A logo, by definition, is a symbol or other design adopted or created by an organization to identify its products or services. As a designer who primarily creates logos and brands for businesses, I’ve decided to put together a little post on my top 3 things that make a good logo.

  • Simple

Okay, so if you follow my work you know that my style tends to fall on the minimalistic side in general. But, I promise I’m not just biased on this. Simplicity IS key when it comes to a successful logo. A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be memorable. Good logos feature something unique without being overdone. It will also catch the attention of your audience whether they’re zipping by signage at 100 km per hour, or leisurely browsing packages in a store on a Sunday afternoon. I know from the client side of it, you want to make sure your logo has everything you need; but sometimes, everything is just more space to breathe.

  • Versatile

An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. The logo should be functional. It should be designed in vector format, by a professional, to ensure it’s fully scalable and adaptable to any size or space. I always start my logo design process in just black and white; the reason for this being to ensure it will look good in it’s simplest form. Your logo should still be effective if:

  • it’s printed in one colour
  • it’s printed on something the size of a postage stamp
  • it’s printed in reverse
  • Appropriate

How a logo is created should be appropriate for its purpose. For example, if you’re designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childlike font & colour scheme. In probably the most important sentence of this whole post; a logo doesn’t need to show what a business sells or offers as a service. Car logos don’t need to be a car, computer logos don’t need to be a computer. The Telus logo isn’t a cell phone, nor is the Starbucks logo a cup of coffee. A logo is simple for identification, and its meaning comes from the quality of the brand it symbolizes. In other words, your logo becomes what you make it.