the logo development is being carried out publicly in the final stages. At the same time, your community gets the feeling of being involved in important company decisions.
Regardless of how you test your logo: in the end, it is about your message reaching your target group and the logo creating the necessary recognition value, which is unmistakably linked to your company in memory.
