create a good logo- Appy Pie

How to Create a Logo? (Tips for a Good Logo Design)

Abhinav Girdhar
By Abhinav Girdhar | Last Updated on March 15th, 2024 10:17 am | 5-min read

Last weekend, we went on a family road trip to get some good vibes post-pandemic. After the drive of four hours, we all were starving. We started looking at every restaurant and food joints that were passing by. Finally, we noticed the “Golden Arc (M)” outside the food outlet on the right side of the road. You guessed it right!! It was the food outlet of McDonald's. Thereafter, we stopped and enjoyed our Happy Meal. Did you notice how Golden Arc helped us recognizing the food outlet of McDonald’s? This Golden Arc is nothing but the brand’s logo.

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As per the definition of Investopedia, a logo is a graphical representation, symbol, or stylized name to identify an organization, product, or brand. From Starbucks to Unacademy, you can easily identify any brand just by looking at its logo. Designing a good logo for your business can indeed be a challenging task. You might need to hire professional graphic designers to make your brand’s logo. However, if you want to create a logo on your own, this mini logo guide is for you. Let’s start exploring the world of logos and help you create the one!

What Makes a Good Logo?

Just imagine a logo that consists of a single element like that of a green Android robot. Or imagine only text as the logo like that of Coca-Cola written in red color. And now imagine the combination of both icon and text like that of KFC. Every logo you imagined is unique in its own way. However, there are some must-have features that every good logo design must possess. Let us mention a few major of them.
  1. Simple: Your brand’s logo must be simple and unique. Overcomplicating the logo might not solve the purpose of creating the logo in the first place.

  2. Exclusive: If you notice all the logos that have been created till now, you might find that no two brands have the same logo. You must assure that your logo should be distinctive and exclusive.

  3. Versatile: Your logo is your brand’s identity. It can work well for your brand only when it fits on every branding material like a brochure, billboard, business card, and much more. You should carefully craft a versatile logo that is effective everywhere.

  4. Precise: If you are owning the cab business, your logo should speak up the tone of your brand. You don’t need to add the icon of a cab in your logo, but you should create a logo that can communicate the correct expression.

  5. Remarkable: Some of the businesses don’t focus on the design or outlook of their brand’s logo and end up creating a worthless logo. Your brand’s logo must leave a long-lasting impression on the minds of viewers. For instance, if someone asks you about the alphabet “G” in rainbow color, you can immediately identify that it is a logo of Google.
These five features must be included in your brand’s logo. Now the next question pops up- how to create a logo that can uniquely belong to your brand. Let’s study the logos of some of the famous brands and try getting some good logo ideas from them.

How to Create a Logo that Best Suits Your Business?

Every business requires a well-designed and visually appealing logo for better brand recognition and attracting as many customers as they can. Your logo can’t be any random combination of text and graphics; it should be well-thought and well-planned. To create a logo that best suits your brand, you can experiment with a few basic yet creative logo design ideas! Let us explore a few easy yet effective logo design ideas!
  1. Play with Black and White Tone- Create a Black and White Logo
    2. We generally notice that logos consist of vivid and bold colors. However, what matters is not the colors in the logo but the meaning or symbolic value it is creating among the targeted audience. If you research a bit deeper, you might notice that a few of the renowned brands like Apple, Adidas, Puma, WWF are having their logo in black and white tone. They crafted their logo so well that just by looking at them, you can feel the vibes that brands wanted to convey.Let’s look at the logo of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Sir Peter Scott who designed the logo was clear that he wanted a beautiful, endangered, and easily identifiable animal in the logo (to relate it with Wildlife). Further, the reason behind painting the logo in black and white was to set a tone that minimal money is spent in printing the logo and the majority portion of the money has been used to fund wildlife. Since then, black and white panda stood as a symbol for the wildlife conservation movement. You can create a logo for your business in a black and white tone. However, you need to take care of a few major points.
    • Utilize the power of a single icon in your logo. Add an element to your logo that can perfectly convey the purpose of your business.
    • Keep your logo as much neat as you can. The clean and clear logo can immediately attract the attention of viewers.
    • Think like your audience while creating the logo in a black and white tone. Set the tone in the way you want your audience to perceive your brand.
    • Check out your competitor and try to stand unique among them. For instance, if they added the traditional tone in their black and white logo; then you set up the tone of modernism.

  2. Set Up the Fun and Quirky Story Mood- Create a Logo with Hidden Story
    3. Logos can be a combination of quirky colors, simple shapes, and some fun elements in it. To create a logo that can attract maximum attention, you just need to be creative and exclusive. When we look at different logos, we noticed that a few of the renowned brands like FedEx, Baskin Robbins, Google, Taco Bell have their logos in attractive bright colors. Their logos are not simply the combination of colors and shapes, but they are fun storytellers too.Let’s have a look at the logo of Baskin Robbins. Their logo consists of two terms Baskin and Robbins, which are basically the second name of the co-founders. By looking at the logo only, you might not get the idea that it sells amazing ice-creams with thousands of flavors, all across the world. The logo of Baskin Robbins has a blue and pink color that adds a quirky edge to it. Also, the unusual zig-zag letters in the logo create a playful and happy mood. You might not be aware that the logo has a story hidden in it. Within the letter “BR”, you can notice the hidden 31 which signifies that Baskin Robbins has several flavors for every day of the month. You can try creating a logo in a fun and creative tone with some stories hidden in it. However, you need to take on a few major points.
    • Keep your logo simple yet strong. It means your business logo should be crisp and filled with story, both obvious and hidden.
    • Shapes can add a cheerful element to your logos. Try experimenting with them either placing the text inside the square or writing a tagline in any shape.
    • Choose the color as per your targeted audience. If your audience is young at heart, then select the bold colors; if your targeted users are in middle age, choose subtle colors and much more.
    • Make sure your logo suits the company name and aesthetic in best of the ways. Try to put an extra effort to make the perfect combination of a fun story in your logo.

  3. Try Calligraphing Any Letter of Brand’s Name- Create a Logo with Single Alphabet
    4. Every logo is unique in its own way. Some brands try calligraphy in their logo. They choose any letter in their brand name and portray it uniquely in their brand logo. By looking at different know business logos, we came to know that brands like Volkswagen, Facebook, Pinterest, Internet explorer have stylized the single letter in their brand logo. Their logos focused on the key or starting letters of the brand name so that audience can easily identify the brand’s name.Let’s discuss the logo of Facebook. Presently, Facebook’s logo is a combination of blue and white colors. It has highlighted the letter “f” in white color inside the blue color circle. The Facebook symbol is a well-renowned logo that represents the first letter of a brand name with the pronounced feeling of youth and optimism. You can create a logo that has a single alphabet highlighted in it. However, you need to take on a few major points.
    • Try experimenting with various shapes and contrasting colors. Make sure you use simple shapes like squares, circles, etc. in your logo.
    • Your highlighted letter must be impressive and clearly visible. The letter is the soul of your logo, so it must look expressive.
    • Keep the font of the alphabet that is easy-to-read. Avoid experimenting with highly twisted and complicated fonts.
    • Don’t be overly tempted to stylize your logo at another level. You should only make sure that your logo must work in all sizes and can easily use for brand recognition.

  4. Let Icon Speak Up the Essence of Brand- Create a Logo by Adding Relatable Icon
    5. Some of the brands add the element of their business type in the logo. Within their logo, businesses either add the icon or twist the letter in a certain way that it can easily be identified by the audience. If you didn’t get our point, you must look at the logos of Burger King, Costa Beans, Gmail, Instagram, and much more like these. You might find out that these brands have deployed only one element in their logo and just by looking at it, you identify the business category.Let us have a closer look at the logo of Burger King. It is an American food restaurant specialized in selling burgers and is running its worldwide outlets successfully. The logo of Burger King consists of bold and lively red, yellow, and blue colors. They have highlighted the element of mouth-watering burgers in their logo. Its logo also represents the tone of confidence, simple and fun. You can create a logo for your brand that can visually speak up about the specialization of your business. You just need to take a few of the major points.
    • Do not hesitate for introducing a visual pun in your logo. It is perfectly fine to add the obvious elements (related to your brand) to your logo.
    • Be careful in selecting the icon or element for your business logo. No matter if it is simple or complex, what matters is that it should perfectly relate to your brand.
    • Make sure that the color palette for your logo carries some meaning and is able to communicate the essence of your brand.
    • Rather than an icon, you can also go with a whimsical mascot in your business logo. Make sure it can be enduring and attract maximum eyeballs.

  5. Express the Tone and Expression of Brand- Create a Out of League Logo
    6. Many brands follow the rules of “visual salience” to create their logo. Some business use pop up colors while other add the graphics to create a visually appealing logo. There are many ways in which brands add the distinct subjective perpetual quality in their logo. For a better understanding of the visual salience, you must look at the logos of some brands like Amazon, Vaio, KFC, Firefox, and much more. They added one or another distinct element in their logo that could signify the specific feature of the brand.Let us have a closer look at the logo of Sony Vaio. Sony played very well with the letters of “Vaio” and created a unique logo to represent the brand. If you look at the logo carefully, you will notice that it has portrayed the analog and digital signals (VA represents sine wave and alphabets I and O represents binary digits 1 and 0 respectively). Though Sony Viao makes personal computers and smartphones, and their logo defines the technology behind the products. You can also create a logo that can be purely out of the league and distinct from your competitors. You just need to take care of the following points.
    • Make sure your logo design doesn’t feel flat to your viewers. Try adding the pop-up colors if you think your brand’s logo is not attractive. (for instance, Amazon).
    • Pick the font that can perfectly complement the whole vibe of the logo and ultimately the brand. You can also experiment by combining different fonts.
    • Avoid doing cliches with your brand’s logo. Like if you want to create a logo for your dental clinic, you need not add a graphic of teeth in your logo.
    • Create a logo that can be eye-pleasing and trigger the conscience of the viewer to at least search once about your brand.

Summing Up

You can play with your creativity as much as you can while creating the logo for your business. If you still think, you are a novice and can’t create a logo on your own, then we have a perfect course for you.
Make sure that you get your logo reviewed by your friends, co-workers, and community, before launching it to the mainstream. Also, try creating a couple of different logos so that you can ultimately find the one that best suits your brand. Start designing your Logo Now!

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Abhinav Girdhar

Founder and CEO of Appy Pie

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