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1. Preliminary Work Is a Must
2. Create Balance
Balance is important in logo design because our minds naturally perceive a balanced design as being pleasing and appealing.
Keep your logo balanced by keeping the "weight" of the graphics, colors, and size equal on each side.
Though the rule of balance can occasionally be broken, remember that your logo will be viewed by the masses, not just those with an eye for great art, so a balanced design is the safest approach.
3. Size Matters
When it comes to logo design, size does matter. A logo has to look good and be legible at all sizes. A logo is not effective if it loses too much definition when scaled down for letterheads, envelopes, and small promotional items. The logo also has to look good when used for larger formats, such as posters, billboards, and electronic formats such as TV and the Web. The most reliable way to determine if a logo works at all sizes is to actually test it yourself. Note that the smallest scale is usually the hardest to get right, so start by printing the logo on a letterhead or envelope and see if it is still legible. You can also test for large-scale rendering by printing a poster-sized version at a print shop.4. Clever Use of Color
- Use colors near to each other on the color wheel (e.g. for a "warm" palette, use red, orange, and yellow hues).
- Don't use colors that are so bright that they are hard on the eyes.
- The logo must also look good in black and white, grayscale, and two colors.
- Breaking the rules sometimes is okay; just make sure you have a good reason to!
5. Design Style Should Suit the Company
6. Typography Matters... a Lot!
Choosing the right font type and size is much more difficult than many beginner designers realize. If your logo design includes text, either as part of the logo or in the tagline, you will need to spend time sorting through various font types -- often, dozens of them -- and testing them in your design before making a final decision. Try both serif fonts and sans-serif fonts as well as script, italics, bold, and custom fonts. Consider three main points when choosing a font to accompany your logo design:- Avoid the most commonly used fonts, such as Comic Sans, or else your design may come off as amateurish.
- Make sure the font is legible when scaled down, especially with script fonts.
- One font is ideal, and avoid more than two.
7. The Goal IS Recognition
8. Dare to be Different
To stand out from the competition, you must distinguish yourself as a designer with a distinct style. Rather than copy another design or style, be innovative and stand out from the crowd.
So, how can you be different? Try breaking the rules of design and taking risks.
Try a variety of styles to find the one that works best for your client. Try different color combinations until you find one that makes your design truly original.
Have fun with the design program you use, and keep tweaking the design until you feel you’ve got it right.
9. K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple, Stupid)
10. Go Easy on Effects
Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, Photoshop, and other graphic design programs are extremely powerful tools and have many filters and effects that you can apply to your logo, but don't get carried away!
There’s a time and place for these powerful tools, but it is not necessarily to design a logo.
Of course, playing around and seeing whether they enhance a logo is fine, but just remember that simplicity is key.
11. Develop a Design “Assembly Line”
To produce consistently high-quality logos, you need to develop your own design process, or “assembly line.” This should include the following steps:- Research
- Brainstorm and generate ideas
- Preliminary sketches
- Develop vector designs
- Send to client
- Add or remove anything the client wants
- Finalize the design and resubmit to client
12. Use Other Designs for Inspiration Only!
The last rule for designing an effective logo is quite simple: don’t copy other designers' work! While there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by other designers, copying another person's ideas or work is morally and legally wrong. Gallery websites exist that let you use vector art images free of charge, with proper attribution under the Creative Commons License, but I strongly recommend not going this route. These websites can be helpful for getting ideas during the brainstorming stage, but you're better off starting your design from scratch and making it 100% original.Written exclusively for WDd by Jarkko Laine.
Do you follow these rules when designing your logos? Why or why now? Please share your comments with us...
WDD Staff
WDD staff are proud to be able to bring you this daily blog about web design and development. If there's something you think we should be talking about let us know @DesignerDepot.
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