10 logo design tips from a professional

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Having accumulated our years of experience in the design industry, creating brand identities and logos, here we would like to share with you 10 tips to design a professional looking logo design.  Some may think that logos look so simple but what looks simple is actually more difficult to design. Hope that these tips will get you going on to creating beautiful logos that your clients will absolutely love.

1. Understand your Client.
First you will need to find out about the business activities, target audiences, the messages they want to send out, colours they like etc. All these will help you map out a ‘personality’ for the brand.

2. Do Your Research.
Do some research of what others in the industry have done. Most importantly not to have something similar to the Client’s competitors.

3. Keep it Simple.
You need to consider a simple logo design that looks good even when it is shrunk down to a small size, consisting of 2 – 3 colours maximum. In this way it promotes recognition.

4. Icon or Text?
Not every logo requires an logo symbol/icon, text only logos can be efficient too. Although we would say that those with only icons as logos, such as Apple or Nike have established their brands since a long time, hence are able to gain brand recognition from their logo symbols alone.

5. Be Unique. Stand out from the Crowd.
The logo being the first and foremost graphical representation of a company, it will need to leave a lasting impression and not resemble any other logo out there. Think out of the box.

6. Keep in mind the Essence of the Brand.
Remember the personality and message you want to bring out with the logo. For example, using a bright hue of red will not go well with a children not-for-profit organization, whereas it the feeling should be somewhat calming and nurturing.

7. Limit the number of Proposals.
Propose 2 – 3 mock up logo designs first, so that there is room for the Client to make recommendations on improvements and move towards the direction that they like. Giving more designs initially will only confuse the Client and not do you any good.

8. Keep your Client Involved.
This is a two-way process, and you will need to work with your Client who usually does not have the eye for aesthetics that you have been trained with. When they request for something that you may not agree with, it is good to try giving them what they want and then show improvements that you recommend and why. They ultimately will need to be happy with the final design too.

9. Timeline.
Sometimes it is difficult to estimate exactly how long the project will take to complete. Of course also taking into consideration how most Clients seem to have urgent mission-impossible datelines, and multiple revisions to go through with. Consider giving them a longer timeframe than you expect, or tell them you cannot promise that the project will finish by the timeline they give, but you will try your best, considering that they work together on the timeline too and not have too many revisions, and that it is normal for projects to stretch for long periods of time that expected. This is to protect yourself from the troubles that may occur.

10. Sell your Work.
You will need to give a reason why the logo looks good and is suitable. One strong point on each logo design proposal is good enough.

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Category: Logo & Identity Design, Tips for Logo Designers