Businesses are instantly recognisable by their logos. With a good logo, you don’t even need to see the company name, and you already understand which business the logo belongs to. It’s a key way of building brand identity and growing your presence in the business world. Not all brand logos are made equal, and some will have a much better effect than others.
Speaking of which, what makes a business logo good or not? When you dive into the anatomy of one, there are plenty of common themes that arise. Some of these themes are purely design based, while others are a little more technical. But, all of them will be revealed in the following article!
Originality
It’s good to be different, and it’s beneficial for your company if your logo is original. There are a fair few reasons for this, the main one being that your logo should help differentiate you from all the other businesses out there. If you have a similar design to other companies, then people may confuse your company with them. Imagine someone walks passed your business premises, catches sight of your logo, but just assumes it’s the logo for another business. Does this help you spread awareness about your brand? Not at all!
Furthermore, your logo should be original because you don’t want to toe the copyright infringement line. It’s okay to draw inspiration from certain logo designs – or elements of different logos – but you can’t straight up copy things or use images that are trademarked. If your logo is too similar to one that’s already a registered trademark, then you may end up in legal disputes that take you to court. There are criminal defence lawyers up and down the country that deal with issues like this because it’s a crime to infringe copyright laws and your business may get fined a lot of money, while you could also face a short spell in prison. Even if you fight this case and win, it’ll cost a lot of money that harms your business and holds you back. In short; being original is just a safer option because you can avoid any copyright laws and there’s no worry of doing anything illegal.
Simplicity
Try and think about all the best business logos you’ve seen in your life. What do they all have in common? They’re very simple! One that springs to mind is Google, which is literally just the name of the company in a specific font, with colouring that has now become iconic to the brand. Another legendary logo comes from Nike, and it’s literally just a tick (or swoosh, depending on how you want to describe it). The point is, you don’t need to overcomplicate things to create a great logo that lasts long in the memory of consumers.
The whole point of a logo is that it should be easy for someone to identify. If you start trying to add too many things into the mixer, then you end up with a terrible concoction that just tries too hard to stand out. Don’t include too much text in your logo; it’s not really there to provide loads of information to people. At the most, you should have maybe your brand name, a slogan, or even the date your company was established. Save any other information for your business cards or info sections on your website!
Longevity
In my eyes, a good logo has longevity. This means that it remains pretty much the same, no matter how much time passes by. Of course, you may tweak small elements of it, but the core logo should remain the same from now until the end of time. Why? Because if you keep chopping and changing your logo, then it’s harder for people to identify with your company. It confuses consumers, and you want to establish your brand and stick with it.
The key here is to not design a logo based on any trends or things like that. For example, Game of Thrones is a very popular TV show that’s almost constantly trending. As a way of jumping on this trend, you may think it’s a good idea to design a logo that draws on elements from the TV show. It might seem genius because fans of the show relate to it, and you may get a fair bit of coverage. However, at some point, the trend will fade away, and you’re left with a logo that looks a bit silly. What do you do? Spend cash rebranding your business and pretty much starting from phase one as you try and build brand recognition all over again.
Relevance
Lastly, your logo needs to have some degree of relevance to your business. This kind of builds on the longevity point in that you shouldn’t try and hop on trends to design a quirky logo. When someone sees your logo, they shouldn’t scratch their head and think; hmmm that doesn’t really suit this company, does it? The type of business you operate – and the target audience you aim to reel in – will have a huge bearing on the style of your logo.
The easiest example I can think of is if you run quite a serious business that targets adults. Perhaps you run a tax service, or maybe you’re a mortgage lending business – whatever. Now, your logo needs to represent the almost seriousness of your company. It should ooze professionalism, and look like the logo of a very ‘adult’ business. On the contrary, you can’t have a logo that looks very childish and is targeted at a much younger audience. The font you use can’t be silly like Comic Sans, it should be crisp and clean. You get the point I’m making here; the logo must match the business.
There are four key considerations here that make up the anatomy of a good business logo. Remember, this is the face of your company, it’s the thing most people will recognise you by. As a result, you need to put a lot of effort into designing your logo. Get professional help on your side, and ask them to draw up multiple different ideas. Maybe test each idea by showing them to consumers, and finally settle on the best one for your business!
