A company is usually represented by its logo.

The symbolic piece of design is also something that the consumer looks at to assess whether or not the company is reliable.

There are even instances wherein the psychology behind the logo itself becomes the sole reason for consumers to trust and engage with the brand.

A logo is not communication.

It’s identification.

It’s the period at the end of a sentence.

Not the sentence itself.

Logos play a huge role in defining the company, becoming the symbolism of the brand, and building trust with the consumer.

While changing logos is normal, most logos rotate around the essential thought behind the original logo.

When a company drastically changes its logo, this usually signifies a huge shift in the company.

Logos should not be taken lightly as sometimes, there are customers that will associate the logo with the reliability of the company or brand itself.

Some people mistakenly think that the more complicated the design, the better it would be.

However, this is not the case.

The goal is actually to be able to create a design that would be easy to identify and also easy to remember.

Due to the massive amount of competition this 2021, making a unique logo can be quite hard.

With these few tips, you might be able to come up with a logo or maybe even the concept for a logo that would be perfect for your brand.

Here are the top 10 logo design tips of 2021:

Let the logo talk

It is important that the logo would show exactly what the company does.

The logo has to speak even before the business can open their mouth.

Basically, consumers or even the target market itself have to see the logo and understand what the company or brand is trying to communicate.

Logos should also be related to the industry to avoid confusion.

Although confusion is still attention, it might not be a positive attention which the company needs.

When a company is able to stand out while still having a logo relating to their industry, this would then create not only a powerful but also a very catchy logo.

One perfect example of this is the American Airlines logo which shows a strong and firm brand due to the font used while making it clear that they are in the aviation industry.

The logo design, aside from the font, shows the tail of a plane and although not a realistic design but more like a symbol, the objectives of American Airlines are successful. 

Another tricky but also pretty smart thing that American Airlines does with the new logo is making it look sort of like an Eagle at the same time.

Having this double symbolism creates more value for the logo itself.

Keep the logo design clean

Cluttered logo designs can be really distracting and sometimes even irritating to look at.

If you have a complex design, maybe minimize the amount of colors being used in order to avoid creating a really messy design.

Making use of blank spaces help make the logo clean.

Another technique instead of using blank spaces is to have a larger space for one color.

A perfect example of this is Caltex.

Despite only using two colors, Caltex remains a clean design of a star with white, blue, and red spaces.

Due to the cleanliness of Caltex’s design, they are able to showcase a really professional and reliable look.

Make use of shapes

Some minimalist companies take this concept to a whole new level where their logos are basically just a shape and some text.

Shapes make the logo interesting and also gives it a more definitive look.

Shapes also give the company a more professional look.

Sometimes law firms make use of shapes around their names to provide a solid look to their logo.

Having a shape around the centerpiece of the logo could add to the overall strength and solidity of the logo.

This technique, although might not be applicable to every logo, adds to the overall strength to the logo when it does.

For companies that want a more corporate or professional logo, using shapes can help create that type of image.

Logo placement

Despite logos being mostly used for online purposes due to the pandemic’s shift into the digital realm, for companies selling products or wearing uniforms, the logo has to be something that looks good elsewhere and not just the website.

One example of this is product packages.

For those selling food, the logo has to look good on the food packaging.

For those providing maybe cleaning services, the logo has to look good on the uniform.

Although the logos can be modified depending on where it is put, having a uniformed logo creates a stronger brand presence.

Companies selling products without their packaging having logos won’t really be able to connect on a personal level with their consumers.

Getting consumers to become familiar with the brand through getting the logo out there is very important.

This is why the logo has to look good on whatever physical or online material the brand puts out.

Choosing the right color

While there are a lot of companies that do really well with black and white, most companies rely on color in order to make their brand stand out.

There are a lot of examples of how certain color combinations can be associated with the brand behind them.

The most popular brand to utilize color in order to make the brand presence stronger is McDonald’s.

When people see red and yellow, they often associate the colors with McDonald’s.

This then results in them thinking about McDonald’s and in turn decide to order from McDonald’s itself.

Sometimes companies choosing the wrong colors could result in them giving a confusing image.

Certain colors are also related to certain industries.

For example, yellow can be used for energy, blue for logistics, and green for food.

Literal logo

Depending on your brand name, making the logo a literal logo avoids confusion.

For example, Burger King has a picture of a literal burger as its logo.

The good thing about literal logos is that it is very easy to recognize and is self explanatory.

Since the consumer can easily see what the company is about, literal logos avoid any confusions or mismatches when it comes to what the logo is representing.

Of course, this might not work for every brand name.

However, for those brand names that are quite literal, having a literal logo as well could really help.

The goal of the literal logo is to be as literal as possible but still artful.

The more creative the logo is while still being literal, the more playful and lighter around the eyes it would be for the viewers.

Know how serious you have to be

Let’s say you have a charity organization, it might help if the logo is a little more serious.

Making sure the tone of the logo matches the company it represents is very important.

This can also go the other way as more playful logos like Google show just how outside-of-the-box the brand wants to be.

Serious logos like Intel or IBM are designed to show the market that they mean business and are clear with what they want to do.

This really depends on the company and what industry they are in.

Rockstar Games for example is the popular gaming company behind GTA V has a logo that literally looks like that of a rockstar.

In order to gauge how serious the logo must be, one must first find out what the target market is like.

Adjusting the target logo to the target market is very important when it comes to designing the logo.

Be strategic with pops of color

Let’s say the logo includes the company name in black, having a small symbol in color makes the symbol pop out even more.

Instead of the whole design popping out, focusing on a specific part of the design to highlight could also work.

Having a symbol as a design for starting companies can be quite hard which is why a symbol mixed with the brand name could be more effective.

When a company is starting out, knowing the company is equally as important as knowing the company logo.

This is extremely important if the company logo is not literal at all.

Having a symbol that you might want to associate with your brand could take time which is why for starting companies, it will be better to include both the brand name and symbol in the logo.

This technique is also used by not just starting companies but also one of the biggest companies in the world as well.

Amazon’s logo is a black text but there is still a pop of color on the curved arrow.

Don’t be afraid to use a simple logo

Sometimes people overcomplicate their logos or go back and forth testing out different logos when the most effective logos could be the one they first designed.

It can be really easy to lose oneself when trying to find the right logo to use and when this happens, it is important to take a step back and review the possible logo designs.

In the end, it is important to do a market study in order to find out which logo is more effective.

Getting honest comments and suggestions from the target market will also help improve the decision-making process in picking out the perfect logo for the brand.

Changing logos can be done later on but when a brand is first starting out, it might be better to stick to one logo to make sure that the target market becomes more familiar with the brand.

Changing the logo should only be done during large shifts and not every small shift.

Test out different versions of the logo

There might be a symbol, color, or font that the brand might want to incorporate and this is okay.

Since a company still has preferences, they should be able to make a logo wherein they themselves feel comfortable using.

However, it is important to tweak the logo in a way that makes it more attractive to the target market.

For example, unless you are creating a vintage brand, it might be better to use updated fonts and not fonts that make consumers think of a dated brand.

Being current is very important but it is also not advisable to directly hop on to a trend.

The problem with trends is that they change every time and someday, the design will become outdated which would then require a change.

It is important to find a design that is not just bound to current trends but can also be used to represent the brand in the future as well.

In order to help the brand grow, making a logo design that is not affected by trends and has a very original flair to it will make the brand more memorable to the target market.

Creating a brand relies heavily on both what the company wants to communicate with the audience and what the audience wants to see.

There should be a good balance of the logo representing exactly what the company stands for while also being interesting enough to catch the attention and create retention in the minds of the consumers.

The most important thing to ponder on when creating a logo is to make sure that the logo is something that the brand is proud of using.

Creating the perfect logo design takes time and it is okay to experiment with logos during the start.

However, when the perfect logo comes along that becomes the core identity of the brand, stick with that logo instead of going further.

There are infinite possible logos to create but at the end of the day, there is only one logo that perfectly represents the brand.

The perfect logo can then be tweaked along the way once the company tries to tap into a larger audience.

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