Logo Blog

A company’s logo is the most important piece of their branding strategy. Nike, McDonald’s, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Target, with just the mention of these companies you can recall their logos. A logo is the single most recognizable image and often the first thing a customer notices about a company.

Through fonts, imagery, colors and overall design, a logo portrays the business’ personality. A well-designed logo should have the potential customer feeling trustworthy and confident in the company’s brand.

I recently read an article that described a logo as the “clothes” of a company. While the clothes a person wears do not immediately define a person, they reveal a person’s character. Think of an attorney, a more professionally dressed attorney in a suit will appear more confident and knowledgeable, than if that same attorney would present his/her case in sweatpants and a t-shirt. A company’s logo needs to represent the brand in a way that reveals what the company is selling.

The first step in a good logo design is to define the target market of the business. Who is your business selling to? This can help narrow down the font choices. San serif fonts are more modern and appeal to a younger audience, whereas serif fonts appeal to a more mature audience. If your business is trying to appeal to all age groups, then maybe a blend of san serif and serif fonts would work best. Whatever font is chosen it is important to insure the clarity and the ability for the logo to be scaled. This will be the first time a potential customer is reading your company name, so it has to be legible whether it is on a billboard or on a small giveaway like a pen.

The next step in creating your logo would be the symbol or icon of the logo. All the aforementioned companies, now known by a symbol, did have fonts associated with the logo when the companies first began. The imagery in a logo needs to speak to the audience the same way a font does. The symbol should be a clean, solid image reflecting some aspect of your company.

Take Nike for example, according to Wikipedia; “The swoosh also represents half of a running track. Take the “swoosh” and flip it to create a whole running track…a simple design that is fluid and conveys motion and speed. The logo is also said to symbolize the wing of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike.”[1][2] The symbol of your logo can have multiple meanings but it is best to define the meaning of your logo in the company branding guide.

The final step on creating a company logo is color. Millions upon millions of colors and color combinations exist in the world, but it is important to choose the correct one to help symbolize your brand. Colors have multiple meanings: blue – peaceful, calming, tranquil; green – life, growth, healing, money; purple – spirituality, passion, royalty; yellow – joy, intellect, energy and warmth. Companies need to think of the meanings of colors and how they will reflect on their image.

One thing to think about when choosing colors, is the cost of printing. When ordering business cards, letterhead, embroidery or giveaway items there are occasions where you can be charged per color. While multiple color logos may work for some companies, try to keep your colors to a maximum of two. Fewer colors will help to simplify the logo, while also keeping costs down.

No matter what color(s) you choose it is always best to have the logo transferred to a white logo for instances where your logo may appear on a dark background, as well as a black logo, for printing in black and white such as a newspaper or program ad. And finally, with your color options, choose colors from the Pantone Matching System (PMS). Choosing a color from this source will assign a value for CMYK, RGB and HEX, this guarantees your color will print the same across all commercial printers and appear correctly online.

A logo is an important part of your company’s brand, and should not be taken lightly. For help on designing a logo or a rebrand or your existing logo, please contact Em-Media to set up a meeting.

  1. “Nike Logo”. Famous Logos.
  2. “Creator of Nike’s famed Swoosh remembers its conception 40 years later”. OregonLive. 2011-06-15.

 

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