Logo Design Tips for Small Businesses

First impressions count, right? But you should never judge a book by its cover either, correct? As humans we can’t help making connections and drawing conclusions from what we see around us. So as a entrepreneur, it’s crucial that you new business logo design communicates a bold and clear message to your viewers. What does your logo say to them? Are there any emotional reactions they invoke in the spectator? Does your logo make your business look unprofessional?ray ban sunglasses Outlet Online

We’ve got some quick, professional tips for you to help make sure your logo says exactly what you want it to say.

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Font or Fiction

This goes for your brand as a whole as well as your logo, but limit your font choices to one or two. Think of it like a main font and sub-font. When you get into using three and four different fonts for your brand, it starts to become untethered looking. Limiting your font choices will create repetition in the mind of your customers, helping them draw connections to your products or services. It’s a subtle, but powerful, method to increase the strength of your identity.air jordan Denmark

Simple Colors

Don’t rely on color to make your logo look good. A well designed logo will look good in black and white. Sometimes color is used to mask poor design, or make up for its lack of character. Use color correctly by choosing it for what it will communicate to your audience. Plus, using too many colors can overwhelm your viewers, giving them a bad taste in their mouth, or well, eyes.Order Oakley sunglasses

You can catch up on some color psychology for logo design in our previous posts, Make Your Logo Colors Count and Choosing The Right Colors In Logo Design.

Background Check

This goes along with what we recommend about limiting logo colors, but make sure your logo will look good on light and dark backgrounds. If your logo is one color, a black version will stand out on light backgrounds, and vice-versa, a white version will pop against dark backgrounds. Throughout the life of your business, there are inevitably scenarios that come up where your logo may be needed against an unexpected background. What if you sponsor a local soccer team, and they’re selling tie-dye t-shirts with your logo listed on the back? Be ready for anything by making sure your logo won’t get lost in the background.nike air max safari

Dimensional Fads

Play it safe by choosing logos that are in one or two dimensions. They are simpler and therefore your customers will be able to read your logo quicker from many different angles and distances. When you get into three dimensions it becomes more information for your brain to interpret, thus taking more time to recognize. Three dimensional logos may seem impressive because of their added depth, but quickly become more complicated to print. More often than not, it just adds clutter to cover up a bad idea.

Negative Space

This can be a great technique to add interest to your logo. Create an image from the negative, or empty, space around shape or letters. Viewers eyes will recognize something there, but pause because of the contrast, grabbing their attention. It is a good technique that avoids the usual pitfalls in logo design.

Check out some great examples of negative space in logo design from one of our previous posts.

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Avoid Overkill

Just because you can use a special effect on a logo doesn’t mean you should. I’m talking about gradients, drop shadows, embosses, and glare effects. They may look good on screen, but can be hard to reproduce when printed. You don’t want a logo design that relies on these methods to make it look good. If it doesn’t look good without these effects, that is a good indicator that it is a weak design.

Please Print Clearly

At some point in time, most every logo gets physically printed. It can be on a business card, letterhead, billboard sign, t-shirts, the list goes on and on. If your logo design is too detailed, at smaller sizes the ink can literally bleed together, blurring your design. It’s best to avoid too much detail that will get lost in smaller sizes.

Image courtesy of tiverylucky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Vector Vs Raster

Digital images are divided into two groups: Vector and Raster. Vector images are created with points connected by lines, allowing them to change in size and still keep their shapes clean and clear. Raster images are created from individual pixels, so they are at a set size but have greater control over the individual colors. A raster file is recommend at 300 PPI (pixels per inch, on a digital screen) or DPI (dots per inch, when printed) for maximum clarity. With the many applications your logo will used for, having both vector and raster files for them will come in handy.

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Size Matters

Is your logo clear when it’s reduced in size? Make sure your design isn’t so complicated that you lose elements of it at smaller sizes. On the opposite end, does it become pixelated or fuzzy when enlarged? You want to have vector versions of your logo on file to ensure that no matter what size it’s scaled to, it will always be clear and crisp. Part of the Logo Package our designers provide includes an EPS and PDF files, both are vector. During your business’s lifetime your logo will be needed at many different sizes.

No Photos Please

Using photographic images as part of your logo is a bad idea. Like some of the others mentioned, it can be hard to reproduce on different materials because of the myriad of colors. A photograph will likely date your logo, by the clothing style of those in the photo or elements in the background, and cause it to go out of style quickly. Illustrations and one-color contrast images may have their place in some logo designs, but full color photographs are simply not good design.

There you have it! Please use these tips to help you avoid some of the easy mistakes when choosing your logo. I look forward to seeing what your logo says about you!

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Did you clear the list with flying colors?
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