Selecting a Logo to Sell 8 Mistakes and Examples to avoid

Whether you're just starting an online business or are considering the possibility of a brand rebranding, one of the primary aspects of this process is to create a high-quality, eye-catching logo that conveys your brand's message. Before you begin brainstorming ideas, you need to consider what factors go into an your logo's design, and also what design style is the best fit for both the brand you're trying to establish and your potential customers.

In this article, we'll explore the significance of logos and the different types of logos, plus some practical considerations like best practices for designing logos, options in software to create them, as well as strategies for outsourcing design.

What's an emblem?

Although we can be a bit nutty on the meaning of "logo", the phrase is typically used for a clear layout comprised of images, words, or a combination of both in order to symbolize a brand or an organization.

The importance of logos

Your logo will help customers quickly and effortlessly identify your company's brand, whether viewing your ads and posts on social networks, surfing results from a search engine, comparing products in the online marketplace, or shopping directly on your site.

If you're looking for your e-commerce firm to stand out from the competition, having the right logo is crucial. With countless online businesses vying for the attention of customers You'll need to choose an attractive, distinctive, memorable logo that is a thoughtful reflection of your brand.

An attractive logo can be instrumental in establishing credibility. Think of your favorite, trusted brands. Their logos probably immediately come to your mind. Even seeing a particular design or color might evoke brand recognition.

Your logo will be an investment in your brand's growth, so make sure you take time and energy to develop one that truly is representative of your business and communicates to your target audience.

There are eight types of logos

Logos usually fall into 8 different kinds:

• Wordmarks, logotypes,
• Brand mark, logomark, or pictorial
• Combination mark
• Dynamic logo
• Emblems
• Letterforms
• Lettermark, monogram
• Mascots

Wordmark/logotype

"Wordmark" as well as "logotype" are basically the same and both refer to a design that uses typography only typically the company name or part of the name of the business. Logos that use these are often made using custom typography, making it unique to the company's brand.

The most well-known instances of a trademark logo is Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola logo can be instantly recognized, thanks to its iconic typography that has barely changed in the past 130 years. L'oreal and eBay's logos are also examples of logotypes and wordmarks.

Logomark, brand mark, or image

"Brand mark"," "logomark," and "pictorial" are used for describing a visual part of a logo. They can also contain the letters or words as an addition to imagery, but which does not include the brand's name. They can be representative such as the apple, bird, and shell marks of Apple, Twitter, and Shell Oil, or they may be more abstract as the Atari as well as the Dropbox trademarks.

The Atari logo hints at an A-shape without actually being it. The Dropbox branding uses an array of carefully placed diamonds that create an abstract box appearance.

Combination mark

A combination mark is the company name combined with the more image-based brand mark. A lot of times, companies will utilize its combination mark in all circumstances, however it can also be used with its wordmark and brand mark separately depending on the scenario.

Dynamic logos

Dynamic logos are flexible, contemporary logos with elements that alter according to what a company wants to communicate to a specific audience. Google is perhaps the most well-known instance of this through its Google Doodles. Dynamic logos can be animated, static or interactive.

Google uses all three of them into use in their Google Doodles series. The only thing that stays the same throughout every Doodle is that the name "Google" appears in some manner. The rest of the design can be altered.

In the case of most companies, the Google approach may not be a good option, particularly for brands that are seeking to make a name for themselves. It may be confusing for potential customers to have multiple variations of your brand's logo that have drastically different style.

Keep in mind that Google does not apply this similar flexibility to all uses of its logo. The Google Doodle is specifically used for the Google Search landing page. Elsewhere, they stick to their trademarked wordmark and brand mark.

If you want to create an engaging logo, be thinking about something more like the style of MTV.

In most instances, MTV uses the same shape of logo, but uses distinct color schemes and may even include co-branding alongside other businesses. Its logo remains immediately identifiable as MTV, but the variation in the color and design can help viewers associate MTV with different concepts, ideology, and brands that evoke different feelings and keep them engaged.

Emblems

The term "emblem" is used to describe an emblem design which uses images and letters to form an integrated logo. Emblems typically look similar to badges or crests. The type of style most frequently in schools, teams of athletes, and automotive companies However, a lot of companies use emblems for their logos. Businesses like Starbucks, Warner Bros. as well as Stella Artois all have emblem logos.

Letterforms

Letterforms utilize the initial letter (or sometimes, the initials of a brand to create a basic brand name. Though they're generally less complicated than monograms, a letterform can also be a monogram, like the above pictured New York Yankees letterform/monogram.

Lettermarks/monograms

Lettermark or monogram logos use the company's initials or acronym to form the entirety or even a part of the logo. The letters often overlap to create a pattern. They also can be positioned on the background.

Monograms were first used in early Greece as identifiers on coins to indicate the city it was issued by. They later became signatures by those with wealth and power and by artists and craftsmen.

Monogram logos have a long tradition and are frequently utilized by beauty and fashion brands to convey an element of elegance and heritage. But monograms are not only employed by these sectors. Just about every category of business has made use of monograms. Monograms are a cost-effective and long-lasting method of creating an identity, and they're ideal for any type of business.

Mascot logos

Mascot logos make use of famous characters to represent the company's business. The alligator from Lacoste, Cheetos' Chester Cheetah, Reddit's fictional creature Snoo and KFC's Colonel Sanders, and Wendy's character, Wendy Thomas, are some of the famous examples of mascots that are used as part of a corporate logo.

Mascots will highlight the brand's personality, and make it more casual and relatable. You can also use them as creative elements in your marketing. But using a mascot in an image can be a challenge since it's simple to change the persona of your choice (see: Ronald McDonald) but hard to eliminate them from the minds of consumers.

So you'll want to carefully look at your mascot's image and make sure it's on-brand and scalable according to the direction that you're planning on growing your business.

Seven ideas for designing an effective logo

Your logo can be the first contact a potential customer experiences with your business. The logo must be memorable, easily identifiable and reflect your company's identity, but there are known best practices for designing your logo to consider when choosing your logo.

Just because your logo is attractive and distinctive, it does not mean it is a good design. Many of the largest companies have experienced certain unreliable logo launches that have resulted in criticism from the media.

Some businesses go by the old saying that "any publicity is good publicity." However, unless your business is attempting to be controversial, it is best to stick to some tried-and-true strategies for designing to prevent ending with a blog article about the worst logo designs ever.

Make it easy

You may have heard the saying "less can be more" which was invented by the Minimalist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1947. It is tossed around often in the jargon of corporate communications and may be used as an excuse for low-effort design work. However, the concept of "less means more" is not to keep simple and dull.

It's a philosophy that values functionality as well as aesthetic. Ultimately, the goal is to use as few elements as are necessary to convey the intended message and supply the required function, while simultaneously creating an aesthetically-pleasing appearance.

This principle is very important when designing logos because the design should be easy for the viewer to grasp. You should be able to place it on backgrounds using diverse textures and colors. configure it for different spaces and aspect ratios and utilize it in various dimensions without becoming confusing or messy.

The idea doesn't imply that it is necessary to choose a minimalist logo design, either. It can be applied to any type of logo - modern, traditional and vintage or any style that's trendy or modern.

Use a style that reflects your brand as well as your intended audience

If your company makes vintage or old-fashioned items it is possible to choose an old-fashioned logo that hearkens back to the era the brand is a part of.

In particular, Big Chill appliances use a vintage-styled typographic logo that evokes vintage appliance emblems from the 1930s-1960s.

The logo for Trader Joe's is a 1960s tiki art vibe as does Ben and Jerry's. The logo has a fun and playful 1970s style that matches their style. Altoids' serif font logo that has a gold embossed design along the edges provides it with a timeless and traditional appearance.

Jack Daniels whiskey has not substantially changed their brand logo since 1947 and it still looks like its pre-Prohibition era logo. In contrast to brands such as Levi Strauss that massively changed their branding identities throughout the years, Jack Daniels has only changed their logo over the years, and has been able to remind customers of their brand's lengthy tradition.

If you're a business that sells software as a service (SaaS) and offers tech-based products, or prefers an identity that is clean easy to read and simple You may want to go with something more minimalist. The following companies all use sleek, modern designs.

Some of them include logos, while others are purely type-based and use distinct letterforms in order to communicate their identity, while other designs have badges or emblem-style appearance.

If your ecommerce shop is geared toward niche demographics You'll need to pick the right logo to resonate with the target group of customers. If it's food that is organic, toys, comic books, women's apparel, or hunting gear, it's possible to achieve an effective, genre-targeted logo that doesn't stray into the territory of childish and cute.

Some examples of niche audience logos are Walt's Comic Shop, Nelson Rare Books, KiwiCo, and Chewy.

Walt's Comic Shop makes use of a cartoon-like design, but makes use of simplified lines as well as two colors, as well as an uncluttered, sans-serif font. It's fun and references the industry, but it's not too cartoonish and the graphic and typography elements are a good match both independently.

Nelson Rare Books uses an intricately illuminated initial within their logo, like what could be found at the opening chapter of an antique book. As opposed to the decorated serif typeface, they employ a clean, wide sans-serif font that is used in all uppercase letters for the company's name. It provides a visual balance and reflects the essence of the company's brand as a seller of rare and antique books, and a shop that uses modern technologies and organization systems.

KiwiCo offers science and arts kits for kids as an online subscription. They've picked a modern and clean logo, but made it playful by using a kiwi-themed mascot as well as a large serif font. Keeping the logo more generic lets them expand their company in many different direction without the need alter the logo whenever they need to.

Chewy is a pet-related delivery service for pet owners. Their logo isn't comprised of any imagery and it is purely based on type. They've employed a sans-serif rounded design that's been scattered, creating a playful look that is often associated with pets.

Use clip art only.

If you think that you could simply pick a logo from a clip art free website, think twice. You technically could apply clip art to your logo if you want, but there is a good chance that different businesses have also employed this technique. It is possible that people will recognize it and mistake it for another company's logo, or it may simply give an amateur appearance.

Also, not all clip art works are accessible to the public. Simply because you can find it online does not mean it's legal to use. Don't you want to become the focus of an action!

This doesn't mean you can't utilize a design that was already created as the basis of your logo. You can find royalty-free photo marketplaces such as IStock Photos and Creative Market which are where you can get higher-quality pre-made graphic elements that you can use to create your own logos. Or, completely designed logos. All you need to do is change the placeholder in the design with the name of your business.

If you decide to utilize a pre-designed feature for your logo, you should keep your eyes open for the possibility that others could be using the same element in theirs too. Also make sure you're using the appropriate license to your intended purpose. Some stock image sites have various types of licenses that which you can buy for various reasons, including printing, web and editorial use.

Avoid overused and cliche images and fonts

Doing a search for "worst logo fonts" and "worst logo designs" can give you suggestions on what not to do. But you should also be sure to check sure your image elements as well as typography aren't being utilized by companies that are not yours. This will not only help keep your brand from being confused, but it can also help inspire you to develop a innovative and unique design you can be proud of.

There's no wrong choice to use a common logo or symbol in your logo's design if it's relevant to your industry. Veterinary logos are a great example of this. Do you know how many vets utilize a combination of cats or dogs with a paw print a medical symbol and even a heart?

Probably most of them. It doesn't mean it's impossible to utilize that type of imagery - it's just means it's much more difficult to come up with an original idea while using the same subjects.

Here are some excellent examples of common logo image options that are well-executed:

To design Aurora Veterinary Hospital, the artist used a simple palette, with an almost abstract representation of dogs... perhaps it's an animal. The design is broad enough to depict both animals. It's adorable without appearing cartoonish. It's clean, modern and easy to read while also being an unique interpretation of the common motif of cat and dog in the logo of veterinary medicine.

Advanced The logo of Veterinary Care Center is extremely creative, pointing towards a tail-like cat, as well as using the standard medical + symbol in the form of the letter A to indicate "Advanced." The logo is a more corporate-feeling mark while remaining true to the field it represents. The logo is a completely different one that Aurora Veterinary Hospital's logo. It's less abstract and minimal, but still using the most common designs.

Creating your own font, or modifying the appearance of a font significantly to suit your brand branding, could be a good way to create a unique and effective logo. If you're interested in typography or graphic design but not something that you have a background in, you'll want to study basic typographic principles before you start working on creating custom fonts or altering existing ones.

Do not go too far with colors or visual effects

Limit yourself only to a minimum of four colors. If your logo calls for more than four colors then try to keep the colors to only one element of the logo.

In this case, for instance The NBC logo features the theme of rainbows in their peacock logo, but the text on their logo is black. The elements are easy to see by itself. Solid colors and a small amount of geometric shapes make the peacock's shape readable, despite using a rainbow of colors.

However, if you start applying different colors to every letter, the logo begins to lose impact. Going further by applying rainbow gradients, drop shadows, and glow effects, it becomes chaotic. The effect is certainly original, however it's pretty difficult to stare at.

You must ensure that the design you choose to use is clear in all applications

When you're setting up an e-commerce site You'll want to ensure that your logo looks great and can be accessible on your site particularly on mobile. However, you should make sure it looks good in print, can translate well to both horizontal and vertical layouts, and includes color variations for different texture and colors for your background.

Be careful not to distort or squish the proportions of your logo in order to accommodate a certain area. You can rearrange your logo elements or make your logo smaller or larger while keeping its aspect ratio, but stretching or squeezing the logo can make it harder to read and feel less professional.

Make use of a vector-based design application to create your logo

There are two kinds of images that you can create using design software - both raster and vector. Vector images are created based on mathematical formulas that permit them to be scaled without losing clarity or becoming distorted.

The images in a raster format On the other hand, are made of the same number of pixels. After you've scaled the image, you can't scale it back up again without losing image quality or distorting the image in some manner.

Because your logo could be employed in a wide range of contexts and sizes on your marketing material, you'll want to make sure your logo will be scaled without losing quality. Using a vector layout makes editing your logo later much easier and helps to keep the quality of your image regardless of how often you reduce or expand the size of your logo.

You should also save versions of your logo in multiple vector (ai, pdf, eps) format as well as export both high-resolution raster formats (png, tiff, jpg) and web-optimized lower resolution files such as webp.

Do you want to learn more about logo file types? The Mean Creative provides an handy cheat sheet.

Logo design software

Looking for the right software for creating a fantastic logo? With so many options out there, it's hard to figure out which one to choose. If you already have some knowledge of graphic design, you might want to utilize a computer or an online design program that gives you complete freedom to create your company logo.

If you do not have any design experience then you may want to choose an online automated program for creating logos. Even if you can't find a solution that's exactly what you're looking for, it could serve as a great base to start from if you decide to choose to employ a graphic designer.

If your generated logo has a lot in common with what you want, but still needs a few adjustments, you can save money by giving the designer you hired to create your logo which is 90% of what you want it to be and requires only a couple of tiny modifications.

Online and desktop design software choices

    Adobe Illustrator  

• ProfessionalsIllustrator has become an industry leader in vector design software. Versions for iPad and Desktop are available and it's feature-rich.
• Pros:Illustrator uses a subscription-only system, which means it will have a continuous monthly cost. The software can come with a significant level of learning, and it may be suitable only those who intend to do a lot of graphic design work.

    CorelDraw  

• Pros:It offers a one-time purchase option, in addition to an option to subscribe. It also offers a cheaper version of Corel Vector online software with the option of a trial period of 15 days for free.
• Pros:The one-time purchase price exceeds $500, and the online Vector software is limited to subscription. Similar to Illustrator however, the process of learning can be a little difficult for novices. In addition, the CorelDraw iPad app has an average of 1 1/2 star review in the Apple App Store.

    Canva  

• Benefits Canva includes a free account option so you can design a logo as well as others designs for free. Canva also has an option to create a logo if you're unhappy by your design work. Canva is a wildly well-known design tool that is simple designed for creative and non-designer professionals, and you can rest assured it's well-supported with ongoing updates and additional innovative features. It also offers freemium access to a selection of stock photos from Getty and other stock content sources.
• Cons: Premium content and options are restricted to users with different levels of paid accounts. It is a software that can only be used online. The search feature to search for images from stock, in particular, is a little clunky and may be challenging to locate the exact image you're looking for.

    Vectr  

• Pros: Vector is a free, simple vector design application that's easy to use.
• Cons:It's online only and may be too basic, based on the type of design work you want to do. It also runs ads within the software, which can be annoying.

Online logo creators

In addition to Canva's feature to create logos, which we discussed earlier and online, there's also a software which is focused on only automatic logo design.

Checka as well as Smashing Logo each offer low-cost customized logo creation tools. You can create for free the number of logos that you want, but if you want to download the vector files and brand packages, you'll need to buy the premium level.

The online logo creator software could be a great way to find the perfect logo for the job with minimal cost, but you're not always guaranteed to receive the design you're looking for. Since these two platforms can be used for free and test, they could at the very the very least assist you in thinking about the direction of your design, think about what you do and don't want, and take that concept to a graphic artist or an agency for a beginning point.

Outsourcing logo design

Are you not interested in creating your own logo or endlessly generating iterations in the logo creator program? In some cases, it's best to hire a professional from the get-go.

Hiring a freelance logo designer or agency to create your logo is a wise investment in the long-term success of your company. Designers with experience will provide fresh perspectives that you might not otherwise have considered. They will be able to handle making all of the required files and designs.

It's crucial to know the potential risks when outsourcing the design of your logo. You want to make sure that you choose a professional with expertise in creating logos for businesses within your field, who has received good reviews from previous clients, and who can meet your needs within your budget.

Some people have good success finding freelance designers through online marketplaces such as Fiverr and Upwork. Other people prefer to work with a local person or who has been recommended to them by a friend and/or colleague or the your local chamber of commerce. These are all excellent options to consider when searching for a designer with.

As a client, you'll have to be sure you're ready for working with a designer. Do an investigation into logos that you like, consider what you want to achieve with your logo, and then be able to define your goals.

Designers work best when given both clear parameters and some flexible design ideas. If you're not flexible enough in what you want your design to look like, or you're too vague the result could be an unsatisfactory logo. your requirements.

The final step in creating a logo in conjunction with your graphic designer is a dialogue, and you may go around a couple of times over sketches before you find a logo that's just right.

Make your mark visible

Now that you have some ideas for logo design to look up, it's time to start creating and put your logo to work. Look up various logo designs. Find a logo color scheme and general aesthetic design.

Decide if you prefer to design your logo on your own, employ an application to create logos, or hire an experienced designer. When you've got a logo you like, make sure you have all the right file types for web as well as print before implementing it across your website as well as social media, marketing channels, and products.

It's also recommended to review your logo carefully and run it past some trustworthy sources to get feedback prior to you go live. Keep in mind that your logo is an image of your business. There may be no majority of opinion on whether the logo you prefer is a good design, but you should at least avoid any glaring problems that would land it on blog posts about the worst logos of all time.

It can be difficult to design a logo, but through careful planning, thorough research and the best designers or tools for design to create stunning, memorable logos that represents your brand that inspires trust and confidence among your customers.