Some Common Logo Design Mistakes That Everyone Makes And How To Avoid Them

We all know the importance of having a great logo. It’s the first impression that people have of your business, and it can help set you apart from your competitors. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses jump into logo design without doing their research first – and that leads to them making some common mistakes when designing their logos.

Lack of purpose

When you don’t have a purpose, it’s easy to get lost in the details of creating a logo. But if your logo isn’t tied to an overarching brand message and purpose, it will probably lack meaning. You can avoid this by choosing one or two words that describe your business and using them as the foundation for every design decision you make. This will give everything you create meaning and help communicate what sets your brand apart from others in the market.

To get started, consider asking these questions: What does my company/product/service care about? What do I care about? How do I want customers to perceive these things? 

When answering these questions, think about how they relate to who your customers are and what they need from you as a business. With this information in mind, write down three adjectives that describe how people feel when using or interacting with whatever it is that defines who you are (i.e., “ambitious,” “reliable,” etc.). Use those adjectives as guidelines for everything from color schemes to typefaces when creating logos for yourself!

Not planning for scalability

Scalability is an important aspect of any logo, as it will likely be used in various places and on various platforms. For example, if you have a logo that’s only designed to be displayed on a business card or website, it might not look good when printed in large format or blown up for use as a billboard.

This is why planning for scalability is so important—you need to make sure your designs can adapt and still look cohesive when they’re used at different sizes and across different platforms.

Putting your business name in the logo

Putting your business name in the logo is a common mistake. It’s better to use your brand name instead.

It’s important to create a logo design that is memorable and simple, easy to understand, and consistent.

Skimping on fonts

The font is a critical part of any logo design. It’s what people see first, and it can make or break your brand. If you’re using a font that isn’t clear or hard to read, not only will you have problems with legibility, but you’ll also lose out on the opportunity for people to share it on social media—which can cost you business!

When choosing a font for your logo design, there are two main things to keep in mind: readability and size. You want to make sure that whatever fonts you choose are easy-to-read from far away (if someone sees just the outline of text they should be able to still tell what it says), which means avoiding handwriting or script styles as best as possible. 

The same goes for making sure that when scaled down very small (or blown up very large), the letters stay clear enough so people won’t have trouble reading them again.

Using low-quality images

Your business logo is one of the most important visuals that represent your brand, so it’s important to use high-quality images. Whether you have a professional photographer take photos or use stock photos, be sure to look at the image resolution and file size before uploading them. If an image looks grainy or pixelates when enlarged, then it won’t look good as a large logo.

Going overboard with style

Too much style might sound like a good thing, but it’s not. To prevent this mistake you need to make sure that your logo can still be easily read and recognized. It also needs to be unique, so don’t go overboard with too many different fonts, colors or shapes. 

If you do choose multiple elements from different categories (i.e., fonts), keep them consistent throughout all of your brand materials. Similarly, if you have an idea for using multiple textures in one design element, make sure they work well together before implementing them into your final product.

Using too many colors

While it’s true that color will make your logo stand out and grab people’s attention, too many colors can be distracting. A graphic designer might think that using several different colors in one logo would make it more appealing and eye-catching, but this is rarely the case. 

The human brain processes visual stimuli through pattern recognition; when we see objects like shapes or letters in one color, our eyes will automatically recognize them as such. 

When an image has multiple colors all over it, our brains find it difficult to process what those shapes mean because they don’t fit into our typical patterns of recognition. 

In other words: if a single color is enough to convey meaning about an object or icon in your design (such as red for “stop”), then using more than one color may cause confusion among viewers who might not understand what certain graphics represent without first making sure their eyes are focusing on each individual section of your design separately rather than simply looking at everything together at once.

This isn’t just something that applies when designing logos—it also applies when creating any kind of graphic design project where the goal is communicating specific information through images alone (like websites). 

If you want people viewing your blog post about “5 Ways To Make Money Online With Your Blog” see what each step says clearly instead of getting confused by all those different options popping up everywhere on screen at once–OR worse yet having no idea how many steps there even ARE!–then keep things simple by limiting yourself to only two different colors per page so they can easily differentiate between one section from another while reading through what needs to be done first before moving on to another area altogether!

Overplaying special effects

You should avoid using special effects (like drop shadows, bevels, and embossing) that are not appropriate for your business. For example, if you’re selling gourmet peanut butter cups, don’t use 3D text with a drop shadow. If you’re selling financial services to retirees, don’t use an animated gif of a miniature hot air balloon flying over the city skyline.

The same goes for using special effects that are not appropriate for your target audience: if you’re designing an ad campaign targeted at teenagers who love to skateboard and hang out in the park, there’s no reason why they would even want to see the word “embossed” on any of their products—or anything else in their lives for that matter!

You also shouldn’t use special effects just for the sake of being “different.” This may seem obvious but I can tell you from experience that many young designers just get carried away with all these new tools available online and end up going way overboard with them…and as result end up making things look dated instead of modernized!

Keep all these things in mind when creating or updating logos because if done correctly then this is one step closer to having a strong brand identity which will help build trust among potential customers/clients (which ultimately results in increased sales).

Not considering how it will appear across different platforms

Not doing enough research on your competitors and what they’re doing.

As a designer, you may be feeling a little burned out on doing your research. It’s a common thing to feel this way when you’re getting ready to design a logo for your client. But, the truth is that all good designs begin with research. And, there are many ways to do it! For example:

Relying too much on feedback – especially from your friends, family, and colleagues.

Not getting enough feedback is a common mistake that a logo designer makes. But relying too much on feedback—especially from your friends, family, and colleagues—is arguably an even bigger mistake.

You need to get feedback from a diverse group of people. That includes people who don’t know you personally, don’t have any vested interest in the outcome and can provide objective opinions. For instance, if you’re designing a logo for your friend’s clothing line, they should not be helping you refine the design (unless they’re good at it).

Choosing an overly complex logo design.

Forgetting to establish a brand identity and voice first.

When you’re just starting out, it’s easy to think that your logo is the most important element of your brand. But before you get too far into the process, ask yourself:

In order to answer these questions, you’ll need to do some market research on your target audience first. This means knowing who they are and what their expectations are for this type of product or service. 

For example, if we are creating an e-commerce website for women in their 40s who love hiking, then we want to make sure that everything about that site—from its layout and color palette down to how it makes them feel—is geared toward making them feel like they’re in the outdoors while shopping online (and not at work). Once we’ve established our brand story and voice in this way, then we can go back through with our logo design so it fits seamlessly into those ideas we’ve already established as part of our overall vision for our business.

Final words

Remember, a brand isn’t just a name and logo. It’s also the tone of voice you use in your marketing materials, business correspondence, posts on social media channels, etc. Branding is your opportunity to establish familiarity and trust with potential customers. 

If you take the time to plan carefully and execute properly—and avoid all these common mistakes—you can create an identity that reflects who you are while still standing out from the crowd.