If you don’t want your company to stand out, you can use the following list of common mistakes to design a generic logo that will blend into the background.
However, if you do want your company to stand out, let these 5 mistakes serve as a warning of what not to do when designing a logo.
1. Amateur Design
You are probably thinking, I can save time and money if I hire an amateur to make my logo. That’s true if you want a mundane, generic logo that will have no impact on your audience whatsoever. The truth is simple: If you want your business to be perceived as professional, hire a professional to do your logo design. Not a friend, not your fifth grader, not your neighbor, but a professional. A professional can guarantee that you will have a unique and memorable logo that is timeless and fitting of your brand.
2. Relying on Trends
Relying on current trends is a great way to make a logo spiral into the bottomless pit of clichés and forgotten logos. This is a deep, dark place in which you do not want to end up. While trends may seem cool now, they have an expiry date. Trends are not timeless. Do you really want to have to go through redesigns every time there is a new trend? The best way to refrain from following trends is to come up with a unique design to reinforce a unique identity.
3. Relying on Color
If your logo only looks good in color, it’s a bad logo. A good logo is versatile. A logo should be created in black and white to be sure it works across all formats. Color should be added afterwards. As a general rule, no more than two colors should be used on a logo. Keep it simple!
4. Raster Images
Imagine that you wanted to put your logo on a giant poster to will be displayed in time square. All you have is a small raster logo that can’t be enlarged without becoming pixilated. Wouldn’t it have been nice if the logo was vector based from the beginning? You would have saved time and money. Adobe Illustrator is able to create vector based images for this purpose.
5. Bad Typography
Don’t choose a typeface randomly! A font should be unique to your brand. Chances are if the font can be found on Microsoft Word, it should not be used for your logo. Though there are some generic fonts that are designed well, they have been watered down and have lost meaning through years of repeated use. No more than two typefaces should be used. If at all possible, try using only one.
To put this all in perspective, recall some famous logos, for example, Coca-cola, Nike, Apple, FedEx. Now think of all the reasons they have become so iconic. Did you consider of anything on that list? Didn’t think so.
Summing it All Up
Logo design is not something to be taken lightly. A logo can singlehandedly represent your whole brand. You too can get to the point of Nike and Starbucks, to where you only have to show a simple icon and everyone around the world recognizes you. You can’t get there by following the examples mentioned above. To do this your brand must be creative, unique, and memorable.
We advise you to avoid these 5 mistakes of logo design in order to create a brilliantly unique and effective logo that can set your company apart from everyone else.