Logo design ideas: How to make a logo that stands out

Are you trying to create a logo that stands out from the rest? No matter what kind of organization you work for or represent. You need a good logo.

When people look at your website, eye-tracking studies have shown that they’ll look at your logo. They’ll make an impression on your organization within 6 seconds.

Your logo can influence someone to make a purchase, read more on your website, or recommend your business to others.

It doesn’t matter if you have a blog, a business, or a baseball team, you need to have a logo that stands out from the crowd.

These type of logo ideas will inspire you and guide you through the steps to create a great logo. Let’s get started!

What a Logo is and is Not

There tends to be a lot of confusion about what a logo actually is and what it isn’t. For example, most people think that their logo is their brand.

That’s not quite accurate. A brand is a feeling or a connection that people have about your organization or team. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos put it best when he said it’s what people say about your business when you’re out of the room.

READ MORE: How to create your logo concept

Your logo is the visual aspect of your brand. It’s the emotions and aspirations of your company and your brand. In order to design a great logo, you need to understand your brand. There are dozens of ways you can come up with your brand.

Taking yourself and your team through a few exercises to come up with your brand. You’ll want to ask yourself these questions.

• What should people think and feel when they think about the organization?
• How is this organization different from similar organizations?
• If my brand were a car, what kind of car would it be?
• Is there a time period that best reflects the brand?
• What does the brand value most?

It usually helps to think of a brand as a person because that helps you make the emotional connection between your brand and your organization.

Inspiring Logo Design Ideas

Do you know what one of the most valuable assets Nike has? The logo. That swoosh logo was created in the 1970s for $35 by a student at Portland State University. That swoosh is a big reason why Nike’s brand is worth about $28 billion.

When you think of inspiring logos, there are a few that come to mind. Apple, Google, McDonald’s, and IBM all have great logos. What makes these brands great? There are a few elements that great logos have.

Simplicity

The most well-known logos are very simple. Apple’s iconic apple logo with a bite out of it comes to mind. McDonald’s is another simple logo.

When people look at the brand, there isn’t much to think about or absorb. A person isn’t bombarded with a lot of text, colors, and different fonts. The simplicity makes the logo more memorable.

Have a Story

Great logos usually have some kind of great story behind it. Nike’s logo is actually based on the Greek Goddess Nike. She was known as the Goddess of Victory. The swoosh represents the wing of victory.

Starbucks also has a logo that has a story. The mermaid is a mythic siren that goes back to the 7th century. It is possible to tell a great story visually and simply. Look to your favorite logos and do some research to find out the story behind the logo.

How to Create a Logo Everyone Will Love

Your logo is essentially the combination of color, symbols, and typography working together to convey a message. What you discovered about your brand in the previous exercises will help you come up with the right color, imagery, and fonts to create an exciting logo.

Choosing a Color

Colors will have a big impact on what people think of your brand. Different colors have different meanings on a subconscious level. For example, a bright color like yellow usually signifies happiness.

If you have an international brand, you have to consider that colors don’t mean the same thing across the world. Red in one country may mean a sense of urgency and in another may mean good luck.

You should stick with one primary color and use one other color as an accent. You can also rely on whitespace to create a greater impact and make your color pop.

When you choose colors, you have to consider how they print, too. For example, colors that are too close together may bleed into each other, making it difficult to create t-shirts.

The Right Typography

The font you choose for your logo carries a message. That’s why a font like Aviator is typically associated with the 1920s.

One question that’s asked about choosing a font is what do you want to convey? Do you want to be seen as an elegant or modern company? Do you want to convey a classic look?

You’ll start by choosing a serif or sans-serif type. A serif type is like Times New Roman, which has a tail on the letters. This is usually used to convey a classic look.

Using Symbols in Your Logo

Symbols can be used in your logo. You can be creative like FedEx and incorporate an arrow into the text (look at the logo again to find it).

Some symbols will have meaning, too. A round symbol tends to be seen as approachable and warm. This is great for an organization that works with kids.

Use a Logo Creator

You create a logo using a logo maker online to put your sketches down to digital form. This will help you create a clean logo and get you closer to finalizing it.

Some logo makers are incredibly simple to use. You enter your information and choose the symbols, colors, and fonts that you think will work the best. Do your research though, in order to make sure you are using the best logo maker to ensure your brand stands out with a memorable design.

You’ll then have a professional logo that you love. When you create a logo, you should start with a few different designs to compare and see which one works best. Now, you have to test it out.

Testing Your Logo

Just because you think that something looks good doesn’t mean that it will resonate with your audience. It also doesn’t mean that it will look great everywhere.

Some logo designs look great on business cards, but they look terrible on a website. You need to think about where and how the logo will be used. You can then print out copies of the logo and apply them in different settings.

You also want to get several opinions about the logo. Your business is likely to have a number of stakeholders who care about the logo. That includes your employees, vendors, and potential customers.

Show your different sketches to the different stakeholders and get their opinion. Ideally, you want to ask them questions about what they think your business does. You should also ask them the feelings they get from looking at the logo.

Adjusting and Finalizing Your Logo

You should have received valuable feedback about your logo design ideas. In this stage, you’re going to make some of the adjustments that were suggested by others.

This part is challenging because you may already have an emotional attachment to your original design. You think that it’s the best and shouldn’t be changed.

You may be right, or you might not be right. Your job is to be an objective designer. Incorporate the suggested changes one at a time. Continue to play around with the various elements until you have a design that you can be proud of.

Print them out and take them out for another round of feedback. You’ll continue to refine the logo a couple of more times.

Once everyone feels that it’s ready for prime time, unveil it to the public. If this is a rebrand, you can run a social media campaign around your new logo. That can generate a lot of excitement around your new logo and the rebrand.

Create the Best Logo for Your Organization

Every organization can make itself stand out with a great logo. A logo is so important to your organization, it could become a public relations disaster if you don’t get it right.

Whether you’re creating a logo to use for your website, business cards, or custom box packaging, make sure that you have a good design that expresses what message your company wants to communicate to your customers. In order to get it just right, you have to know what your brand is about. That’s at the heart of good logo design ideas.

You need to be sure that you choose the right colors, fonts, and symbols that reflect your brand. Your logo will convey a message on a subconscious level. It will get interpreted in a few seconds. In those precious few seconds, people will judge your business.

When you use some of the logo design ideas listed here, you’ll be on your way to creating a logo that your target market will understand and love.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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