When a customer is starting a business, the first thing they need to decide upon is their company name and business or branding style, and a logo design is clearly important to reflect all of these things. There are no definitive rules when it comes to producing a logo design, but you need to take many things into account to ensure your logo is compatible for any future applications.
If you look closely at some of the most famous brands in the world, they all have a fairly simple logo design for a number of reasons, because in most cases the logo needs to be practical when being used across all platforms and printed material.
Deciding on a business name.
I work with lots of companies that are just starting a new venture, before they have even decided upon a name, and it can be a difficult process! My usual advice is to research the name thoroughly, if you have a shortlist of potential names, use a search engine to see if there are any existing companies with a similar name. Because it is always better to have a completely unique name, both to stand out from the crowd and to avoid any confusion or disputes.
Search for your perfect web address…
You also need to search for a website address (domain) using any registrar company. If someone else has already registered the web address, you probably need to go back to the drawing board. On the subject of domains, there are no rules when deciding upon a website address, but I would suggest that a shorter website address is preferable, for practical reasons and for marketing material. Most people will remember a domain that is shorter, and the web address is far more visible on printed material if it is fairly short.
Using keywords in your business name / domain…
One school of thought is that using keywords or locations in your business name gives you an advantage on search engines, which has some truth behind it. For example, if you called your business “Swansea Web Designer” you are telling Google exactly what you do and where you are, which can help to improve your search engine rankings.
But I think you need to look at the wider picture. If you want to be a big brand, or a nationally known company, choosing a unique name is more important. The SEO can be effectively achieved with well written website content, so it’s more important that the business name and domain should be memorable and unique.
Consider the future applications.
A logo often needs to be used across many different marketing items, both digital and print. Put a bit of thought into how your logo will be viewed if, for example, it was on a product in a supermarket isle. Of course it needs to stand out, it needs to be clearly readable / identifiable from a distance, or in small format.
Product packaging.
Some of my logo design projects have been used in product packaging, and each logo was designed with the physical size of their products in mind. Take for example, a small cosmetics bottle, clearly the logo needs to be very compact and simple, so it is easily recognised when printed on a small makeup bottle. Similarly, for a series of vape products, the packaging is extremely small, so the logo needed to be created with this in mind.
Shop signage.
Some logos will need to be produced for shop signage, or vinyl cutting. Again, the simplicity of a logo is essential for projects like these. You can not use very fine, fiddly graphics or photographic gradients. This is often the reason logos use only flat colours, because if it is cut out of vinyl, it needs to be created using single coloured vinyl.
Choosing a colour scheme.
On the subject of printing, the colours can be extremely important to ensure the logo is compatible with all possible applications. Like in vinyl printing, or flatbed printing, or traditional digital printing – some colours just aren’t achievable using CMYK inks. For example, using RGB you can achieve a very vibrant luminous yellow, which is totally impossible using inks.
So the colours chosen for a logo design should be compatible with all possible printing processes. Of course, some companies may only need a digital version of their logo, but you should always keep your options open! If your business became a huge success, you may need to apply your logo to all kinds of merchandise in the future, so you may as well get it right.
Choosing a font.
When I start a logo design project, choosing the font is often where I start. In some cases a very clean, modern Sans Serif font will suit the business style. But if the company is going for a more traditional feel, a Serif font may suit their branding style. On occasions you can experiment with a more funky, decorative font, or a hand-written style / calligraphy font.
In most cases, when the customer tells me their business name and their industry, I immediately get a vision of what the logo design should look like. But occasionally it doesn’t look quite right when applied to a computer screen! In these cases, I believe old fashioned pencil and paper sketching is the only way to create new ideas, before attempting to create it digitally.
Creating an icon.
For most logos I create, I will keep in mind the applications for a social media profile photo, where a small icon always works well. Also for a website icon, the extremely small icon you see in Google search results, these can be very important to a company’s brand.
Again, this reinforces the reasons why simplicity is vital when creating a logo design. A good icon will be a very simple shape, with specific brand colours that can be recognised immediately.
Looking for a logo design?
If you are looking for a professional logo design to start your new venture, take a look at some of my previous branding projects or view my Logo Design services…