Creating a brand logo? Ask yourself these 3 questions to get started
You may have heard of the phrase, “first impressions are everything.”
Not only does this saying ring true in many different situations, but it is also accurate when creating a logo for your business.
A logo is a design element that will represent your business for years to come. Your logo should make a memorable first impression, spark curiosity, and offer a high appeal for your audience.
Creating a brand logo is undeniably important in order to build awareness and establish your company’s visual distinction. This image will be the most recognizable emblem of your brand identity. It needs to be uniquely catered to accurately reflect the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of your company.
When creating a brand logo, ask yourself these three questions before getting started.
1. What represents your business?
Before diving into the design elements of your logo, it’s important to create a solid understanding of what exactly you are looking for from a definitive level. Start by figuring out which ideals represent your business by identifying the following:
👉 Your business background, story, and mission
👉 Consumers, target audience, or ideal clients
👉 Products, services, or any other offerings
Take cues from these ideals to showcase what your business has to offer. Think of your logo as a way to communicate the business brand with your potential clients who have no prior knowledge of your services.
A memorable logo will also build trust and loyalty after the audience is interested, which gets people to stick around and see what your business is all about.
Pro-tip: Make an additional list that describes how you want your brand to be perceived. By understanding your brand’s representation, along with what is important to your target demographic, you can pin down the look and feel that you’re trying to achieve.
Logos carry deep, psychological meanings that allow people to easily associate with your brand. Drawing out as many representations as possible will help you create a smooth journey towards your ideal logo outcome. Cultivating a strong design that aligns with the goals and visions of your business will allow your brand to stand out to consumers and ensure that they build a connection with your business right from the start.
2. How do you want your audience to feel?
Every business is unique and has a purpose behind it. Being able to envision that purpose in a design is crucial to creating a logo that is human-centric and aligned with your customer’s needs.
Your logo’s purpose is to send a powerful message about the type of business you’re creating.
The goal is to convey a message so strong that when people see your logo they can recollect a memory of what your company does and how it makes them feel. A brand logo is a great opportunity to intentionally evoke an emotional response from your consumer.
For example, logos with a classic style communicate to your audience that your business is reliable and trustworthy. Let’s take a look at the well-known Coca-Cola logo.
Image Source: www.coca-cola.com
Did you feel a wave of nostalgia after seeing this image? Chances are that you’re not alone!
The classic and timely lettering of the Coca-Cola brand has remained the same over the years. The company also used color psychology to introduce red into the primary design. In marketing, the color red portrays power, excitement, energy, and passion. It’s also a chief food color that evokes the taste buds and stimulates appetite.
By maintaining the simplicity of its logo design, the company has created brand originality, loyalty, and emotional recognition over time.
As the consumer, we don’t often stop to think about the sentimental values that we feel for different brands. However, this subtle but effective marketing strategy will elevate your brand logo and make your business stand out from the competition.
3. What type of logo design resonates the most with your business?
You don’t have to be a professional designer to recognize what elements will work the best for your brand. Here are a few different options that can help you narrow down your visual preferences.
Text Logos
Wordmark and lettermark logos have increased in popularity across many industries. If a text-based logo design resonates with you the most, the first thing you should consider is the name of your business. Do you use an acronym? Is the business name short and sweet?
Let’s take a look at a few of the most well-known company logos out there:
Google is a search engine giant that you most likely used to find this blog. Google’s logo is quickly recognizable with its wordmark logo — a type of logo that is primarily font-based and focuses on emphasizing the text as the visual landmark of the brand.
Wordmark logos are ideal for businesses with short, distinctive names that are looking to have different variations of their logo across multiple platforms.
If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, you’ll recognize HBO’s logo, a popular streaming platform and television network. HBO stands for ‘Home Box Office’. The company uses its initials to create a lettermark logo. Since the focus for this type of logo is on the initials, the font needs to legibly read every single letter involved in the design.
Lettermark logos are ideal for streamlining long business names into just a few letters to help create simplicity, efficiency, and an easy way for people to remember the brand.
Abstract Logos
Abstract logos are often associated with color, forms, lines, and shapes.
These logos are meant to spark curiosity with symbols or brand-related icons. An important thing to remember is that abstract logos are not the same as pictorial logos. Instead of showcasing an image that’s easily recognizable, abstract logos create a unique form that solely represents the business they were designed for.
Here are a few examples of common abstract logos:
Pepsi’s Logo Spotify’s Logo NBC’s Logo
Abstract logos are a great option for businesses that focus on portraying a minimalistic and modern feel in a symbolic way, without having to rely on a specific existing image.
Pictorial Logos
Pictorial logos are standard, graphics-based logos that represent a real-world element.
These logos are commonly defaulted to because they easily communicate more about a brand than an abstract logo. It’s important to choose an image that alludes to the company name or clearly represents something within your business.
Take a look at some popular examples of pictorial logos:
Twitter’s Logo Domino’s Logo Nike’s Logo
Pictorial logos are a great option to choose if you are looking to take on an emblematic approach or if your business offers a product or service that can easily be represented by an object.
Behind the scenes: An inside look at the Aimtal logo
Designing your logo with personality in mind can make or break what sticks and what doesn’t.
Let’s take a look at the thought process behind the Aimtal logo, designed by our very own talented Senior Graphic Designer, João Vicente.
The main goal for the Aimtal logo was to work on the duality of the concepts ‘aim’ + ‘digital’ in a way that they could coexist in the symbol, and yet create something entirely new.
The lower-case font represents the tone in which the brand interacts with the customer. The gradients and soft edges represent innovation and are also used to reinforce the idea that Aimtal is a digital-based company.
It’s time to get creative!
Logos are an impressionable, essential part of any business.
When you’re creating a brand logo, remember to stick to the basics and communicate who you are, what you do, and why you do it. Just like anything else in business, your logo will most likely evolve over time and grow with your brand.
Now that you have these three questions answered and a planner full of ideas, it’s time to get creative and seamlessly design the face of your company.
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