Creating Your Logo
It’s no secret that there are a number of affordable (i.e. $200 or less) online services and options that you could use to design and create a logo (or entire brand package for that matter).
So rather than wasting your time trying to justify a $1,500+ price tag by breaking down the entire planning/design process to you – I’d like to instead take a moment to quickly highlight two main areas, along with a few important items that you should focus on when creating a logo; regardless if you are working with a designer or designing it yourself.
1. The Design Brief
No matter who’s designing your logo, first and foremost, you should always start with a basic design brief or brand style guide. While it doesn’t need to be a long or elaborate document, it does need to address the following:
- Name of Company
- Products/Services
- Competitors (optional)
- Target Market
- Values
- Vision
Example: Green Apron HI Design Brief
To give you an idea of how this is put into practice when creating a logo, here is a rough outline of the design brief, created and used for Green Apron HI’s logo design.
- Name: Green Apron HI
- Product/Services: Heart healthy catering + meal delivery services
- Target Market: Business Professionals in the Downtown Area of Honolulu
- Values: Clean eating, sustainability, “support local”
- Vision: “Become the premiere plant based delivery meal service and caterer on Oahu”
2. Your Brand Mark
When creating a logo design always remember to:
- Use your Design Brief. From your color choices to font selection, everything contained in your logo should reflect the ideas and values found in your design brief/brand style
- Keep it simple. Remember: logos are symbols, not illustrations. And while there are definitely exceptions to the rule, it’s important you don’t overcomplicate your brand’s message with a bunch of graphic images or decorative font styles.
- Think outside the box. Your brand should be both special and unique – avoid using the same generic stock graphics and imagery as your competitors.
Tips:
- Consider a variety of options. Whether you are crowd sourcing, commissioning or creating the design yourself, it is important to get as many ideas down on paper – even if 99% of them absolutely suck.
- Create a color palette. It’s important that the colors you choose not only reflect and reinforce your brand’s message, but also don’t overwhelm the design itself. Once again, keep it simple and try your best to contain your palette to 4 colors or less.
- Choose your fonts wisely. Last but not least, make sure that the fonts you choose not only reflect your brand’s message, but are also able to be read at a quick glance – in other words: Avoid using calligraphy, scripts and other highly decorative typefaces.
If you are interested in seeing how these guidelines were applied to Green Apron HI’s logo design, you can read more about the design process here.
Have questions or need help creating a brand style or identity for your business? Contact us today to schedule a free consultation for your business today!