The next question being ‘what are this Saturday’s winning lotto numbers?’ No but seriously, although it is very difficult to define the definitive official guide to designing a ’successful logo’. There are certainly, however, a set of unofficial guidelines to which most good logo designers try to adhere to. These guidelines are by no means set in stone, nor are they the holy grail of logo design, but do offer a good concise outline and starting point for all aspiring logo designers to consider.

Next time you are designing a logo, ask yourself is it:

1. Communicating clearly

2. Unique

3. Describable/Memorable

4. Effective without colour

5. Scalable

If your answer is yes to all the above, then you are half way to designing a successful logo. These are just a few factors that play a major part in good logo design but of course there are many more. The following paragraphs will discuss these factors in more depth.

1. Communicating clearly

Picture by LarimdaME

Logos are not just supposed to be pretty images or fancy pieces of typography that are easy on the eye. Their primary purpose is to engage with the viewer; communicating clearly and effectively the core products, services or ideology behind any given business or individual. The first thing any designer should consider is, ‘what does the company do and how do they do it?’ Gathering as much information as possible at this stage is vital, as this research will form the initial part of the brainstorming stage.

2. Unique

Picture by William Neuheisel

Identifying your clients’ main competitors in their market sector is the next important step to research. Once they have been identified, notes should be taken on what these competitors have in terms of a logo and brand. Important details such as; form, colour, typography and subject matter should all be carefully recorded. This is not so you can plagiarise others’ hard work, quite the contrary. It is simply to formulate a way to set your clients brand apart from others within their industry, making it unique in some form. Not to say that you should take what you have found in your research and do the complete opposite with your logo design. The logos that already exist in any given industry, will no doubt, already have relevance to what they are representing. It is just about trying to find a balance between tailoring your logo design to be unique enough but still sit comfortably in its industry.

3. Describable/Memorable

Picture by Leo Reynolds

After the research stage, it’s time to start developing concepts and ideas for the look and feel of the logo. Once a select few ideas have been hand picked from the research stage, these ideas must then be put down on paper as initial sketches. Put your creative thinking cap on, the real designing starts here. The aim is to try and incorporate your research and knowledge into one solid entity, eventually creating a finished and polished logo design. To achieve as much recognition and exposure for your design, it is very important to try and make your logo memorable. To be memorable it will also have to be describable, otherwise how will someone remember it?

The key is to doodle, doodle and doodle some more. It’s so important as it is your opportunity as the designer to really explore a multitude of ideas very quickly. Keeping a clear and open mind as you begin to draw, don’t worry about how good the initial idea or drawing is, just keep going. These ideas can be developed later on.

4. Effective without colour

Picture by JoshSemans

Once your initial ideas are down on paper, several of the strongest solutions should be filtered out for development. It is a good idea at this point to start thinking about colour. Especially consider whether the logo will work as a single colour. This is very important in a logo design because when the logo is reproduced across varied media, it may not always be possible to be shown in full colour, if any colour at all. For example, if it is to be blind embossed on to a diary, then it must be as effective in single colour. Not to say that all logos you design must be one colour, that would make the logo design industry a very boring place. Just be aware of how the finished logo might be translated into single colour. A good technique to achieve this is to design your logo in black only, adding the colour at the end of the process.

5. Scalable

Picture by FeatheredTar

Scalability should be considered throughout the design process but will need to be put into use once you have a solid idea to work up to a finished product. Once you have your final logo idea it will then need to be recreated digitally using some kind of design software. Adobe Illustrator is the design industries standard product of choice used by the majority of logo designers, allowing for infinite scalability as it uses vector graphics. Adobe Photoshop may also be used for certain jobs, however, lacks the same scalability found in Illustrator as the graphics are created using raster. As well as considering being able to infinitely enlarge your logo, you should also consider the smallest you would like your logo to be displayed. This is vital as displaying your logo too small could possibly lose some of the finer details visible at increased size.