How To Create The Perfect Logo

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Back in 2011 the world celebrated the anniversary of a “logo” – a mark you may be wearing on your tee right now. More than forty years ago, Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student showed her boss a little drawing of a curved check on a piece of paper. Today this logo is the face and corporate trademark of American Multinational Corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. It is the well-known Nike that had recorded revenue of $30.6 bn in 2015. The Nike swoosh is the graphic abstraction of a wing, symbolizing the Winged Victory from which Nike derived its name.

For Davidson’s services back in 1971 the company paid her $35 ($206 in 2015 dollars). Today, depending on your brand preferences you normally will spend way more than $35 for a perfect logo. Whether you are a part of a big company or a small blogger who eagers to go viral, the goal is always simple – present a perfect logo that will connect you with your brand and allow customers to recognize it right away.

So what is a perfect logo and how to create it? What are the modern tendencies of logos and how create them? These and some more answers will be given in this article.

The perfect logo appears to be the face of the company or product. Whether you run a clothing line or sell a product written in the PHP scripting language, you want everyone to recognize the item behind the logo. Logo is the conversation between the author and the potential consumer; it is the way to expand the dialogue beyond the shape, style or system.

Couple of reasons you want to have in mind when speaking about brand recognition. From the times of the first Nike swoosh sketch, the idea of logo had to be simple and clear. The ambition is to deliver the RIGHT message – those are clever logo concepts, which will be remembered. These are the rules that worked with thousands of brands that are recognized worldwide. Same truth can be applicable for you.

So what are the ways you want to use in order to highlight your brand recognition by creating the perfect logo? One of them is to hire Michael Bierut, the famous graphic designer, critic and educator who will sort things out as 1, 2, 3. Other than that these are the main steps you would like to have in mind when launching your logo concept.

  1. Create a custom logo with a designer – hire a team who could create a logo for you.
  2. Find a free template. Whether it is a vector or an image in online photo banks.
  3. Stick with self-service DIY solutions to design a generic logo.
  4. Create it yourself with online solutions.

The first point, of course, depends on your budget and preferences, you can hire top graphic designer as a consultant or find someone who will be eager to help you with slightly low budget. As for the B, C and D – you can create the logo on your own. This is why this little research and some testing work helped me to find the platform that will surely help both to get inspired for a new creation, make a DIY logo, find a free template and customize it on the way you want.

Types Of Logos

I will name the most popular and successful logo types that had been around for some time now. The history of logo is reach, but these are the 4 main types of logos you would like to create your idea of the perfect logo with.

Wordmark – this is the most popular logo type that we all are very much familiar with. Such logo is basically a word, whether it stands for a name of a particular person or a brand like Marks & Spencer, Ford, DELL, Google or Coca Cola.

Pictora – this logo is rather a picture with the name of the company in frame or shape. We are very much familiar with Burger King, FIFA, or CROCS. But it is fair to mention that most of big brands prefer to have both a wordmark logo as well as pictora. So in this case, besides the main trademark wording of the logo, users will see a symbol. Remind ourselves such pictorial logos like WordPress, Amazon, Apple and AT&T.

Abstract – abstract logo is obviously complicate things a bit when speaking with the main concept of the brand. But it is a favorite and rather popular solution among young generation of designers and startups platform managers. The mentioned Nike swatch, for example, was nothing like the first sketch as we have today. So, in this case the history behind the brand and logo can add or take down some new or old features in time. The perfect example would be Starbucks, Microsoft, Ford, BP and Audi.

Logo system – but abstract logo is not the most complicated logo type. The forth and the most complex logo is called a “system”. It’s due to its twist of many moving parts and contextual styles. It obviously not the right solution for every project, as this rather requires a specific approach. The Most vivid logo system types have been used by the brands and trademarks like MTV, Nickelodeon or AOL.

Where To Find A Logo

Looking a logo design inspiration for your next piece of work? Where to find it or create a one? I personally follow couple of social platforms here and there. But the daily routine will go around Dribbble. This is an awesome community of web and graphic designers, illustrators, icon artists, typographers, logo designers, and other creative types share small screenshots (shots) that show their work, process, and current projects. For me personally, Dribbble has been one of the best social artistry platforms of inspiration for some time now. But I have to admit that the concept behind Dribbble isn’t new. Back in 2000 DeviantArt was one of the largest online social networks for artists and art enthusiasts. After that in 2006 an online website named Behance was launched it aimed to be a single destination for creative professionals to upload and promote their work. On all mentioned sites you may seek for inspiration, connect with developers and designers behind the graphics and other creation, ask for free templates and hire them as well.

Where To Create A Logo

There are plenty of nice and friendly sources, starting from personal computer with Photoshop or Illustrator on, ending with PicMonkey. But I have come across those platforms that had been pushing the idea of the perfect logo making source, with no additional destructions and a specific concentration to the idea of a logo.

LogoGarden

LogoGarden is a platform with a goal to gather entrepreneurs and give them do-it-yourself (DIY) logos for free. The website claims that more than 1.8 million entrepreneurs have launched their business with LogoGarden. The website allows selecting an industry, symbol and color type. After choosing the industry, users will have access to 10.000 custom symbols to choose a logo from. Besides that you will be able to search for specific shapes, letters and more. The website will allow to pick fonts, colors, shape of logo and offer couple of more tricks. LogoGarden asks to subscribe and sends the logo to user’s email directly. The good thing about this website is that it provides a completely free logo with slightly low resolution, where HQ logo will charge you for $12.50.

DesignImo

DesignImo is slightly bigger logo maker with some additional options. Besides the fact that the website supports couple of languages, the live editor allows to change colors, font, style etc. as per your requirements. The website requires online registration for download too, but it keeps the logo in database and allows to come back and edit it. Even the simplest logo at DesignImo will cost $29.95.

GraphicSprings

What I like about GraphicSprings , is its modern touch and concept of the website and overall user experience. Unlike most of logo making solutions, the online tutorial and a step by step guide for beginners. On this website users are able to name the brand which will appear on logo, select an image as well as the shape of the logo. Plus the color picker comes with two options of solid and gradient pallet. The logo will cost $19.99 with the access to download the files.

Besides the mentioned website, I have come across onlinelogomaker.com and designmantic.com pretty nice websites to search for alternative logo makers.

The good thing about logo making websites is that you can easily rotate the image you are working with. Same is true in case of the live editor – it allows changing the color, shade, font, if the logo is a word or a vector. These websites also provide a chance to test the logo on live websites by giving a script that users are allowed to pull on the website for a free testing period. After confirming the creation you are usually allowed to buy it in the jpeg, tiff, gif or eps formats. On these websites users are also able to preview how their logos can look on their merchandize, business cards and social media headers.

But as far as this blog post is not about promoting a certain way of design or business, I shall also recommend Pinterest and Tumblr too. I myself spend a lot of time searching through those websites. The same is true when speaking about online image libraries.

The good point of those sources and platforms is that you don’t need to be UI or UX design geek and can handcraft your personal logo in couple of minutes. Of course I’d obviously suggest making some research about the field your website or the blog is about and match to some standards. Another benefit would be that as a blogger you will not spend a penny on creation and will not need to hire someone. So in this case besides your attractive creation you will save money on this regards. Third benefit is a time-investment. Branding is a huge process and even the famous Nike logo had to progress during these years, so you can relax and keep your budget on more viral things and then grow with your business. At the bottom line remember the 5 tops of the perfect logo I give you below. Those are the suggestions you would like always to have in mind

5 Tips For Perfect Logo
  • Make sure it looks perfect without background
  • Will it still have the message if you sketch it?
  • Less is more – fewer letters bring more action
  • Does your logo include any meaning and recognizable face to your brand?
  • Does it meet modern design requirements?

Creation of the perfect logo is not an overnight success. Think about what will shape and represent in the minds of people. Over a time little mark shall mean something big for them. You want visitors to recognize your work and admire it everywhere.

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