Creating the Perfect Logo
Author: Tiara Rea
A great business needs a lot of features working harmoniously to succeed. You need a unique idea, or at least an idea that the public or your market niche is going to desire. You also need a great team working behind the scenes in several departments, or have a handle on everything yourself if you are managing the entirety of your business. Finally, you need a reliable web host to stand behind your business and keep you up 24/7 so your message isn’t lost. At least that last part is easy with Lunarpages. 
But wait…there’s something missing. If you don’t have a unique and brandable logo, how do you expect your customers and their friends to remember your business? Creating the perfect logo can be an exhausting process. Many companies go through hundreds of design choices before they settle on the perfect prototype, and even then they wonder if the logo conveys the brand’s message. This little article will hopefully ease some frustrations or at the very least give you a place to start and maybe some helpful tips.
Think of some of the great business successes and then play that game where you try to match them with their logos. For example:
I picked some easy ones, of course, but these are all brands that people all over the world can recall without having the name of the brand visible anywhere on the logo. I think the Apple logo is the best example, because looking at it, you know the shape and the object even if you don’t know the brand. And though Superman isn’t a corporation, if he was, there wouldn’t be a single person in the world who wouldn’t buy from him! Even though I prefer Batman, who has a pretty sweet logo as well.
Anyway, there are a couple key facts to consider when creating your perfect logo:
Convey Your Message
Amazon.com has created an amazing marketplace for products all over the world, and their logo truly represents this fact. What makes this simple logo that’s mostly text so great? The simple orange arrow at the bottom. It took me years to realize this, but the arrow underlines the letters “A” and “Z”, representing oh-so-subtly that their website has every product imaginable from A to Z. Brilliant!
Conveying your own message might mean taking a small graphical element like Amazon did or could mean making a bold statement if you have a more provocative product.
Another great example is what many consider to be the holy grail of logo design:
Take a hard look at that logo. If you haven’t noticed before (and trust me, just like Amazon’s logo, it took me years to see this), there is a white arrow outlined between the “E” and “X” in “Ex”. Imagine if the designer of this logo had wanted everything lowercase – the whole idea of moving forward, of getting somewhere, of progress, would be lost. The simple choice of font, color, and an ideal all merge together seamlessly, however, and the FedEx brand subliminally conveys their ideal.
Represent Your Ideals in Font and Text Styles
Nathan Smith over at SonSpring.com wrote a good article a couple years ago about the importance of text in logos. His original concept for the Godbit Project’s (which merges technology and theology) new logo was less than inspired:
After thinking about the ideals behind his new project, he realized cursive text was not the best idea. His final concept perfectly merged a more technological pixilated image with both letters of the brand: G and B:
As you can see, the gray outline is the G and the white space became a lowercase “b”. I think tilting the image adds an element of balance as well, but as far as text goes, I think this represents a great achievement. It not only represents the ideals behind the website (the G is capitalized which signals its importance, both letters are represented, and the design is technological) but also contains a clean, simple appeal and is easily recognizable, many things which his first concept were not.
Another great example comes from the creator of Digital Web Magazine’s logo, Kristof Saelen. It started as a somewhat sloppy and unrecognizable graphic with little do with technology:
And it came out as a really fresh logo with a simple, strict text:
Experiment!
Trying new things is the key I think, because you’re going to start with a handful of sketches that may look childish to you. If they do, remember, it’s only the beginning.
And if you’re really stuck, here are a couple ideas to get you motivated!
* Try new text. As illustrated in the Digital Web example above, fonts make a huge difference in how your product is perceived. Imagine if they had gone with their first choice or if they had decided on lowercase. How would this change your perception? For some really amazing ideas on text logos, check out this tutorial by Graphics.com.
* Research. A great example of some persistent research can be found via this article from Chuck Green. In that example, he had to combine a hummingbird and helicopter for a client’s logo design. In your case, researching either the shape, animal, food, or ideal behind the image can be a great help and inspire your imagination. If you’ve created a rough, edgy look for logo, for example, based on a fluid, smooth original shape, you’ll want to start over to better convey your message.
* Check out the competition. Not to be taken literally, though you should have a close look at some of your favorite logos and try to figure out why they’re so appealing.
* What’s popular? Finally, this article on Logo Trends of 2006 is still fairly relevant to 2008 and beyond. Looking at your favorite designs of the year will help you decide on a direction and the elements that are currently considered trendy and/or good.
So when all else fails, do some research and read what others before me have said. And experiement! That’s how great ideas are born.
