Logos are tricky things to get right. Whether you are planning on hiring me, another professional designer, or even tackling your logo yourself, here are a few key points that every successful logo needs to have.

A logo is pointless unless it works! I work with so many clients who tried to take the easy route with their logo – either hiring someone who didn’t know better or attempting to self-design – only to find it doesn’t work. I mean, literally, doesn’t work.

If (when) you need anything done for you in the future (i.e. ads, signage, print materials) you need more than a Word doc with a pixelated embedded logo in it. Make sure you have a logo that works for you and you’ll avoid all the hassles down the line.

Above all, a successful logo needs to tick all these boxes:

✔️ It must be simple, uncluttered and easy to understand. Your logo is not the time to include all of your business offerings. (There are other brand touch-points are for that). Your logo needs to be easily identifiable and understandable in a singular moment. Studies say that the average logo gets 50 milliseconds of attention before someone makes their judgement. If you confuse your viewer with too much information, you’ve lost them.

✔️ It must be aligned to your customers, industry, and business vision. A logo needs to – first and foremost – reach your customers. When I design a logo, I focus on those amazing, perfect potential customers and clients and design for them. It should also reflect the culture, vision and mission of your business. Although you may be tempted to use the colours and fonts that you like, good branding isn’t for you – it is for your customers. Yes, you absolutely should like it and enjoy using it (consistency in branding is key), but remember the end goal.

✔️ It must be unique, show the personality of your business and stray from “too trendy”. While having an up-to date look is important, following the fads of logo design will mean that you will fall through the cracks and be lost amongst the hoards of trend followers (just Google hipster logo and you’ll know what I’m talking about!) The other dowside is that you’ll need to rebrand sooner as the trend fade.

Of course you want your logo looking fresh, clean and contemporary as it shows that your business is progressive and positively orientated. There is a mighty fine line between your new logo and branding looking up-to-date and it being too trendy. It is a delicate balance and walking that fine line is one of the most challenging parts of the design process. Tread the line with consideration, my friends!

✔️ Be scalable to your businesses growth. If you decide to change your offerings, or alter your services, your logo should still work. This involves making sure each component of your logo can be successful regardless of a few twists in the road.

✔️ Work for any application. Make sure there are umpteen different versions and formats of your logo ensures that if will work on something as small as a social media profile icon or as large as a billboard. It should be able to be produced in multiple colour ways, and should always work just as well in black (or one colour).

In order to work for any application, it needs to be designed as a vector graphic (rather than a raster one, which will pixelate as you increase the size. (Pleeeeease don’t use Photoshop). Ive got a great resource guide on image formats – just ask and I’ll send it through!

The perfect logo

Hopefully this helps on your way to a perfect logo! And remember that your logo is only a part of your branding too. Drop me a line and let me know if this was helpful!

Are you ready to invest in a logo and brand that ticks all the boxes and MANY more? Head to the Work with Me page on my website and let’s meet up for a free virtual coffee date to see if we may be a good fit to work together.

Alternatively, if you just aren’t quite ready for investing in branding yet, see my post on how to DIY your own branding here> https://studio8design.com/diy-branding/