hether you’re a beginner or just in need of a refresh, follow our logo design tips and tricks to help you make really good logos.
Logos are really important. They can be daunting to design but are a must for any business and are the cornerstone of any good business brand, or even a personal brand. You want your logo to explain who you are and what you do, why you do it, and how you do it. You’ll include it on social posts, presentation decks, marketing materials, business cards and more. That’s a lot of heavy lifting for one little graphic to do, right?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with a whole load of logo design tips, tricks and walkthroughs from an actual Graphic Designer (i.e. me). Whether you’re a beginner or just in need of a refresh, follow these tips and tricks to help you get started and make a really good logo today.
A good logo should:
- Be eye catching
- Be timeless
- Be memorable
- Work well large or small
- Encompass your brand vibe
What on earth is a brand vibe, and how do I find mine?
A brand vibe is how you want your brand to make people feel. Sometimes you might hear it called a brand personality. It should be consistent across your logo and content, and clearly set out in your brand guidelines.
Just like we want our law firms to feel trustworthy and respectable, we want our yoga teachers to feel calm and gentle, and our party planners to feel organized and fun.
With me so far?
Once you discover your brand vibe, the logo making process gets 100 times easier* (*not scientifically proven). Spend five minutes right now writing down three or four words that encompass how you want your brand to make people feel. Got them? Good, you can scroll down to the logo design tips now.
Learn more about brand:
Keep your brand vibe in mind as you read through the logo design tips, and spend some time thinking about how each logo makes you feel. Based on our research, we know that consumers trust brands who are upfront about who they are and what they do with their logo styles.
So I’ve included some of Venngage’s top logo templates. If any feel right you can get started on your design straight away! If you need more inspiration, check out those beautiful company logos from famous brands.
Top 10 Logo Design Tips & Tricks:
- A picture paints a thousand words
- Use empty space to keep your logo design clean
- Use shapes to think inside the box
- Imagine your logo in situ
- Color is key for good design
- Be literal with your logo
- Be authoritative with your logo
- Create visual salience with a pop of color
- Don’t reinvent the wheel when designing your logo
- Don’t be afraid to rejig the wheel
Ready to get started? Check out our top 10 logo design tips and tricks below:
1. A picture paints a thousand words
A logo is a visual representation of your brand, so why tell people what you do if you could just show them? Use simple icons to communicate who you are.
Remember the brand vibe we talked about earlier? The use of the plane and the sun here makes me feel excited and reminds me of warm sunny holidays.
Visual puns are a designers best friend too – here Frost Bites have created a quirky ‘bite’ to show that they are a food company. This is really easily achieved by overlapping two circles that are the same color as the background.
Video Walk Through: How to personalize this logo
My imaginary Taco shop needs a new logo. I love the ‘bite’ design on the Frost Bites logo, but we sell delicious Mexican food – not ice cream!
So instead of a circle I used a taco graphic. Watch how I did it below:
2. Use empty space to keep your logo design clean
Coco Chanel once said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off”. The same thing applies with design.
You want to make sure people can read your logo from a distance, or when it’s really small – keeping it “clean” (designer speak for “lots of blank space”) will achieve this. Here we can see how Savant Yoga have utilized blank space to invoke a feeling of calmness.