A good logo design does a lot for your brand

Your logo is an important part of your brand, the collection of colors, images, attitudes, and text that identify your business. It can appear on your website, business cards, invoices, or on a roadside billboard. It goes without saying that your logo should look great at all of those sizes. To handle different shapes and sizes, we create multiple versions of a logo to accommodate each use. These versions should be subtractive versions of the primary logo. When you use our basic logo design packages, we create a primary and secondary logo as well as a submark logo. The primary logo contains as much information as possible while still being a logo, it gives the viewer a visual item to retain, a business name, and in some cases, an indication of what the business does. Have a look at our primary, secondary, and submark logos:

Primary Logo

Secondary Logo

Submark Logo

Simple tips for a better logo

We recommend the following simple criteria for a logo:

• Simplicity - Big bold strokes are visible from a distance and to anyone whose vision isn't 20/20
• Scalability - The logo should look good at any size, resist the urge to use tiny text or design elements
• Memorable - Part of simplicity is memorability. A busy, confusing logo is harder to remember
• Relevant - The logo should say something about your business, directly or indirectly
• All Business - Keep personal nostalgia out of it. A logo should mean something to everyone, not just the business owner

A simple logo need not be boring

We always push the notion that simple is better, but simple doesn't have to mean boring. We love logos that look as good in one color as in multi color, that you could recognize on a moving bumper sticker, and that say something about the business. Is the business quirky and fun? Classic and reputable? Exciting and new? Your logo and entire brand should reflect the personality of your business. A logo can be descriptive, meaning that it tells the viewer what you do, or not, such as Nike, which is recognizable but wouldn't tell you that the company makes footwear. There are a number of ways to convey the business' personality with a logo. Simple asymmetry can be the difference between boring and exciting and there's actually good data to support that notion. Of course, some of the most recognizable logos out there don't follow the rules and have become recognizable worldwide.

Shape matters

While having several versions of your logo can help have something to use for any situation, it makes life easier to have a logo that includes your business' name as well as your submark logo. Think of the submark as the artwork of your logo without the words. It should fit in a square, and it should be scalable as small as a favicon. If your logo is too busy to be reduced that small, then a separate favicon version should be created. An established brand is more likely to rely on just a submark. Coming back to Nike, we see that they've dropped the word "Nike" in most use cases and just rely on the swoosh.

Text in a logo

For less established brands, it is important to define the brand with a bit more intention at first. A non-descriptive logo that is just a submark for a business that isn't well known isn't likely to convey a lot of good information to the end user. Take our own logo as an example. We are not well known nationally as we've done business in the same mountain town for decades, so when we want to cast a wider net and attract national attention it is important that our name is in the logo as well as the descriptor "web development & consulting" so potential customers know what we do.

We hope these tips for designing a logo can help your business. Once it is time to put your ideas into practice, contact us for a logo design estimate. Whether you'd like our creative input, like us to create your entire brand from scratch, or would just like us to professionally execute your vision, we can create the perfect logo design for your business.