Company logo design: Polishing the jewel in your branding crown

The logo has become such an intrinsic part of any modern brand, that even toddlers too young to tie their own shoelaces can recognise industry graphics, or deduce what companies sell just by looking at a simple design. Company logos, whether it’s an image, stylised text, or a combination of the two, are a simple way to represent your company’s ideals instantly to your target market.

We live in a world wallpapered by brand logos. So, how do you get them right, and keep them successful for the years to come?

Company logo design is more challenging, and important than you might think. After all, any logo design agency will tell you that “design” isn’t simply a process of making your business look nice; it’s a resource that businesses can use to highlight their position in any given industry.

With the right logo design, London companies and organisations around the world can tap into the aspirations and emotions of their customers, and elicit a powerful response. Your logo can even influence a customer’s perception of your value or quality. According to data from “The Logo Company“, 63% of people say poorly designed logos make a brand look cheap.

A logo may just be one small element of your complete strategy, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t treat it with respect. Your logo helps to define your brand, and it’s often the feature your audience will associate with you more readily than a slogan or name.

It’s time for you to ask yourself what your logo is really saying to your customers – and whether it’s time for a refresh, makeover or major upgrade.

Is it time to upgrade your brand design? Company logos matter

Just like website design, communication strategies, and brand manifestos, your company logo design links up with other elements in your organisation to create an overall personality, or “character” for your company. Logos represent a critical aspect of marketing, because they act as the single most important graphical representation of your business.

With the right design, company logos can anchor a brand, offer a visible manifestation of your business values, and help your customers to define you faster within the saturated competitive marketplace.

Like a bad name or a confusing website, a poor logo can alienate your audience, and detract from your business authority. However, when you a design a company logo that works with some creativity, and a little help from a logo design company, you’ll experience countless benefits, including:

1. A unique reflection of your brand identity

A logo helps to identify what you do, and who you do it for. Obviously, it’s tough to tell your complete corporate story with just one symbol, but everything from colour, to font, and style can convey more than you’d think.

Imagine Nike’s swoosh, for instance. The logo creates the illusion of speed and motion. What’s more, it’s meant to represent the wings of the Greek goddess Nike, a symbol of victory.

2. A stronger sense of trust

Let’s face it, who are you more likely to hand your money over to – a brand with a company logo design that looks as though it’s been drawn on MS Paint, or an organisation with an image that’s polished, precise, and professional?

With expert logo designers, companies can easily boost the authority of their brand, without any need to justify it. Just think about all the bad and good logos you’ve seen in the past – how did each one make you feel about the company behind it?

3. A chance to stand out from the crowd

When you design a company logo, you give your business a unique opportunity to differentiate itself from whatever else is out there in the market. Thanks to expertise and a recognisable design, company logos can become an iconic image in the minds of your audience. Consider some of the most popular logos today, and how they’re deeply ingrained in our minds. Apple, Twitter, Coca-Cola, they all have logos we can instantly identify.

A powerful company logo design is an essential component of your visual identity. It has the power to contribute to your business success, or turn your customers off for good. The important thing to remember when you design a company logo, is that it should adhere to the other aspects of your brand personality.

Just like your brand voice, or your content marketing strategy, your company logo design should feel like a natural extension of your brand. That’s why as businesses begin to grow and evolve, some start to discover that their logo no longer represents their brand as successfully as it should. Just like people, companies change with the times. If your logo doesn’t resonate with your audience, or your values, then it might be time to seek out a logo design company.

How to know when you need a new company logo design

As a critical element of brand design, company logos are intended to act as the “face” of your company. They’re a graphical interpretation of your company’s identity, conveyed through images, fonts, and colours that each contain their own essential information about the business. Logos can also be a shorthand way of referring to a company in marketing or advertising materials, whether you’re publishing a report, creating a campaign, or designing a business vlog.

A powerful company logo design should be unique, and meaningful to your potential customers. Though there are countless choices out there when it comes to visual elements and typography, the decisions you make should be about representing your business at its core – whether you’re rebranding, or conveying a timeless company value. If you’re not sure whether you need the help of a logo design agency to refresh your visual identity, ask yourself the following questions:

Question 1: Is your company logo design compatible with modern media?

If your logo design was created or last modified 20 years ago, it might not be perfectly suited to social media and digital platforms. If your logo looks like the embodiment of “Throwback Thursday”, then it’s probably time for a change. Just because it looked great in the Yellow Pages, doesn’t mean it’s right for the online world.

Ask yourself whether your logo is still discernible in a range of sizes, whether it looks good in black and white, whether it can become an icon, and if it would be an appealing button for a mobile app. If the answer to any of those questions is “no”, then contact a logo design company.

Question 2: Does your logo represent your business?

Businesses and brands evolve – it’s a natural part of life. It’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to start off with a single service or product, then quickly grow and diversify their offering into something entirely different. If your company logo design can’t reflect what you currently offer, then you need something new.

A great logo should be timeless. When you design a company logo, you’ll need to think carefully not just about where you are today, but where you’re heading in the future.

Question 3: Does your competitor’s logo look better?

Thanks to social media strategies, review sites, and a growing number of online businesses, todays industries are more competitive than ever. It might sound petty, but if your competition has a company logo design that’s more appealing than yours, that could just be the nail in the coffin for your business.

Check out what your competitors are doing and ask yourself, from an objective perspective, whether you’d shortlist your company based on logo alone.

Question 4: Is your company logo design too complicated?

When it comes to your brand’s design, company logos don’t have to be complicated. In fact, the trends in logos lately have moved towards simplification. Where once we had numerous graphic elements, gradients and drop shadows, we now have crisp, clean, and basic imagery.

A logo can play a powerful part in conveying your brand personality, but try not to get so focused on that detail, that you end up designing something that goes over your customer’s head.

Question 5: Has your business changed?

Finally, a significant change in the nature of your business can be a clear sign that you need to seek the help of a logo design company. Mergers can constitute a brand refresh, while growth into new geographical areas could mean that you need to re-think your use of colours and symbols.

Tips and tricks: How to design a company logo that resonates

So, you know when you need to design a company logo. Now, all you have to do is figure out how to create a design that resonates with your audience.

If you think that company logo design is simple – think again. Competent logo design companies are in high demand, and it’s for good reason – logos are often the first impression a company makes on their audience – something that can impact brand perception, overall customer loyalty, and purchase decisions.

If you’re about to embark on a branding journey, or design a company logo from scratch, here are some tips to make sure that your new graphic makes an impact.

Company logo design tip 1: Understand your brand

Sure, at its core, a logo is just an image – but it’s also an introduction to your brand. When working with logo designers, companies often find that their experts ask them about which specific audience they’re trying to reach. Sometimes, you’ll need to create a mood board that reminds you of the brand’s ideology, or brainstorm values from your online presence.

Your logo design company will help you to pinpoint the most unique elements of your company, but it’s up to you to understand what your company means before you ask for help. After all, the best company logo designs work because they have a kind of history. Consider Apple with its missing “byte”, or Wikipedia – an unfinished globe of puzzle pieces.

Company logo design tip 2: Be visually clever

As with anything in the world of branding, it’s important to create something that you feel is different to anything else that exists online, or offline. When you design a company logo, you’re not just avoiding imitation, you’re also creating something that’s entirely individual. While it can be tempting to throw something obvious on a page, it’s important to think creatively. Remember, the Apple logo isn’t a computer, and the Mercedes logo isn’t a car.

Some of the best examples of company logo design out there use visual double entendre to offer a clever interpretation of a unique concept. For instance, the “WinePlace” logo combines the imagery of a thumbtack (used to pinpoint places on a map) with the graphic of an upside-down wine glass. Company logo designs like this one are clever, memorable, and interesting.

Company logo design tip 3: Choose the right colours

When establishing a memorable brand, you need to think about every aspect of what makes you unique, from your name, to the colours you use. As any logo design company will tell you, bright and bold colours can be great for grabbing attention, but they can also seem brash. On the other hand, muted tones highlight sophistication, but can be easily overlooked.

Every colour has its own meaning, from red that’s sexy and energetic, to orange that’s creative and friendly, and green that’s brimming with wealth and growth. Just think of LinkedIn’s “professional” royal blue, for instance. In collaboration with your logo design agency, make sure you choose the colour that’s right for you.

Company logo design tip 4: Experiment with fonts

Most of the time, when you design a company logo, your finished product will come down to two elements: a symbol, and a wordmark. Before you can think about representing yourself entirely through a symbol, you’ll need to have a pretty powerful brand and a well-established voice.

Some companies stick entirely with a logotype, such as IBM, Coca-Cola, and Ray-Ban. However, whether your brand can use a logotype will depend on the kind of name you have. Unique names can get away with a logotype, while generic names need something more to identify themselves.

When all else fails, you can consider Fabrik’s old friend Helvetica – a font that’s been used by countless popular brands, including Target, American Apparel, and JCPenney.

Company logo design tip 5: Keep it simple and versatile

When you want to design a company logo with impact, you need to find the perfect balance between quirky and simple. You want your logo to be intriguing, but you don’t want someone to have to analyse it for hours just to understand what you’re trying to say. A good example of a simple, yet creative company logo design, is the “Amazon” graphic.

Amazon uses its name as a logo, but it also refers to its broad inventory with an arrow that points from A, to Z. In the digital world, where logos appear across multiple devices and platforms, you need something that transcends paper, stays simple, and speaks to your audience.

Using a logo design agency: Making your logo memorable

As with most things in the world of branding, the easiest way to simplify the process of creating a powerful design, is to work with a logo design agency. A good logo design company can craft something that acts as a recognisable symbol for your brand, and helps your valued customers to identify your services and products.

While company logo design is a pivotal part of any branding strategy, designing something that’s both visually arresting, and representative of your brand requires a lot of skill. Here are some tips about logo design London businesses (and beyond) can use to make their brand memorable.

1. Avoid the cliché

As a staple of brand design, company logos are subject to the same trends and fads that impact websites, advertisements, and marketing communications. Every couple of years, we notice new trends in logo design.

While there’s nothing wrong with keeping track of those new ideas, avoid becoming the cliché business that just jumps on the bandwagon to keep up with the times.

2. Make it “ownable”

A great company logo design is something that you feel belongs perfectly to your brand. Instead of following the heard, you should be striving for something that’s unique, and recognisable for your company.

While there’s nothing wrong with getting inspiration from competitors, the last thing you want is to be indistinguishable from the other companies in your field.

3. Consider negative space carefully

The words and images in your company logo design aren’t the only things that draw attention. A great logo design company will be able to show you how negative and white space can create almost subliminal messages for your audience. For instance, the white space in the “FedEx” logo is famous for its hidden arrow.

4. Think about passive and active imagery

One thing you may notice if you study company logo design as passionately as we do, is that many businesses are now trying to make their imagery more “active” than passive. While instilling motion into a static image isn’t always appropriate, as with the McDonalds or Apple logo, it can sometimes give your visual appeal the boost it needs.

For instance, think about the Twitter logo. Way back when Twitter first began, it started with a “passive” bird, perched on white space. Now, the little blue bird has taken flight, and its beak is pointed towards the sky, representing, to some extent, the upward trajectory of the brand’s own success.

5. Don’t become outdated

The unfortunate truth of company logo design, is that even the best creations won’t be perfect forever. If you want to stay timely, and up-to-date, then you need to consider making incremental tweaks to make your logo as current as possible. If you’re making a new logo for your company, or going through a period of rebranding, try to design a company logo that stands a chance of being timeless.

Consider the trends in the marketplace, but work with your logo design company to find an image so perfect for your brand, that you only need to tweak it occasionally as the years pass by. Like the Google logo, for instance.

Is it time to team up with a logo design company?

Visual communication is older than you can possibly imagine. We used pictures to communicate back before we even had a comprehensive language – when we were drawing stick figures on cave walls. You can trace logos all the way back to aristocratic family crests, and the crusader red cross. In early commercial contexts, unique marks helped to distinguish one trader from another, all the way up to when Bass Ale’s red triangle became the first commercial logo.

There are countless iconic logos out there. Nike, Coca Cola, HP, Dell, Canon, Yahoo, and many others. Of course, just like anything else that’s successful in the world of branding, it took time for these companies to gain the fame and popularity they have today. All great logos have the potential to become emblematic, but your design won’t become instantly iconic without help.

Just because you’ve designed the most beautiful vector combination in the world, doesn’t mean that you’re done building your brand. Your logo is a powerful element of your visual identity, but it’s just one feature on your path to a company that can be defined as an industry-wide or household name. You’re also going to need to think about your blogs, your website, and countless other factors, if you want to thrive.

Whether you’re about to design a company logo for the first time, or you’re seeking a logo design company to help with your rebrand, remember that it’s natural for a brand image to evolve. However, don’t just change your logo because you’re bored of it, or because your competitors have changed theirs. Your logo is meaningful, it distils everything in your business down to one simple graphic. Give it the respect it deserves.

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