The most urgent question for customers is how to distinguish quality work from hack work. Unfortunately, there is no unambiguous set of criteria – there are only signs that we will try to briefly describe in this article. They must be used with the understanding that a good logo definitely possesses them: it simply cannot be called high-quality if it does not meet these criteria. A bad logo can formally correspond to the following signs – however, be worthless from an aesthetic or associative point of view.
It should be noted right away that the logo itself (in this article by the word “logo” we will mean not the font style, but the brand name) is just a remake symbol, which in isolation from the essence of the brand does not mean anything and does not indicate anything. To make any logo really good – known to the target audience, combining it with brand essence – you need serious investment in advertising, not only financial, but also creative. Remember – any logo that you get from a designer or online logo design services is just a more or less successful symbolic image, but “connecting” it to your business, making it known to everyone, making it a sign of certain qualities and properties is your task.
The qualities of a good logo:
- Significance: The logo should convey the characteristics of your company. However, this is not the most important feature – the BMW logo, for example, conveys the idea of an aircraft engine screw, but the company has been manufacturing cars and motorcycles for many years.
- Memorability: The logo should be well remembered (this can be tested using the focus group) by potential customers so that they immediately think about your company when they need a product or service from your field of activity. A symbol in this sense works better than a detailed image with many details, which is difficult to remember and reproduce.
- Uniqueness: The logo should not be jaded. For example, if many companies (or leading companies) in your market sector use a similar symbol – for example, travel agencies often depict a globe – try to take something else. But do not go to extremes when trying to bring ideas that are completely outside the scope of your company into the logo.
- Professionalism and a modern level of quality: The logo should be perfectly rendered, and your task is to ensure its quality use: for example, if you print advertising materials on bad paper, then the effect of advertising and even the best logo can be reduced to nothing.
- Versatility: It is desirable that the logo is not “tied” to any purely modern visual realities. For example, if the logo depicts a man in fashionable youth clothes, then after a while the logo will have to be redone (and rebranding costs much more than just a “new logo”), since the “outfit” will look like a complete anachronism.
- Interconnectedness: The logo should fit well with any of your products and any documents.
- Modification: It is very important that the logo looks perfect both in black and white (for printing on letterheads, etc.), and color. Pay close attention to how your logo looks in the eyes of people with color vision abnormalities. Remember that they make up 2 to 8 percent of your target audience.
- Scalability: The logo should look great both on the business card, and on large outdoor advertising. The name of your company must be clearly readable in any case, errors in reading should not arise.
A good, modern, professionally created logo can stimulate the development of your business, help in advertising. If this is not a guarantee, then the necessary condition for success. The development of any enterprise at the beginning of the twenty-first century is determined by the principle”if a plant lacks at least one trace element of the soil, then even with an excess of others it will not grow normally. Relatively small investments in a good logo at the stage of formation or reorganization of a company will subsequently become an important condition for unhindered and rapid development.