What is your understanding of a logo? A name written in a fancy font, an attractive icon, or maybe something containing a dash of colors and a tinge of appeal? Well, if that is what you think it is, you have been wrong the whole time. A logo is much more than a combination of the elements mentioned above. It is a complete package of the brand’s core ingredients that help form its identity. This identity of a brand is then illustrated in the form of a logo that appropriately reflects the exact nature of the brand.
SEE ALSO: Places Where Your Logo Can Be Used
Hence, developing a company’s logo is no child’s play. It requires timeless efforts and heaps of creative knowledge to come up with a unique logo design that could capture the attention of the company’s target audience.
How to develop a company logo will be our focus for this particular article.
Think Wise, Design Exclusive
The first phase of the logo designing process calls for brainstorming which necessitates a flow of ideas that would later go into the next phase. The designer should allow his mind to wander freely, during this phase, for the sake of welcoming a variety of ideas. At this particular stage, the practicality of the ideas should not be the designer’s concern. Putting constraint to the thoughts is likely to get the designer reject ideas that could turn out to be masterpieces.
After this phase, the designer tends to filter the ideas by selecting the ones that seem viable and rejecting the ones that are either not practical or do not go with the general image of the brand. A wise designer, by this time, probably would have decided the style and approach to go with.
Now, comes the phase where the designing takes place. With an idea already there in the designer’s mind, this stage of the design process becomes less of a hassle. Bear in mind that a brilliant idea may not always translate into an exclusive design. Designing is a completely separate domain, in which only the right amount of skills and expertise can help a designer develop a unique logo. Therefore; while going about the hiring process, make sure that the designer you have hired is an expert in the task so that the final phase of the process demands fewer revisions and more appreciations.
Know Your Brand
While going through the different phases of the design process, it is extremely important for the designer to possess an extensive understanding of the brand. Taking into consideration the following questions could prove to be useful:
• What needs does the brand fulfill?
• Is there any hidden meaning behind the brand’s name?
• Who’s the target market?
• What benefits does the brand provide?
• What is the brand’s Unique Selling Point?
Apart from knowing his own brand, the designer also needs to understand the competitor’s brand. This would allow the designer to come up with ideas better than that of the brand’s immediate competitor.
By implying the importance of competitor analysis, we do not suggest the designer add a few features to the existing design of the competitor; emulation should never be the agenda of a designer. The analysis should only be done for the sake of understanding the competitor’s strategy for capturing customers so that a better tactic could be designed for one’s own brand.
Icon or Word Mark
Whether to go for an icon or a word mark depends upon the name of the brand. If the name of the brand is distinct in nature, a word mark would do well, however; if the name’s not unique, the logo would need an icon to break through the clutter.
Coca-Cola, Ray-Ban, and Disney have been flaunting their word marks for decades. The reason that their word marks have made a mark in the history of brands is that no brand has a name close to the one these brands own. Hence, even if a brand tends to steal the font that Coca-Cola, Ray-Ban, or Disney has used, the logo of these brands will still remain unique.
Keep it Simple with a Twist
A logo should be simple enough to allow the customers to build an instant connection with the brand. This may sound like a boring idea, however; a designer can always add a twist to the design. A logo with a hidden meaning can be developed to spice things up. Ensure that the whole concept of the logo should not be depicting a hidden meaning so as to avoid confusion. A good logo is always the one that its customers can comprehend right away by looking at it. Finding the hidden meaning could be a time-consuming task and hence, keeping it as the base of the design would be a bad idea. However; making it a part of a design is never prohibited in any case.
A great example of the same is that of the FedEx logo which is simple enough to understand, however; requires attention to decipher the hidden meaning that it possesses.
Instant Success Shouldn’t be the Motive
Companies that aim for instant success often remain disappointed with their designs. Designs take time to penetrate the market. Visibility of a design hence cannot be attained soon after the logo’s launched into the market. The company should always remain patient with the results while not pressurizing the designer to make frequent changes to the work as these changes could result in creating confusion in the minds of the consumers.
Good marketing tactics and patience with the design will help the company obtain the results that they desire.
Conclusion
Developing a company’s logo is a tedious task that requires the right amount of knowledge and skills to bestow the brand with a visual identity. This visual identity is likely to remain with the company for long and hence needs to be perfect. Changing the company’s logo is not an easy task, therefore; following the steps mentioned above a designer can make the job, of developing a company logo, worthwhile in the first go.