Designing a great logo can be a bit puzzle, even for those who consider themselves professional graphic designers and brand experts. Not only do you need a high level of creativity and passion for your product, but there are a ton of variables that can effect the final product. In this article, we’re going to look a few tips to make your logo appealing and stand out from the crowd, as well as convey the right information and brand identity to your intended consumer.
Remember, a logo is a symbol; a representation of your brand and product — and the best ones are not pulled from a template or thrown together quickly. They take care and deep thinking to get right. So to help you along the process, here are 4 easy tips from the experts at United Label to make your logo look professional and effective.
- Gather information on the brand or product the logo represents: This may seem obvious, but your first step to creating a great logo is compiling all of the information that the logo is going to represent. That means you need to determine your company values, brand identity, value proposition, and more. See our article on brainstorming here to help answer these questions, because without this thinking ahead of time, you’ll just be stabbing around in the dark for something visual, and not creating something meaningful.
- Have a design plan: Some marketers rush the logo design process, coming up with something quickly and then tweaking it over and over; or worse, they cycle through one style after another with no luck. We recommend you take the information you’ve gathered about your brand or product (as mentioned in Tip #1), and come up with a visual representation, such as a mood board, to help guide the work. This will land you in the right direction from the start, rather than jumping around to different colors, patterns, and styles at random. Not only will your end result be better, but in the long run, you’ll get there with much less reinventing the wheel and headache.
- Embrace novelty: Unfortunately, people in business, including marketers and designers, sometimes get a little risk-averse and stick to tried-and-true methods of processes they’ve seen work in the past. This leads to a refusal to create anything truly new, and so designers may depend on templates and past works to create new logos. Let your competitors do that. Their logos will be common and forgettable, while yours should be unique, memorable, and impactful. This will give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace, as potential consumers will remember your product or service. The secret is that everyone can be creative and novel. All you need is to take some time and work on your thoughts and ideas, and restrain yourself from copying templates or old logo designs. In fact, you may want to begin from start to finish without consulting any other place for reference, and see where that lands you. We bet the final product will be even better than you ever imagined.
- Workshop your logo: Sometimes people get wedded to their first draft of a logo — which is understandable, because they spent a lot of time and energy on creating it — but it is to the detriment of the overall product. We recommend you always find someone to review your work, and try to take their comments and feedback generously and humbly. They may see things you don’t. Remember, the first attempt at a logo should not be the last. A great novel gets revised fifty times before it goes to print; your logo should get the same treatment.
Finally, remember that any logo, no matter how great, will not appeal to all viewers. Strive to make a logo that reflects your brand values and represents your product in a memorable and impactful way. And when you’re ready to go to print, call the label experts at United for all your printing needs!