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Think Craft, Not Draft: 5 Vital Tips for a Winning Logo Design.

A logo. The visual face of your brand.


The golden arches? McDonalds. The Tick? Nike. The blue bird? Twitter.


They’re all unmistakably the brand they belong to. And sure, a whole load of marketing and brand building has gone into that. But one thing’s for sure – these methods wouldn’t have been half as successful if a solid logo wasn’t carrying the story through.


So what do you need to consider when developing your logo?

What are the crucial steps to take (or not!) to ensure your logo has the greatest chance of becoming a memorable and instantly recognisable brands? Here’s 5 top tips to get you started and focus your thinking.


1. Keep It Simple

We can’t stress this one enough. Simple really is best. Honest.

All too often we work on logo projects for clients that have all these great ideas, but don’t know how to distil them into a simple image or icon.


Think about it from a consumer’s point of view. We’re exposed to thousands of marketing messages every single day, so only the outstanding brands, messages and images stick with us. If you’re over-complicating things, you just won’t be remembered.


You need one simple design that works as both an accurate and creative representation of your business. Nothing more. Nothing less.


2. Draw It from Memory

On the subject of being remembered, a great way to test if your logo is simple enough is to ask!

Challenge people disassociated with your brand to draw your logo from memory. If they can’t – it’s too complicated.


If we asked you to draw the McDonalds, Apple, Facebook or Twitter logo from scratch, you’d nail it right? That’s what you’re aiming for. The ability for anyone who knows your brand name to draw the logo on demand. Without prompts or clues.


3. Don’t Rely on Supporting Words

“A picture says a thousand words.”


When it comes to logos, we’re pretty sure it’s actually over 1000. Your logo should include an image, icon or symbol that does the talking for you. You can always have a version of your logo alongside the brand name too (and we’d recommend you do – at least whilst you build the brand awareness!) but it certainly shouldn’t be reliant on it. And especially not in the long term. You need something bold and simple enough to be effective in its own right.


4. Think Multi-Channel Use


Don’t fall into the trap of designing your logo for a single channel. You might be waiting on the logo to launch your website or social channels, and that’s fine. But you HAVE to think bigger. At some point, you’ll want leaflets, stickers, badges, water bottles, t-shirts, exhibition stands, website banners… and you need something that’s going to work across all of them!


Look back to tip 1 – keep it simple. This is a classic example of where over-complicating a logo can soon trip you up.


5. Give Colour where Colour’s Due

In our experience, the colour palette is the most difficult decision when it comes to creating a logo. After all, it really will direct every piece of the design that comes after. No pressure!

Unless there’s an obvious choice (i.e. blue for water) though, you can end up letting the pressure get to you and end up making decisions based on things like what your favourite colour is…


You need to think deeper than that. Do research. Play the field. Look at the psychology of colours.

For example, if you’re opening a massage parlour the last thing you want to do is brand everything red. Red is anger. Red is energy. Red is danger. Not exactly a great starting block for a place of relaxation!


But when used correctly, the psychology of colours can be totally complimentary to your brand. Take Advennture Design’s green and blue palette. These colours represent stability, reliability, joy, trust and loyalty. And we happen to pride ourselves on exactly these values. Coincidence? Think again.


Creating your logo is a super exciting step when starting a business. It’s the first proper building block and provides a face to your business pride and joy. So give it the time and thought it deserves.


Think craft, not draft.


Advennture Design have supported countless logo design projects over the year, and we’d love to help you craft yours. Email us at hello@advennturedesign.com

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