There is no brand without a logo
And judging by the overloaded logos information field, everybody understands that. So here comes a legitimate question: How can we create a good brand logo in such unprecedented competition? Our agency knows the answer, and in this article, we are going to share what is essential to take into account if you want to design a good logo. Our designers tell you about the important insides of logo design and talk about the current trends so your brand can always be up-to-date.
Start logo design with Brief!
An essential step in the logo design is the design brief, a document outlining the project’s deliverables and scope, and the following briefing. We are sure that a good brief is half of success.
The brief content varies depending on the complexity of the task and the client’s requests, but there are several mandatory questions. If a designer doesn’t know the answers and doesn’t consider them in his work, success depends more on luck and less on the designer’s gut.
Before designing the logo, we must collect the following data. In our agency, this is considered a foundation:
MARKET TYPE — b2b, b2c, or intermediaries.
BRAND’S WAYS OF COMMUNICATING WITH THE AUDIENCE. It is important to clarify the tone of communication, points of contact, and ways of conveying information to the consumer.
IMPORTANT DETAILS. Has the client turned to logo design for the first time, or have there been attempts to work with other agencies? If there were old logos, did the customer like them? Or is it a rebranding, and the customer needs to save history?
BRAND SITUATION. At this stage, it is crucial to find out why the logo was needed by the client right now:
- Has the client just registered the company?
- Is the brand entering a new market or launching a new product?
- Does a significant event take place in the company? Anniversary — for example.
- Is the business in crisis?
- Is business dying?
BRAND TYPE. If we know the brand type, we can enhance the experience of interaction with it with the logo. For example, the following brand types are most often distinguished: fashion, casual, reliable, luxury, reliable, technology, craft, cheerful, green, expressive, and others. The type of brand may not be obvious to both the designer and the client. So, for example, a brand can be perceived as casual, but a business owner wants to see it as technology. This needs to be considered.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY — the name history, creation history, values, goals and tasks, advantages, products and services, and target audience. All this information is necessary to understand what ideas to put in the trademark. By passing the brief, this information can be taken from the brand’s platform. Another source is brand strategy. If you do not have such documents, we can help with their development.
LOGO HOLDERS, PRIMARY AND POSSIBLE. The logo must be versatile and scalable. For example, business cards, websites, souvenir products, and folders all imply different contact points. It is necessary to work out in advance the most important holders for your company and test the logo on them so that you will not encounter unnecessary difficulties in the future.
When the brief is filled in, all questions are answered and analyzed, and we have a briefing meeting with the client. It helps close the gaps in understanding the answers and allows us to ask additional questions that have arisen during the material processing. Designing a logo is not a one-way job: the more information the client provides, the better.
Also, during the briefing meeting, we clarify the criteria for the evaluation of completed work. The requirements for which the trademark is tested.
Hold the design-session
The design session is one of the most important and fascinating stages of logo development. It is the moment when we discuss design together with the client, build a dialogue to understand each other, better, and get important information about the details to pay attention to. This stage is necessary to understand how ready the client is for experiments. For example, does he want to try something trendy, or unusual? Or is he conservative and reserved? We have to find out which decisions you like or don’t like during the design session and why.
Start the design research
Design research is at the heart of our author’s methodology — evidence-based design. It allows an understanding of which solutions exist on the market, which fonts, colors, and techniques are already used, and to take this into account when creating a logo to build up from competitors.
The advantage of this method is obvious: using the collected information, we can work on the logo, eliminating subjectivity.
We begin the concept development based on the brief, the design session, and the design research.
What else is important to know?
It is essential to understand that the company logo is created not only for the business owner but also for business clients. Therefore, it is worth knowing which associations cause the signs or forms in the target audience at the conceptualization stage.
For this purpose, we collect and interview focus groups. This is an additional option, but interestingly, the collected information is always valuable for the client.
Take the trends into account or not?
Trends are undoubtedly important to understand and follow. But not blindly. The logo is designed for years to exist, and the trends rapidly lose relevance. Some of them even turn into anti-trends in 1-2 years.
The logo does not have to please everyone. It has to solve the objectives.
About 2022 logo design Trends
We’re not going to lie: any design studio will give a kingdom to know precisely what trend will dominate the consumer’s attention for the following year. Wouldn’t you agree it would be convenient?
But we can anticipate what trends will emerge or remain relevant based on our experience.
FONT EXPERIMENTS
Font logos have been used extensively before and are expected to increase in popularity in 2022. The important thing is that bold experiments with typography are welcome. Save the element of surprise, such as the different heights of letters, and unusual lines, or ignore kerning. Don’t overdo it. The logo should be easy to read.
BREVITY
Less means more. Design brevity allows focusing on each logo element and a greater depth of the idea. At the same time, the simplicity of the sign leaves the possibility to count the essence of the brand уeasier and faster, which is especially relevant when there is non-stop noise of unnecessary news, advertising, and visuals around the consumer.
BRIGHT AND CANDY COLORS
People need a positive image more than ever in difficult times. That’s why bright and candy colors are trendy today. The bright spark always gives two necessary effects: positive emotions and the logo expression.
ANIMATED LOGOS
A moving object better keeps an observer’s attention — a fact that is widely used in logo design. However, given the expected surge in interest in digital content, the demand for animated logos is projected to increase.
HANDWRITTEN LOGOS
It has been suggested that handwritten logos are better able to convey the idea of a brand than their analogs. And you can see why: here, the designer is limited only to his fantasy. Exquisite and refined calligraphy or a crude sketch with uneven strokes? It all depends on the message to be conveyed to the consumer. Experiments are welcome, but the logo must remain readable and attractive.
THE MESSAGE BETWEEN THE LINES
A relentless trend in creativity and the depth of the idea seem to be relevant forever. The hidden message inside many logos sometimes makes to say out loud «Wow!»
The logo is essential for any business. However, we know that there are things that you can trust a single designer with, and there are things that only a professional team of designers can handle. Logo design and branding is a team effort where success depends on many factors. Look at the brands we created, and if you have any questions, we’re always ready for conversation.