Your one-stop Guide to Logos!
Good logos can show your customers or clients exactly who you are and what you do. Your logo makes you easily recognisable and is completely unique to you and your brand. That’s why it’s important to make a good one. The world of custom logo design can be a bit of a minefield when you’re starting out. If you’re graphically design minded you might want to take a crack at making one for yourself. If not you might decide it’s best to entrust this important piece of branding to a professional. No matter what your decision is though you should have a basic understanding about the wonderful world of logo design.
That’s why we put together the ultimate guide to logos. If you have any questions about logos and their history and design, this guide will give you the answers. Read on for everything logo related!
What is a Logo
Logos can be one, or a combination of images, shapes, texts or symbols. It helps to identify your business or product and should be a visual extension of your business. When done right a logo tells the story of your brand and helps build your brand identity. But what does a logo do? What is it for?
It makes a great first impression for prospective customers.
Your company logo will be one of the first things your prospect sees and believe it or not has a huge impact in their decision to buy or subscribe to your service. You only have on average 2 seconds to grab someone’s interest. A quality, eye catching logo however can do just that with busy customers.
Your logo identifies the key aspects of your brand.
Although logos are generally small and simple, your customer can take a surprising amount of information about you or your business from them. A good logo can give your customer an idea of some crucial information they need in their decision to shop with you. You can show off what your business does, the industry you belong to, your target audience and even a little bit about your brand ethos! But only if you have a good one.
Your logo differentiates you from your competitors
Unless you’re on a tiny island or have invented something completely new and obscure, you’re going to have competition. Your logo is one of the first things your prospective customer sees and it sets you aside from all of your competition. A logo should be instantly recognisable and a good logo can often be the deciding factor in a prospects buying journey.
Your Logo helps build Brand Loyalty
A good logo goes beyond identification. If you get the logo game right you’ll find that your logo is excellent for building brand loyalty. Afterall how many times have you gone shopping for a product or service, seen a familiar logo from a trusted brand and been immediately drawn to it? Once you crack the logo code, your customers will be drawn to your logo!
The 4 Components of a Perfect Logo
When done right a logo is a work of art. If you want a masterpiece that perfectly encapsulates your brand, you need to carefully consider the following four components. Good logos consist of one or however many more of the following. When you first sit down to come up with a concept for your new logo, whether you make it yourself or hire a pro, it’s important to keep these in mind.
- Your Brand
We’ve mentioned this before but it’s so important that it’s worth mentioning again. Your brand is the heart and soul of your logo. What you do, the industry you are in and the way you do business should serve as the foundation you can build your logo on.
Is your brand budget or high end? Are you targeting young and trendy, or classic and sophisticated? Is your target audience more masculine or feminine? All of these considerations will need to be kept in mind when creating a logo. If you keep these in mind, your logo will help to translate your ideas across to your potential prospects.
- Colors
Color is an extremely important step in logo design. The field of color theory is an extremely interesting area of study that you could easily get lost for weeks in. However the basics are quite simple, and when done right color can have a huge impact. At the very top of the logo pyramid, a color choice can become synonymous with your brand. When you see red and yellow, chances are you picture the McDonalds logo.
There are a few things to remember when picking colors. Different colors denote different emotions and concepts. Here are some of the basic colors and what they tend to denote:
- Red: Power, Urgency, Danger, Passion
- Orange: Friendship, Confidence, Excitement
- Yellow: Excitement, Sunshine, Optimism
- Green: Nature, Money, Freshness, Luck
- Blue: Loyalty, Trust, Water, Comfort
- Purple: Wealth, Luxury, Success
- Black: Intelligence, Style, Elegance, Death
- White: Cleanliness, Light, Purity
Keep these colors and their meaning in mind going forward. There are more colors out there to explore and of course more reading to do on the subject but this should be a great place to start.
- Typography and Fonts
If you aren’t really all that design minded, chances are you’ve not given a great deal of thought to font in the past. Maybe you chose the one you liked best as a teen and stuck to it. So long as the font wasn’t comic sans then that’s completely fine for most jobs! However for something as important as your new company logo, a little bit more thought is required!
There are some basic categories of fonts you should be aware of before you go ahead and make your decision:
- Serif: Serif fonts are the classic choice. This is the option to go to if you would like to be seen as traditional and reliable.
- Sans Serif: Clean and easy to read. A sans serif font is usually associated with modern companies and startups
- Script: Go for a script to give your logo a more upscale or artsy vibe. When done right these can be extremely effective
- Modern: A modern style font is strong and stylish. It shows your company is modern and is much loved by tech and car companies
Some other things to keep in mind with your logo fonts. Try to keep it to one or two fonts. Any more than that and things can get a little bit confusing to the eye. Keep readability in mind as this is often the most crucial factor in terms of font. Try experimenting with a few different weights, fonts and spacings to see what works best with your brand but don’t overdo it.
- Shapes and Symbols
Another important aspect in the composition of a logo are shapes and symbols. You can have these be either geometric or abstract. Whilst they can sometimes seem to be a bit aesthetically random, different types of shapes and symbols can denote different things. Some brands rely on symbols and shapes alone to great effect, however some don’t. Don’t ignore these and play around with them until you get one that fits!
When you get these 4 components right, you can’t go wrong. Don’t forget you don’t necessarily need to incorporate all of them, however you should definitely either consider them, or talk them through with your designer.
The History of Logos
We’ve always thought that the best place to start with these guides is the history of the topic. It gives a great base understanding of the topic to build off of. The history of logos is as old as it is interesting!
Like many aspects of visual design we can trace the human use of symbols back to early human cave paintings in 17,000 BC. We’ve come an awful long way from paleolithic etchings and cave drawings however and the story of logos is long and fascinating. Whilst you by no means need to be able to recite the entire history of logos, it can be extremely helpful to have a basic understanding of logos throughout the ages.
Logos in the modern form and usage can be traced back to Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphics, an early form of writing in which commonly used words, letters and phrases had a symbolic representation. Interestingly enough an extremely similar form of communication was developing in China at the same time, completely independently of each other.
The next stage of the history of logos can be seen when we jump forward in time to Europe in the middle ages. A system of visual language known as heraldry existed. Noble families would use a variety of symbols, shapes and colours as their familial coat of arms. A heraldic seal would be instantly recognisable and a quick association with the family it belonged to, sound familiar? This is the basis of logos as we know them today.
As time commenced, heraldic signs were picked up by taverns and then businesses. Eventually these artistic symbols evolved into the myriad logos and business images we know and love today!
How Much Does it Cost to Have a Logo Designed?
If you’ve read all of the above information and you’re feeling a bit lost and confused, please don’t worry. Not everyone is design minded and thankfully you don’t have to be in order to have a high quality impactful logo. There are a multitude of options out there at a huge variety of price points.
We’ve had a look through a variety of options and price points and worked out a quick guide for what you can expect to pay if you want a professional logo designed. For each of the options below we contacted 7 companies in that range with a quote for designing a brand new logo and given you the price range and the average price itself.
- Freelancers: Freelancers are extremely varied in their pricing structure and many would say a little riskier in terms of output. For a simple logo design with a 48 hour turnover and 1 set of revisions you can expect to pay between $80 and $200 ($120 average.)
- Large Company: For a large graphic design company you can expect quick turnarounds and revisions. In terms of pricing you can expect to pay between $150 and $350 ($210 on average.)
- Bespoke Design Company: We contacted a number of smaller scale more bespoke companies for pricing. Many charge by the design hour so it is difficult to get a direct quote. However the price seems to range around $500, with some reaching as high as $1000. Free revisions are also out of the question with most of these though!
There is a fourth option, and in our humble opinion it’s the best one. With our design service you can pay a monthly fee and get our team of designers to work on all your design needs. Whether you want signs, banners, logos our award winning designers are ready to join your team today. It’s the best value for money of all the options above and includes unlimited revisions. Try it risk free for seven days today and see what you think!
Conclusion
That’s about all you need to get started on your logo journey. Whether you want to give it a go for yourself or hire a professional, feel free to reach out for a chat with our team. Follow our socials for free templates and updates and good luck on your logo design journey!