The Importance of Logo Design and Online Branding...

The importance of a logo for your business. Why do you need one?

What is a logo? A logo is a combination of text and visual imagery that serves two purposes. It tells people the name of the company and it creates a visual symbol that represents your business. Some logos have powerful symbolic association connected to people’s memory. For example, the McDonalds golden arches are so familiar that they no longer need the text “McDonalds” for you to recognize that that symbol represents McDonald's.

 

Why do I need a logo?

Having a professional looking, well-designed logo builds trust. Potential customers are more likely to do business with you if you have a well-designed logo. If your logo looks like it was designed in Microsoft Word, people will question how well you are able to deliver your core business products/services.

 

What should a good small business logo contain?

While many small businesses think their brand is going to be the next Coca Cola or McDonald's, in reality when you’re starting out with your logo, one of the most important characteristics is that the text of your company name is clear and easy to read at a distance, as it may appear on vehicle signage, building signage, posters or some other place where the logo is seen at a distance.

 

Use it consistently

When large global brands get a logo designed they often prepare large brand standards documents, dozens of pages deep.  These documents cover things like:

• Guidance on the different variations of the logo and where they should and shouldn’t be used.

• Guidance on modifying the logo and what shouldn’t be done to the logo.

• What should and shouldn’t appear nearby the logo.

• How the logo should appear in all sorts of different scenarios.

Although this level of documentation is overkill for most small business logos, these large brands understand that if brands are inconsistent in the way their logo appears in different situations, this can be damaging to trust.  So be really consistent with how your logo is used.

 

Simple colors - think about the different situations it will be used in.

Your logo might appear on screens, business cards, letterheads, pull-up banners, vehicles, shop signage, product packaging, newspaper adverts just to name a few.  Logos that have gradient colors, lots of fine detail, a lot of different colors or photographic content are much more likely to look quite different in these different situations as many of them use completely different printing technology and it makes it difficult to match the colors exactly.  This is why the most powerful brands in the world usually stick to a simple palette of less than 3 main colors.  They also use solid colors rather than gradients.

 

Have something visual/memorable

While it might take you a few decades to become the next Coca-Cola or McDonald's, having something memorable about your logo is a good idea.  Some businesses do this by using interesting text or modifying part of the text in the logo to not just be a standard font.  Other businesses do this by adding some sort of illustrated icon alongside the text part of the logo.  One useful aspect of having an icon is that you can use the icon on its own in some situations as well.  For example, the Nike tick can appear with the Nike text or without.  While originally the Nike tick would have meant nothing if it didn’t appear alongside the Nike text, over time that visual memory association has developed.  If you’re wanting a very sleek, minimalist logo, just using a modern looking font with a pop of accent color is a good option.