Think of your business as a profile on a dating site. You are trying to attract the right customers and make them fall in love with your brand. Think of your logo as your profile picture on the dating site, which will get people interested and trying to learn more about you.
The design of your logo will greatly influence the first impression: it will convey information about the brand to customers and let them know if it suits them.
Since your logo is such an essential part of your brand, you want to make sure it's done well. The logo appears almost everywhere the customer meets the brand, on the business card, in the email signature, on the office paperwork, on the store's signage, on the product packaging, on the website, in the presentation and in the accompanying marketing materials. Therefore, the logo is critical in building the business image and must reflect the essence of the brand's values.
What is the difference between business branding, visual language and logo design?
A logo is neither your brand nor your business identity. The logo, visual language and branding have different roles which together make up the overall image of your business.
What is a brand?
The corporate image - the total feelings and perceptions existing among consumers regarding your brand, in simpler words: what they think of you behind your back.
What is brand identity?
The visual aspects that are part of the brand. What is a logo? A sign or icon identified with the company.
What is branding?
Business branding is a much more extensive strategic process than just building a logo, branding is a process that differentiates you from competitors.
What makes a logo effective?
Simplicity
The simpler the logo, the easier it will be for the audience to understand the projected message and recognize it for the next time. Perpetuity A business needs a logo that will stand the test of time, 5, 10, 15 years. Will face passing trends while maintaining the core values of the business.
Creativity
A well-made logo, a logo etched in memory, invested with thought, combining typography and special coloring will ensure an unforgettable logo that the consumer will learn to appreciate.
Readable
A good logo is always legible and memorable, clear in any size: large or small.
Flexible and versatile
A logo must be adapted to different media, to negative design, to black and white. Allows you to cut an icon from it to a favicon for the website.
A unique
logo symbolizes your brand and it should be unique and distinguish you from the competition. A unique logo symbolizes the authenticity of your brand.
Relevant
The most important aspect of logo designing is relevance to your brand. A logo for an accountant or lawyer will be different from a logo for a restaurant or toy store.
Smart
A smart logo presents something unique and unforgettable within it. Creative, characterized by simplicity and unique style.
Professional logo
A professional logo lies in a strategic process and precise characterization that is part of a branding process and contains the brand's values.
The process of creating and designing an effective logo includes several steps:
Accurate characterization of the business and its needs, identification and definition of goals and brand values.
Professional market research, knowledge of the market and competition, visual research.
Brainstorm together with the creative team and search for inspiration.
Building a concept and several possible directions.
Choosing design styles and developing several possible directions for the logo.
Read more: 36 questions to help you make an accurate characterization A
A logo can be based solely on typography, solely a symbol or a combination of symbol / icon and typography. Logo colors have a great impact. Color conveys emotions, certain ideas, and helps convey the tone of the brand.
Below are psychological characteristics that characterize color theory:
According to a study conducted at universities in the US by researchers Lauren LeBarack and George Milne. The extent of the effect also depends on the shade of the color, whether it is cold or warm.
About colors and emotions
Warm colors:
red, orange and yellow Warm colors often evoke feelings of happiness, optimism and energy. However, yellow, red and orange can be very dominant and flagging.
Cool colors:
colors include green, blue and purple. Cool colors are usually seen as calming and quiet but can also express sadness. Purple is often used to stimulate creativity as it is a mixture of blue (calm) and red (intense). If a company wants to show health, beauty or confidence, it should combine these colors.
happy colors:
Happy colors are bright and warm colors like yellow, orange, pink and red. Pastel colors like peach, light pink or purple. They can also affect mood. The brighter the shade, the more joy and optimism it will radiate. Another way that colors can create happy feelings is by combining multiple primary and secondary colors together for a colorful and youthful effect.
Sad colors:
Sad colors are dark and dull colors. Black and gray are the prominent sad colors, but dark and dull cool colors like blue, green or neutral tones like brown or beige can have a similar effect on, depending on how they are used. In Western cultures black is considered the color of mourning, while in East Asian countries white is the color of mourning and comes to emphasize purity and resurrection.
Soothing colors:
Cool colors like blue and green can make you feel calm. Pastel colors and particularly cool pastel shades such as baby blue, lilac and mint have a calming effect. Neutral colors like white, beige and gray can also make you feel calm. The fewer colors you combine and the simpler the design, the more calm it will convey.
Energizing colors:
Strong and bright colors and neon colors can greatly affect emotions. Colors like bright red, bright yellow and neon green can make you energetic and alert, but can also irritate the eyes. These colors will catch your attention and stand out in relation to the environment. Highly pigmented colors such as royal blue, turquoise, magenta and emerald green can also affect mood.
What does each color symbolize in branding, how does it affect the emotions?
Red color
Red is the warmest and most dynamic of the colors - it evokes opposite emotions. It is often associated with passion and love as well as anger and danger. Red is a universal sign of excitement, passion and anger. This is a great choice if your brand is flashy, young and wants to stand out. Red makes you feel enthusiastic and full of energy.
Red is also used to emphasize a marketing and design element.
Orange
Orange is an invigorating and playful color. Go for orange to stand out and be different. Although the use of orange is less common, it is a vibrant and energetic color like red. Orange enhances a feeling of vitality and happiness. Like red, it draws attention and shows movement but is not as overwhelming. He is aggressive but balanced - he shows energy and yet can be inviting and friendly.
Orange is great for a call to action to purchase or subscribe to a product.
Green
Green color makes you feel optimistic and fresh.
A multi-colored color that can match any brand. Green symbolizes health, new beginnings and wealth. Green is a soothing and calm color and should be used to create balance in the design. This is a great color to use if a company wants to convey a message of growth, confidence and capabilities. A perfect color especially for those who want to connect to the values of nature.
Yellow
Yellow makes you feel happy and spontaneous. If you want to appear approachable and friendly, yellow is the right choice. Yellow gives cheerful, young and pleasant energy. Yellow is perhaps the most energetic of the warm colors. It's about laughter, hope and sunshine. Accents of yellow help give the brand design energy and will make the viewer feel optimistic and cheerful. However, too much yellow can be too dominant and should be used sparingly.
In design, it is often used to grab attention in an energetic and pleasant way.
blue
Blue makes you feel safe and calm. Blue evokes feelings of calmness and spirituality as well as confidence, maturity and trust. The color blue causes the body to secrete calming chemicals. It is no surprise that it is the most classic, preferred and popular of colors.
Navy blue is great for corporate bodies as it helps give a professional feel, but using too much can create a cold and detached feeling.
Light blue gives a friendly and relaxed feeling. Great examples are social networks like Facebook and Twitter that use a lighter blue.
Purple
Purple Color makes you feel creative and smart. Purple is identified as a creative color, conveying mystery and wealth, grandeur and luxury. Light shades of purple are often used for relaxation, hence they are used in beauty products. It has a hint of femininity.
Pink
The color pink makes you feel playful and romantic.
Pink represents femininity and romance, sensitivity and tenderness. It is by nature a sweet, cute and charming color.
Choose pink for a modern, young and luxurious look.
Brown
Brown color connects you to the ground, to the earth.
Heat creates a feeling of roughness, masculinity, stability and support. Seen as a practical and reliable color.
Can also transmit vintage. The brown color is very distinctive.
Black
The color black is seen as sophisticated and serious.
Black evokes power, luxury, elegance, professionalism and simplicity. It's a bold, powerful and somewhat mysterious color. But black can also have some negative connotations - it is the color of grief, fear and sadness and it can also feel scary and inaccessible.
White
The white color gives a feeling of cleanliness, purity and freshness.
White evokes purity and innocence and creates a minimalist aesthetic. It can be very simple, clean and modern.
It is also the most neutral color of all. Also suitable for combination as a second color.
Gray
Gray color conveys seriousness, professionalism and restraint.
Gray is a more mature and responsible color. The positive connotations of the color gray include formality and reliability, while the negative side can mean being too conservative, conventional and emotionless.
You don't have to choose just one!
You are not limited to one color, but it is recommended to choose a central color and a complementary color next to it.
In conclusion
The goal is to design a logo that will be both beautiful and of high quality visually and at the same time will convey the message well.
Shape-shifting logos are termed as responsive logos which vary in sizes, colors or even in terms of complexity levels just to adapt and accommodate to be placed wherever they are to be.
The old rule that says “Do not go for a change in the logo” which was like a canon for quite a few years?
To be precise, where we have reached today: What at one point of time seems as faux pas of advertising is now considered as best practice.
