1. Capture the Identity of the Business

If you’re designing a logo for an organization, then you should already know exactly what they represent. Don’t forget this essential aspect of the design process.

2. Master the Art of Complex Simplicity

An elaborate design with detailed borders and a name that fades into an obscure background may be a wonderful work to view, but it won’t make your logo design easy to remember. Complex works eventually become indistinguishable from each another. Likewise, a logo that simply states the business name in a standard font is also unlikely to create an impression. When your logo is cluttered, it runs viewers away. A good logo is like a catchy tune, viewers should get the image stuck in their head. The best logo designers know how to add the appropriate amount of pizzazz to a simple idea. Amazing designs are also memorable designs.

3. Make Good Use of Your Color Palette

Color is the part of the logo that grabs a viewer’s attention first. A memorable logo only requires a few colors. Complementary colors are naturally appealing. Colors that are not complementary can still be effective within a logo design if they are used wisely and skillfully. When bright colors are used appropriately, they can heighten visibility and launch a logo into a viewer’s long term memory. Don’t just select colors that you happen to like.  Always remember to think carefully about which colors will create an accurate representation of the company.

4. Consider the Logo’s Purpose and Location

Always contemplate your logo’s purpose and location as you begin the design process. If your logo will be seen on a billboard, then take into consideration the time viewers will have to process the imagery and make a connection to the company you’re representing. You should be able to recognize roadside designs very quickly. Viewers cannot remember a convoluted logo in a short amount of time. If you are creating a logo design for small scale printing, then remember that your logo design should stand out without taking over.

5. Make the Name Stick

Businesses go to great lengths to protect their name and identity. Don’t forget how important a company’s name is when you create your design. Skilled designers love to get fancy with type. However, don’t fall into the trap of making a business name twist and turn all of over the logo. The name should be easy to read and remember.

Designers have an important job, don’t we? We create the branding that determines the very identity of virtually every kind of company. If you keep these five fundamental characteristics in mind, you will be on your way to creating an excellent logo design for your next client.

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Kathleen

But just to tease your brain one more time (we’re gonna celebrate) before you head off for your exciting times in the sunshine; what do Torchwood, Starflleet Academy and Omni Consumer Products have in common? I know it’s been a long week so here’s a few clues, it’s nothing to do with time travel, the future or robots. Yes you got it, it’s that despite being fictional organisations they all have their own logos. All designed with surprising care and attention (and occasionally with more care than their real life counterparts) as you can see.

Logo for Omni Consumer Products

This is the logo for Omni Consumer Products, the evil corporation behind the construction of Robo-Cop. As befits such an archetypically evil mega-corporation it is heavily dominated by black, leaving the white trapped inside, and due to the octagonal shape it seems more machine made than organic. Fitting for the creators of a cyborg and a corporation so large that it loses all sense of human decency.

Logo for Starfleet Academy

This is the logo for the Starfleet Academy, and it clearly takes its inspiration from the badges worn by the Nasa Astronauts. It even takes its logo from the Apollo 13 motto which was Ex luna scienta (from the moon, knowledge) with its version of Ex astris , scientia (from the stars, knowledge). The Roman numerals refer to 2161 AD which is when it were founded. But as to why they’re based in San Francisco, rather than the moon or a space station, who knows? Maybe they like the pride parade?

Logo for Ghostbusters

Get the branding right and you’ve won half the battle. Based in a retired firehouse and driving around a hearse adapted to look like an ambulance the Ghostbusters made an impact. All they need was a logo to go with this dashing image, and judging by the popularity of this one they didn’t do half bad.

We’ve only scratched the surface of fictional logos here, and you’re left wanting more then head over and check out Fauxgo. This is a Tumblr run by Tymm Armstrong and it’s an ever growing compendium of fake logos (and they accept submissions).

If you’d like a logo, or anything else, designed then why not submit a brief on the Creative Service Exchange.

And what kind of logos stay in your mind the longest? Clever ones! (especially when you spend 10 seconds trying to work out where the hidden digit is).  Flipping a 2 to make an N, or a 3 to make an M has brought us some really inspiring work. Brings me right back to the art of upside down calculator-text.

Here’s a short collection of some great number playing brands.

That’s all fine and dandy if it’s your own personal blog. But with business, well, you really can’t afford to cut corners with your company’s brand identity. What looks good to you and I, might look naff at best to your target audience. Or, at worst, it might look downright awful.

Even the big boys get things wrong from time-to-time. When Gap revealed its new logo last October, the company faced a big backlash from the public.

Whilst Gap did underestimate the power of brand familiarity with its existing logo, the new logo looked like something from a Microsoft software package. If only Gap had consulted the ‘crowd’ as they were planning to. The damage was done, however, and they reverted back to the old logo before you could say “WTF…?”.

But we digress. This guide is neither meant to encourage or discourage you to take your company’s brand image into your own hands. If anything, it’s more of a “if you really, really must be a DIY designer” guide.

More importantly, logo-design always begins with a brief. And if you understand the basics of logo-design, then you can play an active role in the design process and work with the professionals towards developing your brand identity.

1.    Think outside YOUR box

Okay, before you even double-click on your Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel Draw icon, remember that the logo isn’t about you. It’s about the market.

If your brand is all about energy and vibrancy, aimed at the creative industries or student markets, then a funky, modern typographic font might be fine. But if you’re operating a consultancy service for the pharmaceutical industry, then something a little more understated and business-like is better. Sounds obvious and, well, that’s because it is.

And just because you happen to think the Kappa logo is the best emblem ever, this doesn’t mean a similar design will work for your company.  Which leads us to the next point…

2.    Don’t be a copycat

Firstly, a good logo should be original, so you shouldn’t want to copy other logos anyway. Secondly, do you really have the time to ensure your logo doesn’t infringe on any existing trademarked imagery – even if it is by accident?

A court case instigated by Apple Inc. against NYC’s GreeNYC campaign helps to show how easy it is to ruffle the feathers of corporate big-shots. As you can see, both images are apples…but come on, they’re different colours, right? Yes they are, but read on to see why this doesn’t matter…

3.    Colour blind=good design

Matt Groening has stated on many occasions that the secret to creating memorable cartoon characters is to design them so that they’re recognisable by their silhouette alone – such as Homer Simpson. The details of their features and colour are important, but the shape and form are more so.

The same applies to logos. Colours should come last – memorable logos should begin life in black-and-white form, with emphasis placed on shape and form.

It’s likely that your logo may have to be printed in black and white – or other colours – depending on the background colour it’s being reproduced on. So relying on colour for a logo is a bad idea.

And this is why Apple took exception to GreeNYC’s emblem – it was too similar in shape and form to their long-established logo.

4.    Simply subliminal

Here’s a mantra worth repeating: if in doubt, leave it out. The best logos are simple and it can be all too easy to clutter your design with needless bells and whistles that may be aesthetically pleasing, but do little for your brand image. Simple is always best.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t convey additional information in a more subtle way – many of the top logo designs employ some very clever techniques that say a lot, without shouting too loud.

Amazon is often lauded as the archetypal e-commerce success story – and rightfully so. As a brand, it has always gone about business in a very good way – and its logo is no different.

Underneath the word ‘Amazon’ there is what seems to be a smile. This is great – a nice, happy, friendly image. But on closer analysis, it’s also an arrow that points from ‘a’ through to ‘z’.

The logo is essentially the company’s URL with a squiggle beneath it – so simple, but so genius. And this works across all its websites – all that changes in the logo is the extension, from .com to .co.uk, .de, .fr…you get the picture.

5.    Think ‘scalable‘

Remember, your logo may adorn anything from a billboard to a matchbox. For this reason, it’s best to omit any kind of imagery with fine detail that’s only noticeable close-up or when enlarged.

A fingerprint, for example, contains lots of little contours that are obvious close-up, but when reduced in size, the image could be anything really…such as an accidental smudge on a page.

This also ties in with the type of software you should use to produce your logo. Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw produce vector graphics, which consist of mathematically precise points and hence can be scaled in size much more effectively. Photoshop is a good piece of kit, but it produces raster graphics which are pixel-based and hence won’t always enlarge to the size you desire.

The key point to remember is this: logos should be simple, original and memorable. So whether you plan to be a have-a-go hero or simply take some ideas to the professionals’ drawing table, you’ll at least know the basics.

Starbucks have had a bit of a spruce up after the Christmas break. The question is, is this one of those ‘new year, new me’ fad makeovers or are the purveyors of high street coffee onto a winner?

Changing well known, distinctive branding for a newer design is always a massive risk. The consumer gets used to a certain look and subconsciously associates it with that brand. When a company suddenly changes that much loved design they can literally hurt a customers head! On a serious level, it’s well known that people find change difficult, particularly if that change is rubbish. Just ask Gap about their chaotic and generally naff re-branding efforts…

Starbucks though have a vision.  They want to go beyond coffee. In order to do so, they have dropped the ‘Starbucks Coffee’ lettering from around the famous siren face. This is symbolic they say of an “evolution” of the previous logo, allowing them to expand into new products from instant coffee to ice cream and even a cheeky tipple. It seems Starbucks want the siren face to be up there with the bitten Apple and big yellow ‘M’, synonymous with their brand.

They also plan on ditching the chunky, character filled coffee mugs of old with some more ‘elegant’ bone china. We’ll side step that potential porcelain minefield, but the question remains: Is the new logo any good? In the esteemed company of such strong branding as Apples granny smith and McDonald’s golden arches, can Starbucks green siren face match up? In my opinion, not really. I’m not sure it will lead to a mass procession of caffeine craving consumers commuting to the nearest Costa, but I still think Starbucks is playing a risky game.

Anyway, here’s the new design vs the classic design. James Gregory of CoreBrand thinks “it’s nuts. What’s it going to be – the coffee formerly known as Starbucks?”

What do you think?

John Mark Herskind

Candy

Lacko Illustration

Andrei

Viet Huynh

El Designo

Ben Lawrence

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Tomato Kosir

Julien Limouse

Kellie Matheson

Devon Deaundre Linen

El Designo

Milko Melian

Tomato Kosir

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Igor Marisko

David Enker

Dina Barbosa

Warren Prasek

James Owen

Glenn Tucker

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As a regular reader of Michael Johnsons blog, I’m always interested to see sneak previews of upcoming Johnson Banks work. Recently he unveiled their latest project for The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and once again I was pleasantly suprised. Whilst I can’t deny liking the restrained cool of an identity consisting of a nicely kerned Helvetica or Avant Garde logotype and little else, sometimes the less is more approach can leave me a bit cold.

Obviously any identity (or any design) is dependent on the brief and in many instances doing what’s right for the job is far more important than designers showing how clever and forward thinking they can be. However, media attention towards graphic design is growing and in some cases, questioning the value of our profession – a trend arguably started by the animosity towards the newly unveiled Wolff Ollins 2012 Olympics logo.

Government paid £6,000 a digit for NHS 60th anniversary logo

On one hand this is can be a positive thing, allowing the design community a dialogue with both their critics and the audience with whom they’re trying to communicate – the public, but this attention is clearly something designers should be wary of.

As most of us know, we’re in a very lucky position doing this job. It’s not a profession people tend to fall into and a large portion of the job involves

doing things that many if us would be doing in our spare time anyway – i.e. being creative. With this in mind it’s a position we need to work for. At the risk of sounding pompous, the creative freedom of a designer should be earnt. With increasing scrutiny from the media and everyone keeping an eye on their pennies (public spending in particular), we’ve never needed to work harder for our money.

The PCAH identity is a relatively small example and admittedly isn’t radical design thinking, it’s a well thought out solution to a fiddly communication problem. It may not be to everyones tastes but it’s considered, memorable and most importantly it works (although time will tell how it fares in the long-term). Design that ticks each of these boxes and strikes the balance between something we haven’t seen before and something that doesn’t send the client running is by no means uncommon, but it’s certainly not everywhere I look, and the more I see of it, the better.

Mat

Jeff Sutherland

Filip Zywica

Lynn D’Amico

Sheli Amdur

Gerard Casey

Adam Ismail

Gareth Jones

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