How to design a logo: 15 pro tips

How to design a logo isn’t something you learn overnight. It requires a theoretical foundation, creative skill, patience and a trained eye that comes from a lot of practice. Designers gain experience working with a range of different clients and go through numerous iterations to develop the skills needed to forge and refine a strong brand identity.

The right logo is recognizable and memorable. Paired with the right product, it can become an invaluable asset – think the Nike Swoosh, McDonald’s golden arches and the Michelin man. But logo designs like this don’t happen by accident. But anyone can take a leap forward by learning from the golden rules of logo design, which should be respected before they are broken.

Reading: How to create a good logo

Most successful logo designs have common traits that can help us to learn how to design a logo for ourselves or for a brand we work for. In the guide below, we’ve broken things down into 15 golden rules for designing a logo, from conception to execution.

Starting with the former, let’s first look at how to design a logo from scratch with David Airey’s 10 rules for the perfect logo. We then turn to successfully implementing a design as part of a broader brand strategy with tips from brand content strategist Nick Carson.

If you need the right tools to create your logo design, check out our picks for the best graphic design software. And if you need more pointers, don’t miss our roundup of logo design inspiration, our pick of the best 3 letter logos of all time, and our recommended 11 steps to creating better logos. If you’re looking to expand your design skills to cover the burgeoning areas of UX and UI design, enroll in our UX Design Foundations online course (opens in a new tab).

Why Learn How to Design a Logo?

First, let’s remember why logo design is so important. A logo is usually the first trademark a potential customer sees. It’s also usually the piece that impresses us the most and sticks with us the longest (if it’s successful). A logo can tell us a lot about a brand, including (sometimes) what a brand does and what it stands for. When consumers rely on a logo design, they are often more inclined to invest their time or money into the company or product.

Logo design is by no means the only element of successful branding, but it’s a must Be right from the start as it is often at the heart of the overall branding strategy. And while most designers can create a reasonably decent logo, it takes a special mix of design skills, creative theory, and skillful application to create a logo design that’s truly unique, appealing, and memorable. Check out our pick of the best logos for examples.

How to Design a Logo: The Golden Rules

There are hundreds, even thousands, of brands vying for our attention , and This means brands need to differentiate themselves visually. This differentiation is achieved through brand identity design – a set of elements that work together to create a distinctive image of the brand in our minds. Brand identity design can include everything from uniforms, vehicle graphics, business cards, product packaging, billboard ads and coffee mugs and other collateral to photographic style and font choices.

When you think about a person, your affected life in some way, you can probably imagine what she looks like. The same applies to brands. And a logo acts as the face of a brand, allowing people to connect with it and remember it. The goal of logo design should therefore be to create something that people can easily imagine when thinking about their experience with a product, company or service.

If we do something consider, we do not read first. Above all, we see shapes, we see colors, and if that’s enough to grab our attention, then we read

When we look at something, we see shape and color before we read. Only when that’s enough to get our attention do we start reading. The job of designers is to distill the essence of a brand into the shape and color that are most likely to endure. Below, designer David Airey (opens in new tab) offers his 10 golden rules of logo design to help you.

01. Do the basics

This is one of the most interesting aspects of being a designer with anyone project you learn something new. Every client is different, and even in the same profession, people do their job in different ways. Logo design should start with some preliminary work. Getting to know the customer and their product well will help you choose the strongest design direction and make it easier to reach consensus on your logo design later.

Make sure you ask your customer why they exist. What are they doing and how are they doing it? What makes you different from other brands? Who are they for and what is most important to them? Some of these questions may seem so simple as to be unnecessary, but they can be difficult to answer and lead to more questions about your customers’ businesses. What you discover in this initial phase of a project can really help ensure you don’t miss out on the market as you start developing your logo design.

02. Start with a sketchpad

With the many digital tools available today you might think about Going straight to your computer to create a logo design, but using a sketchpad gives you a chance to rest your eyes from the glare of brightly glowing pixels and, more importantly, to record design ideas much more quickly and freely . With no digital interface in the way, you have complete freedom to explore, and if you wake up at night with an idea you don’t want to lose, a pen and paper by your bed is still the best way to jot it down.

Sketching makes it easier to place shapes exactly where you want them – there’s always time to digitize your markups later (see our sketching tips for more advice). It can also be useful to share some sketches when describing design ideas to clients before digitizing a mark. This can make it easier for them to visualize the result without the distraction of fonts and colors, which can sometimes cause clients to scrap an entire idea. However, don’t share too much; only your best ideas.

03. Start in black and white

See also: How to Create a Payment Gateway

As we mentioned above color is an important part of branding, but it can sometimes be a distraction and make it difficult for a client to take in the basic concept of the logo. De-coloring later in the process allows you to focus on the idea of ​​your logo design itself, rather than an element that is usually much easier to change.

It’s impossible to replace a bad idea with a interesting palette to save, but a good idea is still good regardless of the color. In most cases, when you think of a familiar symbol, you think of the shape first, and then the palette. It’s the lines, shapes, and the idea itself that matter most, whether it’s an apple bite, three parallel stripes, four connected circles in a horizontal line, or anything else.

04. Make sure your design is relevant

A logo design must be relevant to the ideas, values ​​and activities it represents. An elegant font suits an upscale restaurant better than a child’s room. Likewise, a fluorescent pink and yellow palette is unlikely to help your message appeal to male retirees. And making a mark that bears any resemblance to a swastika, regardless of the industry, just isn’t going to work.

You know these things, and they may seem pretty obvious, but appropriateness goes deeper than that. The more appropriate your justification for a particular design, the easier it will be to sell the idea to a client (and this can be the hardest part of a project. Remember, designers don’t just design. They sell, too).

05. Create a design that’s easy to remember

A good logo design is memorable, allowing a brand to stick in a potential customer’s mind even as other brands compete for their attention. How can this be achieved? Simplicity should be your watchword here. A really simple logo can often be recognized at a glance, which is not possible with a design that is too detailed.

A brand needs to focus on a concept; on a single “story”. In most cases, this means that it should have an uncomplicated shape so that it can be of various sizes and work in a range of applications, from a website icon in a browser bar to signage on a building.

06. Strive to be different

When the competitors one Brand all use the same typography style, the same type of palette or an icon to the left of the brand name, this is the perfect opportunity to differentiate your customer rather than conflate them. Doing something different can really help your logo design stand out.

However, having so much similarity on the market doesn’t necessarily mean your job has gotten any easier. It often takes a brave customer to buck a trend they see all around them.However, showing ingenuity in your design portfolio is a great way to attract the type of client you want, and demonstrating the appropriateness of your concept can help allay any concerns.

07 . Consider the broader brand identity

We don’ Usually you see a logo in absolute isolation. It is usually presented in the context of a website, a poster, a business card, an app icon, or all sorts of other tools and applications. A client presentation should include relevant touch points to show how the logo will look on potential clients. It’s a bit like being stuck in a rut – it can help to take a step back, look at the bigger picture, see where you stand and what surrounds you.

In terms of design, the big picture is any potential item that your logo design could appear on. Always consider how identity works when the logo is not there. While hugely important, a symbol can only assume one identity so far. One way to create a cohesive look is to create a custom font for your logo. This font can then also be used in marketing headlines.

08. Don’t be too literal

You don’t have to show a logo, what a company does; In fact, it’s often better if this isn’t the case. More abstract signs are often more permanent. You used to show your factory, or maybe a coat of arms if it was a family business, but symbols don’t show what you’re doing. Instead, they make it clear who you are. The importance of the brand in the eyes of the public comes later, when associations can be made between what the company does and the shape and color of its brand.

09. Remember that symbols aren’t strictly required

A logo doesn’t always have to be an icon. Often a bespoke wordmark can work well, especially when the company name is unique – think Google, Mobil or Pirelli. Don’t be tempted to overdo the design flair just because the focus is on the letters. Legibility is key with any wordmark, and your presentations should show how your designs work at all sizes, large and small.

Of course, sometimes words just don’t work in very small applications, so variations may be needed . This can be as simple as removing a letter from the logo mark and using the same color, or it can include an icon to be used as a secondary design element (wordmark first, icon second) rather than a logo lockup, where both parts are displayed next to each other.

10. Making People Smile