Logo Design Tips You Must Know
Zack Greenfield • October 28, 2022
I'm gonna share with you what I've learned about logo design over the years working with award-winning designers for our client projects. Hang in here and I'm gonna give you a couple of tips so that you know what to look for when you're getting your logo designed.
Everybody knows when you're starting your business, one of the first things you gotta do is come up with a great logo and branding treatment for your business. And this is an area where a lot of times people can struggle and sort of either not know where to start or they get into the weeds and things start getting a little weird. Now, we've done, I don't know how many logos over the last almost 10 years, and I've picked up a few things that I think are critical that I'm gonna share with you today. The first thing is, and it kind of goes without saying, but a lot of times this gets lost. The imagery really needs to communicate the core value or benefit that your business provides to your customers. And sometimes that's a feeling or emotion. Sometimes it's a practical visual communication of what it is, but it really needs to hit that on the head.
And that means you're probably going to have to take some time and really think about that verbally and write those things out, right? Like, what problems do you solve? What benefit, you know, do you offer your consumer? Identify those and those will lead you to the images. The next thing, and once you can kind of establish that, is to not try to crowd the thing down and make it too busy. One of the necessary evils of today's digital marketing world is your logo needs to perform in a variety of different applications online. It's gotta be able to be like a little avatar and a fa con, and you know, all these profile pictures and things like that for your company. And to do that, that means that in general, it needs to be pretty simple and it needs to have some white space. So it can't be what I would say over-designed and function well in today's world.
And some of the most valuable brands have logos that are extremely simple. And an example of that would be Nike. So think along those lines. Less is typically more. The next thing I wanna share with you is one of my warnings about all marketing, but definitely applies to logo design, is really to avoid being overly clever. QT or cliche. I think those are like the three C's that you don't want to do in marketing. Qt, clever and cliche. So be warned now that those are typically not directions to go. So you ask, Well then what direction should I go in? And here's the answer, clear overt communication is always best. So instead of trying to create a mental puzzle for people that are seeing your logo or for that matter, engaging with any of your market messaging, make it completely straight and easy for people to understand.
That's always the best, clear communication that people can understand at a glance is always gonna be a win. So avoid those three C's, qc, clever or cliche in your logo design and in all of your marketing. All right, And the last thing I wanna say is remember to imagine your drafts that you're looking at. You may be evaluating logos right now while you're watching this video. Imagine those in use in the situations where you're gonna use them. Like what are they gonna look like on a business card? How's that gonna drive your website design? How are those gonna look in these, you know, profiles and other things that we just discussed? Is that design actually gonna function and work in those instances, right? So imagine them in the situations that they're going to be used and you know, test them maybe in those environments. Get a little, you know, most designers are giving you mockups and things like that.
You wanna look at all that and see how the logo drafts are actually playing out. All right? And then the last thing I can say is, take your time. Logo design, brand development. Sometimes, you know, I look at the timeline to share with you guys, we may spend more time on that. Then actually building the whole darn website for a client project, because that is something that once it's done, you have to live with for many, many years until you do, you know, perhaps a revision or a little bit of an update. But sometimes that could be even five to 10 years before that happens. The website, you know, and these other things that you're kind of in a rush to get to our living documents that, you know, once you get up and going, you're constantly revising them anyways. But that logo is something that you're gonna have to be married to and be happy with, and it needs to work for your brand and for your company's growth from today.
So the last thing I say is take your time with it, but also imagine, you know, is does this gonna be relevant and work for me in five years if my company is as big as I want it to be? Is this still gonna be the logo that's gonna carry it that distance? Is it powerful enough visually to stand the test of time, right? Is it tr too trendy? That's another thing to, you know, watch out for as I think about, you know, longevity too trendy might become little obsolete and kind of corny looking in a short time. So watch out for that. But take your time with it. Enjoy. It's one of the coolest processes of del uh, developing your business. But, um, you know, you wanna take my tips today and perhaps more work with a great designer. Make sure you're working with good people and I'm sure you'll have a great outcome With that catch on the next one, go ahead and like, and subscribe to the channel and to this video so you don't miss the next tape of quick and dirty marketing.