A company’s logo is one of the most important elements of its advertising strategy. A logo provides company branding and enables customers to identify it immediately. A logo can also serve as an excellent tool for conveying exactly what the company is about, or capturing some of its mentality. If you are designing a logo for a company, here are five tips that will help your logo reach its full potential.

1. Keep it simple. The best logos are simple and easily recognizable. Whenever you drive down a busy city block, you can always identify the businesses without really reading the signs: the golden arches for McDonalds, the green and white Starbucks logo, the distinctive Arby’s sign. If your logo cannot be absorbed and recognized at a glance, it will not do the job as well as one that can be.

2. Choose colors with care. Ideally, you will want a logo that works in black-and-white as well as color, since you may need to print your logo in a newspaper or other colorless medium. Color does lend an eye-popping quality to a logo, however, and you should put thought into exactly what type of reaction you want. Research has been conducted to determine what associations people have to specific colors; it may be worthwhile to investigate these studies when choosing a color scheme. If nothing else, select a simple scheme of two to three complementary colors, and try to incorporate those colors elsewhere into your webpage or advertising materials.

3. Make it relevant. Your logo should relate back to your brand in some way, either by incorporating the brand name or simply making it visually representative of your brand. For example, the Nike “swoosh” has connotations of speed, which suits the athletic shoes.

4. Make it compatible across all media. Before deciding on a logo, test it in numerous different places, such as online or in print, and in several sizes. The best logos are designed with a vector program that enables them to be resized without losing their clarity.

5. Once you choose a logo, stick with it. Because your company logo is synonymous with the company’s identity, you risk confusing your buyers if you suddenly change your logo. This is why it’s so important to take care before choosing a design, as once you select one it will become much harder to change it in the future.

Designing the perfect logo can take time, but it’s well worth the effort. A recognizable logo can create brand recognition for your company, enabling buyers to instantly recognize and remember you. When they see your logo again, they may be more likely to choose your product as the logo is already foremost in their mind.

Photo credit: revil beat logo by mistercorn/flickr

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