On Simplicity...

“If you can’t explain the idea in one sentence over the telephone, it won’t work.”

- Lou Danziger

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

- Leonardo da Vinci

“Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance.”

- Jon Franklin

“There is no greatness where there is no simplicity.”

- Leo Tolstoy

Logo Design - Less is more

One of the most important things that makes a logo successful is its simplicity

Simple logos are easy to remember, and looking at the logos below you have to agree that they can't get much more simple, but they work so well that two of them don't even have to include the company name to be instantly recognisable.

Good logos are effective without colour

Great logos have other things in common too. One very important factor is that although they may use corporate colours in some instances they don't rely on colour to be recognisable. The Nike swoosh is emblazoned on sports shoes, bags and clothing of all different colours, and therefore it has to be able to stand out by contrasting against the background colour.

A logo has to be scalable

Your logo may be reproduced on everything from business cards to billboards, and it has to work at all these sizes. Complex logos become an unrecognisable mess when scaled down to fit on corporate stationery such as letterheads and business cards. Look how well these logos scale, and how clear they are at small sizes.

Simple Logotypes

Many logos are actually just the company name in a distinctive or uniquely set font (typeface). Microsoft, Canon, Sony, Panasonic and Philips are some of the major companies that use this kind of logo. While this may seem a very easy way of designing a logo it can be very challenging to make the logo distictive enough for immediate recognition, and so great care has to be taken with the choice of font and any embellishments made.

It is would be a big mistake to simply look for a font you like on your computer and type your company name and call that your logo. For a start millions of people will have the same font installed on their computers too. Much better is to look for a less well known font from a commercial font designer such as FontShop http://www.fontshop.com/. Once a suitable font has been chosen, the designer looks at letter spacing, colours and other graphic elements that will make the logo unique and instantly recognisable.

A logo looks better without trying to state the obvious

There is no hamburger in the McDonalds logo, and the Nike logo does not include sports shoes. Everyone knows though what the arched "M" and the Nike "swoosh stripe" mean. Logos presents a much more professional image when they are not trying to state the obvious.

Logos that use images to represent your company's type of business are known as illustrative logos, and they can be very eye catching. However, by their nature they need to be far more detailed and they rarely work without colour and look far less impressive when scaled down to business card size for example.

Don't try to be too trendy!

You must have seen plenty of those very cool "Web 2.0" logos on the internet. Some are very good, but most are going to date very quickly as well. The fonts used for some of these logos are going to show their age, and many use the same technique of using two different colours in the same font for the company name. Looks good today, but what about tomorrow when some other fashion takes its place?

Your logo has to stand the test of time unless you expect your company to only last as long as the latest trend.

Good logo design is not easy

Your logo can be one of your company's most effective marketing tools, and it is at the heart of your corporate identity, but it is not easy to get right. I have seen many small business owners try to design their own logos, and every time the results have been horrendous. I have even seen people spell their own company name wrongly in their own logo! Trying to save money by designing your own logo is a false economy and will cost your company very dearly!

Your logo should deliver the message that your company is reliable and professional. It is far too important to your business to get this wrong. Get it right though, and the image you project can have a remarkable effect on your business.

To find out how we can design a high quality professional logo for your business contact us now.

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