You’ve seen them all before, logos. They’re everywhere and even to the point where they have now become the face of many companies, leaving them to be a very important and necessary starting point for your business.
Don’t believe me? Just by naming these companies, the logo is very likely to just pop into your head immediately: McDonald’s, Mercedes, Tesco, KFC or even Love Island. I can guarantee you could see all to most of them, proving that the possibility of these logos becoming the starting face for your brand and what you will be known for means that they have to be perfect. You’ll also find the next stages of your business so much easier, from your content marketing to packaging, as having a great logo is such a key part of building a strong brand.
Colours
Without even noticing, colours are an essential part of your brand and your logo. You can utilise the power of Synesthesia (when you associate words or letters with a colour) to create your brand and logo to be more memorable, recognisable and consistent. If you hear Mcdonald’s, you see yellow and red.
As they ensure that any time you see or hear their name, red and yellow are right in front of you. Including adverts, stores, packaging, you name it- anything associated with that brand is likely to follow with the colours. Therefore powerful branding is partially created by consistent colouring.
Consistency = professionality and reliability, the essentials for an up-and-coming company. So to begin with the colour scheme for your logo, decide on the set of colours to represent your brand. This could be anywhere between baby pink to purple, blue and green. However, it is suggested a maximum is around 4 colours and they all complement each other, and you don’t want your logo to look like a struggle to the eye or unappealing. Step one is done, decide your colours.
Style
Style usually depicts the ‘vibe’ of your company. Tesco would be described to have more of a modern and plain, simple style. Whereas your local bookstore may have a more rustic, cosy and old style. Whichever style you decide to use should reflect your brand nicely.
For example if you were perhaps doing a shaving company for men, a sweet and girly style with maybe cursive text may seem a little confusing and off-putting and possibly cost you some audience.
As style is usually visual, meaning your customers will go off what they see initially and probably make early judgements on if they want to use your brand. Style is also included within the logo, if you have chosen a more modern and plain style for your company, then a simple word may do the trick for your logo.
However, if your company is perhaps about travelling in England and quaint little villages (targeting your audience to a more older-minded group) you may want a subtle and warm cursive style logo.
Style usually includes layout, text font and also colours; consistency is also a necessity in style as well as colour and therefore deciding your overall ‘vibe’ and style is just one step closer to making your perfect logo.
Symbols
Just as companies have colours and styles to keep them recognisable, they also tend to have an image or symbol that represents the company and typically the purpose e.g. a leaf on the national trust logo. However many companies just have a symbol to represent their brand rather than the purpose.
For example, Lloyds bank is known for the black horse, which doesn’t necessarily relate to banking yet the company is famous for it. Symbols are another thing that is typically used for memorability, they make your company a name and something to differentiate yours from the rest.
Although it is optional, it is extremely advised to brand your company with a symbol and then include this subtly or explicitly within your logo. This will enhance your logo and add to its uniqueness, making the logo and company more memorable.
Uniqueness
As stated previously, the uniqueness of your company becomes very important within branding and makes your company differ from the rest. It can be quite difficult to set up and make the company initially stand out from the rest, especially in a big field of interest it can be difficult.
Branding agencies are always a good place to start, to generate and push your company to its potential with a little help. Obtaining a branding agency is more feasible than you think, big cities that are local to you are an easy place to start for example, if your local city was Manchester then a branding agency in Manchester would significantly help your company to start becoming its own as well as helping you obtain your perfect logo.
Including something in your logo that makes you stand out will significantly improve your logo to serve its purpose as the face of your company. Using all four factors in your logo, it is ensured that the logo you create will be the perfect one for your new and upcoming company.