Ingredients for an Appealing Logo

When you are ready to create your business logo, you need to take your time to make sure your logo reflects your business’s personality and that it’s memorable. This logo will go on all your marketing materials, from brochures to custom business cards. Read on for the three most important ingredients you need to create a memorable and appealing logo.

One-of-a-kind
This might seem silly to point out, but there are a lot of copycat logos out there. You could have a copycat logo without even realizing it! You need to do some comparative research before you start designing your logo to avoid being a copycat. Check out your competitors’ logos, as well as other local businesses that you don’t compete with. You want to stand out from your competitors, and you also don’t want to resemble another business in your community or your product and business could be mistaken for the other business.

The next time you go to the store, look at many brand logos for the same kind of product – which ones stand out to you? Many of them will no doubt look similar to others. Take note of the quality that makes the one stand out from the others and try to incorporate that quality in your logo.

Choose usefulness over creativity
It’s great if you can come up with a colorful, beautiful logo, but will that logo be beautiful in all your marketing materials? Can it be blown up for a billboard (does it have scalability)? Will it only look good on color business cards? What if you need to print some marketing materials in black and white? Your logo should convey your business’s personality no matter what context and what color it’s in – from envelopes to brochures to your Web site.

Simple design
Some of the greatest logos are the most simple. Think Target or McDonalds. Neither the bull’s-eye nor the golden arches are complicated. They’re simple, yet powerful. People can remember these logos easier – there aren’t any complex shapes and they aren’t “busy” with too many lines, shapes and colors. Their simple design is why they work so well.

Appealing logos like these also have one core message – nothing else is competing for logo space. It’s easy to add a lot of unnecessary design elements just because you can and you want your logo to be interesting, but you run the risk of confusing people with too many design elements. That’s definitely something you don’t want associated with your logo and company – confusion.

In addition to one core message, your logo should be in one or two easy-to-read fonts. Logos with one message, one font, one color and/or one image are the most appealing.