In continuation of our Building a Brand series to help business owners create consistent imaging and messages across their marketing channels, we bring you the elements of a perfect logo. If you think about it, every successful brand has a logo that is memorable. A good logo stands out, makes an impression that sticks, is the foundation of your brand identity, and sets you apart from the competition.
Talking about what makes a good logo is one thing, creating it is another matter entirely. It can be frustrating and time-consuming, and you may find yourself unable to make a final decision on aspects such as color, font, and logo type. How do you create a logo that represents your brand, grabs attention, and fosters brand loyalty from your customers? These are all important questions, and we will answer them in this article.
Understanding Your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is the most important part of marketing your brand. Understanding and knowing your audience is one of the first things you should do when building out your brand and creating a logo. You need to know who you are marketing to in order to tailor your products or services to them and create messaging that resonates with them.
The best way to nail down your target audience is to create a customer persona. A customer persona is basically a semi-fictional “customer” that reflects your target audience. Who are they? What do they like? What do they want? What do they need?
You can learn all about customer personas, why they are important, why they matter, and how to go about creating one in this detailed article.
Building a Brand – What is a Customer Persona and Why Does it Matter?
Understanding Colors & Fonts
Colors and fonts are an essential part of a logo. Many times, your logo is the first thing a potential customer sees. Picking colors and fonts that represent your brand is the first step in creating a logo that sets your brand’s entire identity and helps carry out messaging that attracts the attention of your target audience. In fact, more than 90% of consumers will make a purchase based solely on visual appeal.
You can learn more about the importance of colors and fonts, why they matter, and how they can improve marketing targeting in this article.
Building a Brand – The Art of Colors & Fonts
Know Your Competition
Knowing who your competitors are and what they are doing is just as important as knowing who your target audience is when trying to build a brand. You want to stay competitive in your industry, and to do that, you need to understand your competition. What are they doing that you could do better? What can you do to stand out above them all?
By looking at successful competitors, you can identify current identities within the market and make better decisions when creating customer personas, choosing colors and fonts, and ultimately building a successful brand.
Picking a Logo Type
Picking a logo type is the most crucial step in creating along that makes a lasting impression. Here we look at some different logo types.
Lettermarks
Lettermarks, also known as monogram logos, are simple yet intricate designs that consist of the brand’s name, typically in initial form. Some well-known examples of this logo type include HP, NASA, and CNN. Lettermark logos are minimalistic, which makes them easy to identify and remember. This is why they are so popular.
When creating a lettermark logo, you want to keep it simple yet intricate. The goal is to create fine details, clean lines, and use a custom typeface to stand out. When you first launch your brand and are trying to build a reputation, you can include your full business name underneath your lettermark for branding purposes. Once you have built a loyal customer base and authority in your niche, you can ditch the full name if you want.
Wordmarks
A wordmark is very much like a lettermark. However, the full name is used rather than the initials of your company name. Examples of this logo type include Google, Coca-Cola, and Pinterest. This logo type is also simple and straightforward, focusing mainly on font style and color. If your brand has an easy, unique, and attractive name, a wordmark may be the best type of logo for you.
Pictorial Marks
Pictorial marks are a type of logo that uses a graphic or picture. This type of logo can be quite challenging to make. The hardest part of creating this logo type is choosing or creating the graphic or picture. Apple, Target, and Twitter are some examples of very successful brands that use pictorial marks as their logo. Whatever you choose, it needs to be timeless. You should avoid choosing anything that is currently “on-trend” as it will likely lose its value.
Abstract
Abstract logos also utilize graphics, but they do not have a literal representation. This logo type typically consists of geometric shapes and clean lines that are used to symbolize your business. Some examples of abstract logos include the Nike swoosh, the mirrored and overlapping “C” of the CHANEL brand, and the adidas flower. Many of these logos include the full name of the company below the abstract graphic. Color choices are a major factor in creating an abstract logo. You want to make sure you use the same color scheme across your entire brand, from your logo to your website. This is a major factor in creating your brand identity.
Mascot
Some of the most popular and well-known brands have a mascot logo. Some examples include the Colonel Sanders of KFC, Tony The Tiger® of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes®, and Mr. Peanut of Planters. Mascot logos use a lot more details than the other logo types. When creating this type of logo, you want to make sure it is scalable, meaning that no matter what size you have to reduce or enlarge it to, all of the details are clear and visible.
Emblem
Emblem logos have been around the longest and are still very popular. Think BMW, Starbucks, NFL, and Harley-Davidson. These logos are not as easy to include in every aspect of branding, such as business cards. You want to try and create something that is intricate, scalable, and eye-catching. If you choose to go with an emblem logo, it may be helpful to have a second logo, like a lettermark or wordmark, to use on branding materials that require more flexibility.
Putting It All Together
To create the perfect logo, you first need to understand your target audience by creating a customer persona. Then you can begin looking at different font types and colors that represent your brand and attract your target audience. Once you pick a logo type, you can start coming up with design ideas that incorporate your chosen font type and colors.
This entire process can take months for a busy entrepreneur who is trying to launch a new brand. To save time and money, we recommend hiring a professional. Unless, of course, you want to pay for and learn how to use Illustrator and have the time to spare (which likely isn’t the case).
Building a brand and creating a logo design can be challenging and time-consuming. You can save time and frustration by letting us help you craft the perfect logo design. Need help with more than just logo design? We can offer comprehensive small business branding services, which include our logo design service, to help you personalize your brand and better connect with your target audience.
As a small digital marketing company, our dedicated team can deliver fast results. Let’s work together to build your best business.
