Logo Design Tips That Influence Your Business

Logos are what represents the ideologies of a brand in a single graphic. Logos are what people use to instantly relate to the brand or company the logo belongs to. It's like a face to the brand and eventually this is what people would always remember about the company. The human mind is very expressive pictorially, so when you speak out a company’s name you would immediately picturise the product and its logo in your mind. Its obvious Graphics have a powerful impact on our minds. This article is about how you can make an even deeper impact by making your logo impressive and expressive.

01. Research
Before you begin working on anything its essential to run a research. You need to thoroughly understand what logos mean, what it stands for and what you have to achieve with a logo. Basically logo is an imperative part of any brand recognition campaign. So you have to begin by checking out the target audience, this will help you define a plan for your design.

You then need to check out logos online and then work out the features that have worked and haven’t worked for those logos. Also compare the logos of your competitors, see what they have focused on.

You have to actively discuss all your findings with the client to ensure that you have understood things the way they want you to.

02. Know the brand
Spend time knowing your client better, who they are, what they do and their demography. If they have previously used logos, check them out, what do you find missing that doesn’t represent them.

03. Don't let clients dictate
It's true you have to present their views and ideas, but more than that you have to ensure that the logo is iconic and memorable as well. So you have to design a logo that is the ultimate representation of the brand, so remember to steer your clients in the right direction whenever they go off track with the design elements.

04. Sketch it out
Stick to using the pen and paper while making your first few sketches as they help you focus on the larger picture leaving the finer details for later. This works out better and faster.

05. Create vectors
The best way to proceed after pencil sketches is to reproduce these ideas using vectors. Illustrator CS6 will enable you to rescale your images. You can they copy –paste the same on photoshop as a ‘smart object’
06. Choose your typeface
Typography is an important part of your logo design. You can either use an existing typeface (and then play with them to make them more creative) or you could custom create a typeface. While making a custom typeface keep it simple and fresh so that it is legible.

07. Avoid gimmicky fonts
To keep your logo professional and acceptable to all avoid using gimmicky fonts. Your logo should should not end-up looking too fancy or weak or resemble any of the multitude of business cards that use them.

08. Create suitable variants
Remember your logo may have to be put up on different products and hence they would have to be often scaled down or in some cases blown up. So check out how the logo you created looks in different sizes. The logo must be legible at all sizes and on all surfaces like newspapers or on gadget screens like mobiles and laptops. So take out a print to see whether it is legible, now print variations of the same weight, type and style.

Now when it comes to the non-print variants, create insignia versions of the logo and ensure that they can be used for real life applications like badges, uniforms or billboards.

09. Remove as much as possible
This is a great way of getting rid of all the unwanted aspects of your design. If your design can work without an element then it shouldn’t be there. You should be able to rationalize each and every element even a stroke of your design, all the other stuff should be removed.

10. Create a lock up version
A lock-up usually refers to a logo coupled with a tag- line. Lock ups are a great way of representing data or adding some spunk to your entire design. But remember that your logo should not rely entirely on the tag line. Both should convey the right message separately as well.

11. Future-proof
Logos should be made totally future – proof. Companies themselves change their profiles and what they deal with as time goes by. So don’t make your logo too literal, even though all aspects of the logo may not be sustainable over time, aspects of it should truly reflect the company as well as stand the test of time.

Basically a logo should represent the brand in all its totality, be easy to understand, attractive, easy to reproduce on various surfaces and long lasting. This is the perfect logo.