7/31/2023
| A. Popwell
Your business needs a visual presence amongst the sea of advertising that consumers encounter daily. An effective logo should be one of the first steps to creating a successful business. Not every entrepreneur starts with a strategic business plan, so if you have yet to invest in creating a memorable logo for your brand or perhaps it’s time for a refresh, contact us at AlphaGraphics for a design and branding consultation. If you decide to create your own logo, we are here to help with all of your printing and digital marketing needs. Here are a few tips to create an effective logo.
Keep it simple
As you recall some of the most prominent brands that exist today, take note of the simple, yet clever design of their logos. Brands like Amazon, McDonalds, and Nike use very bold, clean and unmistakable graphic elements for their logos. Your consumer is shifting through a never ending barrage of visual information. Your logo needs to be quickly identified and easy to remember. It’s like asking someone to read a 5 chapter book and recite the 3rd paragraph in the 4th chapter vs asking them to recall just the chapter titles. Our brains remember tidbits of information that stands apart from the rest.
Take a look at this logo that our design department created for Proctor Building Company. As you look at this logo, there is no question what this company is. The use of the P and B as building blocks cleverly creates a memorable icon that also echoes the type of company with the playful way the letters fit inside one another like bricks stacked next to one another.
Limit Your Colors
Following along with the idea of keeping it simple, your logo should only contain 1-3 colors (plus black and white if needed). Colors will also speak to the mood and culture of your brand, so it’s important to think about what type of experience you’re trying to create for your customer when they encounter your brand. Bright yellow is associated with fun and joy. Black, browns and monotones give a classy feel. Blue is a very calming color, while green can represent earth and nature.
It is also important to have a black only and white only version of your logo for watermarks and grayscale printing.
Pick a Readable Font
Just like colors, fonts will also add to the style of your brand. Handwritten fonts are more feminine. San serif fonts (like arial) are modern and clean, while serif fonts (like times new romans) are traditional and elegant. Regardless of the font that you choose to represent your brand, it is important to make sure that it is readable. Handwritten and script fonts can be difficult to read at a long distance. These fonts are beautiful and have their place but knowing that the most important purpose of your logo is to make a memorable impression on your audience quickly, choosing a confusing font should not be a part of your logo design.
Once you have decided on your logo design, test its visibility at various distances. Ask anybody and everybody to view it from across the room. A strong logo should be recognizable close up and far away from consumers in moving vehicles. You should also have a vector file of your logo. Vector files are scalable files that can be printed at any size without the loss of quality.
Your logo is the face of your brand. We at AlphaGraphics Hoover are always happy to help you in logo creation. Visit our website to see samples of some of our favorite clients logos. Contact us at 205-979-2373, us448@alphagraphics.com, or stop by, and remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.