Recently we posted on our website, the article “Redesign your Logo: examples of good/bad redesigns“where I remember things we talked about last year.
As I said on several occasions, the design of a logo is one of the greatest responsibilities that a designer can purchase, because behind it, we must express what the brand stands for. With just a few lines, we must ensure that the company or individual is assimilated to the appropriate values and not others.
It is something unique that as we have already seen several times may change; if it does, it must be for a reason and getting the same values it had. So, today I bring you 7 questions to ask; if your answers are yes, no problem, if not … think about redesign!
1. It may appear in black and white?
We have already talked more than once about it: there are some logos whose design is intended to appear in black and white. The white and black contrast arouses some changes that depending on the qualities of your brand can be anything you want.
Your logo, however, has to be prepared to appear in black and white. There are many occasions in which someone can ask us the logo in grayscale. If your logo is not ready for this, go thinking that maybe is too complex and you need a redesign.
2. It fits the audience to which your business is heading?
We need to make our logo represent us and the buyer. A common mistake is to design the logo without a clear end customer. For example, if I am cheerleader children’s birthday, clearly who are going to enjoy my services are the children, but who are going to hire me are the parents. Therefore we will have to design the logo from that key: children must be taken into account, but the logo will have to raise the confidence of parents.
3. It is competitive, different and unique?
We can have the coolest logo in the world, but if it is very similar to that of our rival, it will be useless. Our logo has to be unique; it cannot resemble anything, because it has to compete with others in the same sector. If I sell screws, the first idea is that a bolt logo appears, of course. However we have to understand that this screw has to represent us, not any company that sells screws, and therefore it has to be different and unique. It would not be used for any other company.
4. It is a responsive logo?
We have already talked about it: it is not a key principle that our logo has to be responsive, but we have to be aware where it will be showed all the time; so it would be a good idea to have more than one version of it, for locations in which the official logo cannot be displayed.
5. It is simple?
You know that flat is fashionable. The baroque left behind and now we can express what we want by thinking “less is more”. Careful, we do not mean that it may be less than it should be, but it could be designed in a simpler way. Keep in mind that usually the company logo appears in small places like cards, labels, webs… So you have to design it knowing you cannot have more lines than necessary. Nobody likes a logo that cannot be understood.
6. It is fashionable? or it is timeless?
Fads come and go, so it is difficult that something was trendy a few years ago is still trendy today (unless the return in time.) The perfect logo is the one that endures as fashions change, but as this is very difficult, normally our logo will adapt to changing fashions. There is no need to change our logo every year, but when we see that this does not fit today.
I was reading about it when I found this web, in which they talk about the changes in very famous companies webs throughout history.
7. It is easy to pronounce and spell?
When we think of the name of our brand, it comes to mind endless possibilities: the union of the names of the partners, children of members, the town where they were born spelled backwards… That’s all very well, but above all, we must know that it will be a name we use very often, by telephone, written … And we will have to spell it. The easier it is to write and say, more likely we have to receive emails. As we said in our simplicity print:
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”
