It’s important your logo represents your company. It’s often the first thing a potential customer or client will see, whether it’s on your business card or more likely your website.
In some cases, it’s obvious what works and what doesn’t. Imagine a landscape gardener with an image of a coin and a pen in magenta as their logo? It seems wrong straight away. How about a solicitors practice with an image of a book and legal wig with some old looking typeface? That seems right straight away! But some things are a little different from that and sometimes companies want to break the mould with stereotypes and expected imagery. Think about Starbucks and their mermaid logo for example.
What the colour of your logo says
- Red – Exciting / Bold
- Orange – Friendly / Cheerful
- Yellow – Optimistic / Confident
- Green – Fresh / Peaceful
- Blue – Calm / Strong
- Purple – Creative / Imaginate
- Black – Authority / Tradition / Sophistication
What the typeface in your logo says
It’s a misconception that writing is referred to as a ‘font’ that term actually comes from the days of the printing press! And actually refers to the variations of the actual typeface being used, so things like bold and italic. So just like the colour, the typeface used affects perceptions of your company.
- Serif – Comforting / Traditional
- San-Serif – Modern / Clean
- Script – Creativity / Elegance
Should you use a symbol in your logo?
Some of the strongest and most memorable logos contain a symbol. Think about Nike, Apple or Mercedes Benz. Hold on, some of the strongest and most memorable logos are just text. Think about Fedex, Coca-Cola or Google. So it’s really hard to say if you should use a symbol or not! But here are some pros & cons…
- Pros – Using a symbol isn’t language dependent, so it’s internationally recognised. If you are planning on utilising apps or lots of digital marketing a symbol will aid this.
- Cons – Some images mean different things in different cultures and can cause confusion. A symbol only logo often requires huge amounts of marketing for people to recognise the brand from it, so it’s not always ideal for small businesses.
Example
We have recently been doing some work for an international security company, their logo combines a symbol and a sans-serif typeface which looks bold, strong and reliable.
