How does a company logo help a business?
Starting a business is fraught with branding decisions, so designing a logo might seem like a purely creative task that can wait until the end.
Before you find yourself lulled into a false sense of security that logo design can sit at the back of the queue, you should be aware of what’s at stake if you underestimate the importance of your business’s brand.
The crux of becoming a successful business is the ability to stand out from competitors. Having a logo that increases your company’s recognition elevates your business from the crowd. Gaining public recognition lends credibility to your business and legitimizes you as a vendor.
A company logo is often a consumer’s first impression of your business and can ultimately shape their perception of your ability to follow through on advertised services.
What makes a company logo design stand out?
There’s no arguing that designing a logo is a creative task, but that doesn’t mean science takes the day off.
At the core of graphic design are a set of principles our designers use that are proven to be visually pleasing to the eye. Several of these principles come down to a single concept: simplicity.
If you want consumers to remember your logo, it needs to be something they can picture in their minds easily. Think about the business giants Nike, Apple, and McDonalds. What do they all have in common? Their brands are so well defined that their logos are almost synonymous with their business names. Even reading the company names, I bet you visualized their logos in your mind.
It isn’t by accident that business giants have recognizable and memorable logos. When it comes to great marketing, very little comes down to dumb luck. Iconic logos also tend to use fewer colors to avoid looking incohesive or haphazard. Think of the previously mentioned business giants and notice how their logos aren’t just simple; they’re also monochromatic – a black swoosh, a grayscale apple, golden arches. Logos that are muddied with detail and competing visual elements just aren’t memorable.
Aside from memorability, simplicity serves another practical purpose: scalability.
Maybe you aren’t quite ready to pay for a huge advertisement on the side of a bus like you’ve always wanted, but your logo shouldn’t be the determining factor of whether or not that’s a possibility.
Your company logo should look clean and crisp whether it’s on a highway billboard or an employee business card. If it doesn’t fit all your advertising demands, it doesn’t fit into your brand.
Simpler logos also withstand the test of time better than logos that rely on being trendy or sentimental.
Take Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Fedex. All three companies’ logos feature the company name in their signature font with few other visual elements. Simple logos are more memorable and save businesses the trouble of rebranding down the line. In fact, Coca-Cola’s logo has remained much the same since the late 1800s.
Keep it simple and choose a design with longevity.
Now you have a few design principles under your belt and you’ve gained back some of the confidence that may have left you at the beginning of this endeavor. Armed with the tools and inspiration to create a remarkable logo, what incentive is there to hire an outside company to design it for you?
Why do you need Carefully Crafted to design your logo?
It’s true that we’ve covered the importance of simplicity in design – and that’s a great starting point to figure out what works and what doesn’t – but there are many more design principles to take into account.
There are numerous design “rules” and just as many ways to break them. It can’t all be so easy! After all, the success of your brand rests largely on your logo.
Design is as much a science as an art form. While it can be self-taught, it often takes years of study and practice to yield impactful results. Choosing to design a logo in-house is high risk without the proper design knowledge already in place.
We get it. Bringing in a third party feels like a forfeiture of control. Whether you’re starting a new company or re-branding an old one, entrusting your brain child to an outside party is scary. We wouldn’t expect you to hand us the keys to your vehicle just so we can wash it, and we don’t expect you to hand us the keys to your business’s brand either. We’re much more interested in working together, sharing our experience and expertise in the industry, to develop a visual representation of your brand that we can all be proud of.
