In your opinion what are the traits of a good logo? Please also share if you work with a logo design company or if you are an enthusiast.

There is beauty in simplicity - in fact some of the cleverest (and often most famous) logos are quite simple in their execution.

 

A truely successful logo will need to work both in colour and mono without losing it's meaning, be scaleable, memorable. The most successful logos are often instantly recognisable.

Timeless is another word I would choose, for futureproofing.

It has to stand out really. Any image could become a logo so long as the surrounding elements are in different colour.

Your logo is your brand.

So understanding everything about that brand is critical before creating it.

 

Just look at my avatar on here. This sums me up perfectly!

Just look at my avatar on here. This sums me up perfectly!

 

Blue monster designs?

Just look at my avatar on here. This sums me up perfectly!

 

 

Blue monster designs?

 

Cheeky devil?

clean, attractive and timeless! sometimes logos can be 'over-designed' and then they lose the simple message they were intended to convey. Straplines can play a vital part in supporting the logo.

It has to stand out really. Any image could become a logo so long as the surrounding elements are in different colour.

No!!

The main trait of a good logo according to most clients is it has to be "Bigger".

What do all of you graphic designers say to the idea that logos are largely worried about too much? Logos are only as good as the company it represents. You make the best logo in the world and it is crap if the company sucks. You take a terrible logo and it probably looks pretty good if the company is great.

 

Take a look at apple. I think it is an example of a company making an average logo great. I could put a single dot inside of a triangle and make it the logo of a great company and I'd probably get people talking about how great/simple/defining the logo is.

Edited March 16, 201214 yr by mistatall

Timeless is another word I would choose, for futureproofing.

 

I wouldn't agree. Look at the logos of top companies over the years. Microsoft have changed fairly often (ish), Apple etc.

What do all of you graphic designers say to the idea that logos are largely worried about too much? Logos are only as good as the company it represents. You make the best logo in the world and it is crap if the company sucks. You take a terrible logo and it probably looks pretty good if the company is great.

 

Take a look at apple. I think it is an example of a company making an average logo great. I could put a single dot inside of a triangle and make it the logo of a great company and I'd probably get people talking about how great/simple/defining the logo is.

 

agreed

It depends on the logo. You could say it has to be readable, but there are plenty of examples that are not but are world famous. You could say it has to have the name of the business, or clearly convey the nature of the business - but again, there are many examples that are extremely famous that do not.

 

Therefore, in my mind, there are only two fixed criteria a logo must achieve. It must be unique and instantly memorable. If I look at a logo, and several hours or even days later I am thinking about it and I can see it clearly in my head then in my mind it is doing its job.

Brand comes first, design comes second...

 

Understand your brand by asking yourself a number of questions...

 

Who are my customers, what makes them tick, what is my main offering, what does the business stand for... etc. Any more and I'll have to start charging a consultancy fee!

 

Essentially we are lead by emotions, impulse to buy is an emotion and a lot of Logo's stimulate impulse. So to start think about what emotions you want to stimulate. Trigger an emotion with your logo and your on the right path.

 

Timeless is bollucks! You can't make a logo timeless, it only becomse timeless once its been successfull for a time!

Aesthetics like simple or uncomplicated are also secondry considerations... simply start with

 

Emotive, relevant, unique.

 

Shameless plug, but I am available for custom design work.

 

Thanks Martin

Timeless is bollucks! You can't make a logo timeless, it only becomse timeless once its been successfull for a time!

Aesthetics like simple or uncomplicated are also secondry considerations... simply start with

 

What I'm meaning by "timeless" to clarify is an attempt to give the logo a bit of shelf life. Of course in reality it's virutally impossible to know the shelf life of a logo, I guess what I mean is the avoidance of any particular zeitgeist things which may render the logo defunkt in a short period of time. Perhaps fad design trends and so forth.

 

I could argue the same about "unique" - of course any two logos aren't exactly the same, but as far as being unique, that's virtually impossible seeing as just about all ideas have been used up now. Similar to musical bands who claim that they are "unique" but only turn out to be re-hashes of stuff which has gone before...

The ideal I always have in my head is the Nike swoosh. Yes, 90% of it's appeal today is the brand but I think logos have certain limits on just how far they could be pushed, at some point they stop being a useful way to stamp your brand on something and might actually start detracting from your brand.

 

Take Microsoft as an example. Perhaps one of the biggest brands in the world. Yet their logo isn't actually that good and I think it shows. They don't actually use it that much and when they do they tend to reduce it down to just a simple sans-serif font. Instead they brand products and services individually, go take a look at the Hotmail/Office or Windows websites. Nary a cut O in sight.

 

Now back to Nike. They stamp that thing on everything they touch, because they can, because it rarely looks out of place. It's so simple and so elegant you could use it for any company you liked. Computers, Drinks, Planes or Cheese it doesn't matter. It's not too heavily symbolic, it can't be tied to a time frame, it doesn't have any particular style. It's perfect.

I could argue the same about "unique" - of course any two logos aren't exactly the same, but as far as being unique, that's virtually impossible seeing as just about all ideas have been used up now. Similar to musical bands who claim that they are "unique" but only turn out to be re-hashes of stuff which has gone before...

 

I do agree, but if you don't encourage an obvious novice to be unique first off, they are for my likely to go out and choose something unoriginal from a generic supplier. If in their design process, unique was one of their drivers they are then less likely to come up against copyright or trademark issues. I stand by unique it's a good practice to follow, accidents do happen and yes its hard to be original these days due to the 'off the shelf' sellers but if you can prove you haven't directly copied a design you can often play dumb if you come accross challanges to your final logo.

 

PS Your not the only person to say timeless (not a personal attack!)

Edited April 26, 201214 yr by McGarryMA

After quite some years of designing logo´s I´ve come to the realisation that maybe the most important element of a logo is weight. The weight of the lines, the font, the mark. Is there a right balance?

 

Beginning designers often trouble with weight, finding the right balance. I've found that I needed a couple years to develop an eye that could correctly determine if a lockup is aesthetically pleasing, It's something you can only learn by doing. But It's very hard because you only notice It in retrospect, If I look at logo's I did years ago I think "My God what was I thinking!" but at the time I thought It was to the best of my aesthetical abilities.

 

Long story short: Weight makes Balance. And Balance is Key.

A lot of the traits have been covered but a personal one for me is the color mood, the worst mistake you can make is to choose a color for a company that sets a bad mood, there are a lot of mood charts out there that you can look up to see what colors affect people and in what way. Just google it. Hope this helps in some way and good luck.