Logo design - How the pros do it.

Designing your own logo can be both incredibly exciting and nerve-racking.

you need a logo that will instantly convey to your customers who you are and what you are about.

Your Logo is often the first thing that you potential customers will see, it's no surprise how important it is to get it right first time.

This is however VERY unlikely.

I can pretty much guarantee that you will never get your company logo right the first time. This is because a business like many things is a creative and developmental process that is ever changing.

Lets take a well known brand for example...

 Here we can see a clear development in branding. While the core text element of the design has stayed the same, the setting of that logo has changed dramatically over the years.

Here is another example, that I'm sure we all know well...

This was the Hobbycraft logo up to 2011

And this is the logo we recognise today.

Its ok for logos to change over time to suit the company they are representing

So lets think about what types of logo are available to you.

Logos are made up of LOGOGRAPHY and IDEOGRAMS

Logography

This is the text within the logo. It may be a name, a description or anything else for that matter.

some logos are made up solely by logography.

This means that if you remove the text then the logo is no longer distinguishable.

Ideograms

This is the Imagery used in the logo, It can be abstract or convey what your company is about.

Your logo can be made up from one or both of these things.

When designing your own logo its also important to remember that there are also 2 types of logo in the world; ABSTRACT and CONVENTIONAL

Abstract logos

These are logos where it isn't initially obvious what the company does. Coca-Cola is a good example of this.

If you were seeing this logo for the first time, it would be impossible for you to know that Its a soft drinks manufacturer. These sorts of logos rely strongly on brand awareness.

Conventional logos

These make it clear what the company is about without having any sort of additional description.

These are ideal if you are a small company that doesn't have the budget to push strong brand awareness straight away.

Some companies will use a combination of logography and an ideogram to convey their brand.

Here we have a summary of some of the logos used by the words biggest brands. Its was quite difficult to find a logo that was both an ideogram and also made it clear what the company was about. The WWF panda was the closest that I could find.

When designing YOUR logo think about how you will use logography and ideograms. My recommendation would be to create a conventional Logo that uses both.

Creating a logo that works effectively for your business does not happen over night. In our next article on logo design, we will be exploring the use of typeface and fonts to convey specific feelings to a customer.

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