In simple words, a logo is a design symbolizing your organization. It is a design that is used by an organization for its letterhead, advertising material, and signs as an emblem by which the organization can easily be recognized also called logotype. logotype is a graphic representation or symbol of a company name, trademark, abbreviation, etc., often uniquely designed for ready recognition. But that won’t cut it when it really comes to designing a logo. Because we don’t want just a logo but a good logo for our organization so next question arises is what are characteristics of a good logo?
Since when consumerism is introduced and spread all over the world, it’s always been a challenge for industries to grow with growth-based economy. To be seen in public regularly is a challenge but to be remembered is a bigger challenge. And a logo is a key element of your branding strategy to overcome that. As it’s said, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. So after years of research on how humans perceive things, how our brain works, and with lots of trial and error, characteristics of a good logo have been found to be as follows:
Since when consumerism is introduced and spread all over the world, it’s always been a challenge for industries to grow with a growth-based economy. To be seen in public regularly is a challenge but to be remembered is a bigger challenge. And a logo is a key element of your branding strategy to overcome that. As it’s said, “Necessity is a mother of invention”. So after years of research on how humans perceive things, how our brain works, and with lots of trial and error, characteristics of a good logo have been found to be as follows:
SIMPLE – Keep it simple. Don’t overdo it.
A complicated design will not only make your logo difficult to print in a different medium and maintain but it will also fail to get the attention of your audience. So simple is always better when it comes to logo design.
Ask yourself: Can someone look at this logo and easily describe it? Or is it too complicated to get an idea of quickly?
IMPACTFUL – Design for your target audience. Never forget your customer.
Logo is useless if it does not make an impact. Here impact means it should stimulate your audience to look deep into it and give clear idea about your company. Even being simple it must not get vanished in cluttered world around it. Based on what’s your target audience is the most important job of your logo is to communicate with them.
Ask yourself: Who is your target audience in terms of age, income, gender, tastes, etc.? Can this logo speak to that group of people?
MEMORABLE – Leave a long lasting impression. Don’t be forgettable.
A great logo will remain memorable enough that a person who has only seen the logo once should still be able to recall it enough to describe the logo to someone else. This is not the easiest of qualities to achieve, but it is certainly a highly desired one so make sure your design stays in your audience’s minds.
Ask yourself: Can this logo make a lasting impression on my audience? Will it be memorable?
TIMELESS – Aim for longevity. Don’t be too trendy.
Trends come and go, when we change our cloths according to time, it is fine but doing plastic surgery and changing identity time to time will cost us our identity and credibility. So logo must be adjustable without losing its core identity to be relevant for long time.
Ask yourself: Will this logo still be relevant in a year, or five? Can it withstand years or decades of changes in the industry?
APPROPRIATE – Think about your industry. Don’t feel the need to be obvious.
An effective logo should be appropriate, but that doesn’t mean it has to be as obvious as you might expect. Restaurant logos don’t need to show food, dentist logos don’t need to show teeth, furniture store logo don’t need to show furniture. Just because it’s relevant, doesn’t mean you can’t do better. The Mercedes logo isn’t a car. The Virgin Atlantic logo isn’t an airplane. The Apple logo isn’t a computer. Etc. Etc. Being appropriate means if you are designing for a lawyer, ditch the fun approach and if you are designing for a kid’s TV show then nothing too serious. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Ask yourself: Does this logo communicate the right tone and style? Does it show or in some way hint at what type of business or product it’s representing?
VERSATILE – Consider various applications. Don’t design for just one size or medium.
A good logo should be able to print in different sizes, across different mediums, and in different applications without losing its power.
Ask yourself: Will this logo be effective as a letterhead as well as on a billboard? Will it work in full color as well as black and white?
