Do you agree with the fact that a person associated with the logo design industry needs to possess skills, such as creativity, patience, and a sharp eye? If you do, you are missing out a valid skill-curiosity. This statement may make people wonder why curiosity is such an important skill. Find out the answer below.

Improves your Skills

If you possess a curious attitude, it will help you to know new things. You can discover interesting ways of executing an idea. This in turn, will sharpen your skills and create a positive image of yours.

Infuses you with Positivism

Curious individuals, usually, display a positive attitude. This is because of the fact that curiosity infuses positivism in a person. It broadens your attitude and encourages you to look beyond the obvious.

Makes Issues Easy to Understand

As a person associated with the professional logo design industry, you may not understand certain concepts. However, if you are curious, you will try to gain an in-depth knowledge about these issues. This in turn, will clarify your concepts and enhance your knowledge base.

Increases your Productivity

A curious attitude encourages you to learn new things. This means that your understanding of different issues becomes clearer, which increases productivity. Since you can understand things better now, you will become more productive.

Keeps your Mind Fresh

For most of us, monotony is a major issue at work and life. Possessing a curious attitude and learning new things will add variety in your life. It will encourage you to go beyond the obvious and explore new things.

Highlights New Possibilities

Unless you possess a curious mind, you cannot gauge new possibilities and work on them. A curious attitude encourages you to discover new things and thus, opens new doors of possibilities.

Makes you more Observant

As compared to a non-curious person, a curious person is more observant. This is because of the fact that curiosity encourages a person to observe surrounding incidents and latest trends. It prompts a person to learn new things and implement them in life.

Helps you to Enjoy Life

Learning new things keeps your mind fresh. It infuses newness in your life and helps you to avoid monotony. This in turn, helps you to enjoy life and work more. Life will be fun for you!

Encourages you to meet New People

Those who possess a curious attitude are usually excited about meeting new people. This helps them in extending their personal and professional network. Furthermore, meeting new people can also bring in new job opportunities.

Makes your Mind Active

A curious attitude will make your mind active. Instead of passively receiving instructions, you will learn to evaluate, criticize, and accept them. It will provide you with a stronger mind and help you to come up with fresh ideas.

Offers Fresh Experiences

With the help of curiosity, you can go through new experiences. This will stimulate your mind, thus encouraging you to become a more creative person. Furthermore, undertaking new adventures will allow you to develop an open mind.

The above discussion must have convinced you the fact that curiosity can bring out the best in you. So, start developing a curious mind and enjoy the advantages!

A powerful business logo design can greatly enhance overall image of a company. However, designing a logo is not an easy task. You need to design a logo that is simple, unique and conveys purposes of the company. While designing a logo, one can commit certain mistakes. This in turn, affects quality of the logo.

Today, in this article, we will discuss impact of these mistakes. Furthermore, we will provide you with strategies that will help you to avoid them.

1. Complicated Designs

Some designers believe that developing complicated designs can attract attention of the people. Unfortunately, this is a wrong concept. A simple and affordable logo design can be your best bet for creating a positive impression. This is because of the fact that simple designs are easy to understand, which in turn contributes to its recall value.

2. Wrong Choice of Fonts

As a logo designer, consider the fact that poor choice of fonts can ruin your creations. For this reason, devote sufficient time for selecting font of a design. Experiment with various styles, before finally choosing one. Do not shy away from buying a font or modifying the existing ones.

3. Over-Relying on Colors

A logo that depends on colors for conveying its meaning is a weak logo. Therefore, while creating a logo, do not rely on colors excessively. Of course, you can use colors to enhance visual appeal of the designs. However, do not depend on them to convey any meaning.

4. Typographic Inconsistency

In the quest for experimentation, do not include three or four fonts in your designs. Interpreting a design that uses various fonts is difficult and disturbing. To retain simplicity of the design, stick to one or two fonts.

5. Incorporating Raster Images

A good logo is scalable. This means that it can be scaled down to any size, without affecting its quality. If you use raster-based editors for creating logos, it will not allow you to develop scalable creations. Rather, using a vector graphics program can be a good idea.

This is because vector graphics maintain visual consistency of designs in various sizes and mediums.

6. Taking Help of Visual Clichés

If you want your design to be unique, avoid popular clichés. Some of these clichés can include swoosh and speech bubbles, which represent dynamism and conversation respectively. Rather, come up with fresh ideas.

7. Copying Designs

We understand the fact that in certain situations, copying designs seem the best solution. However, consider the fact that copying other’s designs can harm your reputation as a designer. To avoid any unwanted situation, avoid stealing works of other designers. However, if you want, you can modify them.

8. Using Monogram

If you are designing for a small company, using monogram (initials of the business name) cannot be a great idea. The reason is that people may not trust an almost unknown company that uses monogram in its designs. Of course, if your client’s company is established, you can consider using monograms.

9. Not respecting your own Expertise

Most designers have the experience of handling clients who are unaware of the fact that their ideas can have a negative impact on the creation. The best way to deal this situation is to explain your point of view. Furthermore, inform the clients how your ideas would benefit the designs. Do not insult your expertise at any cost.

10. Offering Excessive Concepts

Offering excessive concepts to clients can confuse them. For best results, send them 2 or 3 ideas. If you possess good designing skills, sending few ideas will help you to acquire the project.

11. Avoiding Necessary Changes

Before sending the final design, making necessary changes to it is important. Curves, for example, should be smooth. The symmetry should be perfect. Modifying these aspects will create a positive impression on clients.

12. Sending Incorrect Files

Sending right files is an easy way to ensure that the client does not demand a revision or another version of the logo. For best results, offer your client four files. These can include a pure white file, a pure back file, a pure CMYK file, and a spot-color one.

Avoid these mistakes to create good designs.

 

Creating a unique logo design is not an easy process. You need to opt for several brainstorming sessions and develop original ideas. Additionally, you should ensure that the logo represents values of the company correctly. In the midst of all these activities, it is easy to commit mistakes that can hamper quality of the design.

In this article, we will discuss why you should avoid these mistakes. Furthermore, we will highlight the alternative strategies.

1. Using legal phrases in business logo design

Many people are desperate to convince people that their companies are genuine. For this reason, they ask logo designers to incorporate legal phrases, such as LLP, Inc., or LLC in designs. However, this is not a right strategy.

Consider business logo designs of famous companies, such as IBM, KFC, and Shell. Did they include legal phrases in their logos? No. Still, they have managed to convince people about their authenticity. Likewise, you can also encourage people to trust your company, without putting phrases in logo designs.

As mentioned above, people are not used to seeing legal phrases in logo designs. Therefore, if you incorporate them, chances are high that it will confuse them. Rather, incorporate these legal phrases in legal documents.

2. Incorporating contact information in logo

Placing contact information in logo messes up the design. The aesthetic appeal of the logo is lost and it appears like a forced advertisement. Another disadvantage of this strategy is that your contact information may change occasionally. In such a situation, you will have to redesign your logo.

For these reasons, avoid putting contact information in the logo design.

3. Relying heavily on colors

A creative logo design should be simple and soothing to the eyes. For this reason, sticking to one or two colors can be a great idea. Consider logos of famous companies, such as Coca Cola, Shell, and Starbucks. They have used one or two colors in their logos - red, yellow and red, and green respectively.

If you use excessive colors in logo designs, it may confuse the viewers. Furthermore, it may interfere with the recall value of designs. People usually associate a company with a particular color. If you use excessive colors, they will fail to pick out a particular color that could have helped them to relate with the company.

We highlighted few logo design mistakes. Avoid them and consider the alternative strategies.

Did you know that a business logo design consists of three aspects and each part has a specific purpose? These aspects can include icon, color scheme, and font. All these three aspects work together to convey message of your company to the targeted audience.

Isn’t attracting attention of people the only purpose of a business logo design?

This concept is partially true. One of the purposes of the logo design, of course, is to attract attention of the target audience. However, it has other purposes as well.

The main purpose of your logo’s icon is to convey your brand story to the clients, via the symbols. It can be added here that using symbols to tell a story or deliver a message is known as symbology. Implementing this strategy is a good idea because it will help you to connect with your target customers.

To gain better understanding of the concept, you can consider logo of the popular ice cream store, Baskin Robins. You may think that their logo highlights initials of the company, i.e. BR. However, if you look closely, you will find that the number 31 is highlighted in the logo. The company has used the number 31 in their logo to spread the message that it sells 31 varieties of ice creams, a different one for every single day of the month.

Types of symbols

Symbols are usually of two types - representational and abstract.

• Representational symbols usually highlight animal, person, or an object. Logo design of the famous Jaguar car company smartly utilizes a representational symbol (a jaguar) in its logo.

• Abstract symbols, on the other hand, highlight basic shapes that can include circles, squares, and even swooshes. Logo of the Nike company utilizes abstract symbols.

Which symbol should I Choose?

Picking out the right symbol can be quite tricky. You need to consider your brand story, target audience, and the message that you want to deliver. It is difficult to state the type of symbol you should choose, without observing your logo.

However, we can advise you to study meanings of various symbols. It will help you to choose the one that complements the story of your company. Gather as much information as you can about logo designs. Alternatively, you can hire a logo designer for developing an interesting design.

Other purposes of a logo design

Apart from telling a story, a logo needs to fulfill other functions. It should be-

1. Memorable- It should leave a lasting impression on minds of the audience.
2. Unique- It should possess a unique appeal.
3. Timeless- It should not rely on current trends. Rather, people should be able to relate with the logo, even ten years down the line.
4. Scalable- The logo should be scalable. This means that it should look good, in any size.

If your logo possesses these qualities, chances are high that it will be able to win hearts of the audience. Consider these tips to create an intriguing logo design.

Did you know that paper quality and type could alter color of the printed product? Yes, it is true! Many times, clients blame designers for messing up the colors. However, they are unaware of the fact that in certain cases, the paper quality, and type are responsible for the change of color. In fact, various paper stocks can produce various tones from the same ink color.

Even if you do not opt for color ink, controlling color is crucial. If you print black ink on a color substrate, there are high chances that it would appear containing color.

Paper Types and Printing

Many people, while printing designs, ignore the issue of paper quality. As a result, the poor quality of paper ruins a great logo design. If you are interested in obtaining perfect printouts of your design, paying attention to various aspects is important. These aspects can include design, type of paper, paper quality, and good quality inks.

Remember, that paying equal attention to all these factors will help you to avail high quality printout of your business logo design.

The importance of using good quality paper lies in the fact that customers usually judge a company by evaluating its marketing products. If you provide them with high quality promotional materials, they will automatically assume that quality of your products/services is good and you have an impeccable corporate identity. Consider the fact that customers purchase products only from a trustworthy company.

Issues you should consider…

• Thick paper usually indicates esteem and credibility. If you are handling a prestigious project, opting for thick paper can be a good idea. For printing brochures, opt for 70-100 pound cover. 13 or 14-point paper is ideal for printing postcards.

• If you are interested in grabbing attention of your target customers, choose glossy paper. The gloss finish will highlight designs of the page, thus attracting the customers.

• If you want your logo designs to possess a subtle appeal, printing them on matte stocks can be a good idea. Designs printed on matte stocks suggest exclusivity and grace.

• To enhance appeal of your printed designs, you can use special coatings, such as UV and aqueous. It will protect your designs as well.

• If your company promotes eco-friendliness, use recycled paper stocks. This will convince your customers that you practice what you preach.

While developing designs for a particular project, decide the type of paper you will use for printing purposes. This will ensure that the designs and paper type complement each other. A smart design looks good on a sleek paper. For subdued designs, on the other hand, matte stocks would be perfect.

If possible, request the printer to provide you with free paper samples. This will help you to envision your designs more quickly and efficiently.

Other Factors in Printing

Apart from the type of paper used, the light under which a person is viewing the printed material can also drastically alter the color tone. It can be added here that supermarkets often opt for this technique for changing color of their displays. Lights alter appearance of meat displays, often providing it with a fresher look.

Before signing any deal, do not forget to request the printer to provide you with a proof. Opting for a hard copy, even for digital proof can be a great idea. Remember that a PDF proof will not show correctly the color of your designs.

To ensure that color of the printed product does not change drastically, consider these tips.

Shapes, forms or lines are significant components of logos. The use of shapes and lines has also an impact on the audience you are targeting. The shapes or lines that your logo design artist includes in the design will help people to understand your brand or company. It is important therefore, to know how these should be used in your business logo design.

SHAPES

1. Use of Circles, Squares or Triangles

You will find companies that use circles in their design. Circles are used in logos to depict continuity, safety and perpetuity. For example, 'LG' and 'GE' both use circular logos. You will also find other numerous brands that use circles in their logos. Circle denotes completeness. It establishes a comprehensive corporate identity.

You can use square shaped logos, if you are in the real estate business, since square denotes home and steadiness. Square also denotes equality. However, be careful if you are using triangles in your design, because a triangle often signifies disagreement. You can also use concentric circles that denote shelter or stability.

2. Use Shapes that Amuse

It is fun to use shapes in your business logo. For example, if your business is related to love or romance, i.e. a dating site, you can make use of lively colored hearts.

You can make your logo interesting by combining different shapes. For example, you can merge a square with a triangle and create an impressive illustration. Such an illustration can be used for businesses that are associated with home oriented services. Say for instance, if you are a home loans provider, or a home designer, you can combine triangles and squares to create your company's logo. However, using such shapes might make your logo too predictable. You can make it interesting by including a catchy tagline that evokes feelings of home and hearth.

3. Be Abstract

To avoid being too predictable, you can opt for distinctive twist in your designs. You can combine shapes and include some abstract elements to lure audiences. Use shapes or symbols that communicate the right blend of feelings, emotions and sentiments to a customer. Sometimes, it is also important to make your audience think, without being predictable. However, your logo should look meaningful and match the theme, or activities of your business.

LINES

1. Similar and Consistent Lines

Lines too have symbolical significance. You can use similar and consistent looking lines to guide your customer's vision towards the name of your company, or its initials. This is generally done in logos that are iconic in nature.

2. Use of Firm Lines

If your business is of a serious nature, you can use firm lines to denote dependability and seriousness. For example, if you are dealing with academic text books, you can include stiff lines in your business logo.

3. Use of Curvy, Curly or Stylish Lines

Use of curvy and stylish looking lines is best for businesses that deal in interior designing, or if you are the owner of a fashion brand.

Many of us have gone through the experience of submitting a particular design for print and gaping at the final product that looks completely different from the original one. In some occasions, the color tone changes drastically. Sometimes, the title gets half deleted.

To avoid such common mishaps, it is important to pay attention to certain factors, before you submit your logo design for print. We provide you with some simple guidelines:

• Pay Attention to Resolution - A commercial printer needs submitted designs to be 300 dpi. If you create a design at 72dpi, the printing department will not be able to utilize the file for printing. As a result, the prepress department will have to resize and stretch the image. There are high chances that resizing and stretching would blur the design and ultimately, damage it.

• Consider the Issue of Bleed – The printing department usually trims off 3mm on every side. Anything that exists outside the original canvas size will be considered as a “bleed”. For this reason, avoid placing any important text or content in this particular area. If necessary, you can readjust the canvas size, but avoid placing anything important in the ‘risk’ zone. Additionally, ensure that the content maintains a minimum 6mm distance from the edge of the canvas. This technique is important for placing the text in the ‘safe’ zone.

• Size - Printers will design size of the files according to your instruction. Unless you specifically request, the printing department will not enlarge or stretch the file.

• Color - For print of your business logo design, two major types of color spaces are usually used. These include RGB (red, green, blue) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Computer monitors use the first type of color space for displaying various items. For printing purposes, the second type of color space is used. Color shifts usually remain invisible in color photos. However, color conversion can have a strong impact on rich colors. Still, in most cases, color shifts are hardly noticeable and have a minor effect.

• Use Black Intelligently - If your design includes solid black zones and content that is over 36 points, opting for Rich Black will be a good idea. This technique will ensure that the color does not end up looking gray. However, for rest of the text, avoid using Rich Black. For thin and small content on the design, avoid using 4-color black. 4-color black is perfect for larger areas. However, using the same on limited areas can mess up the content and can even make it unreadable.

• Fonts - Converting fonts to paths is a great idea. For converting purpose, you can opt for programs, such as FreeHand or Illustrator. The main benefit of using these programs for conversion purposes lies in the fact that you do not have to forward the fonts with the files. After conversion to paths, the content assumes a vector shape and looks similar to its original state. If you avoid converting the fonts to paths, it may interfere with the way you want your design to be seen.

Consider these tips to ensure that the final product looks perfect. All the best!

A logo design is not solely about colors and designs. Catchy slogans do also play a crucial role in promotion of a business. Slogans are phrases that make your brand memorable and also accentuate its quality and standard. Therefore, a catchy tagline is part and parcel of corporate logos to make the message delivered memorable to your target audience.

Designing is not the sole responsibility of a logo designer; a designer should also add a suitable tagline to a corporate logo to match your brand. If taglines are poorly written, it will dampen the impact of your logo, no matter how attractively you design it!

Normally, designers will work with copywriters to come up with catchy taglines. Here are some essential tips for creating enticing taglines for your corporate logo.

1. Make Taglines Short

The shorter, the better! Write something short and snappy. Use not more than three words when you are writing a tagline. For example, if you are creating a tagline for the logo of a famous television channel, a tagline like, “Entertaining the World” is suitable.

2. Capture Audience Attention

Taglines should be created keeping your target audience in mind. Make the subject, style and language of your tagline direct. Make it concise without beating around the bush. Use simple language but be crisp in your approach so that your target users easily understand and appreciate what you have written. Use words that sound professional; you are, after all, representing a corporate brand.

3. Fine-Tune Tagline with the Logo

Ensure that your tagline gels well with the logo. Remember that your tagline should not outdo the prime objective of the logo. Make sure that both the tagline and logo harmonize each other.

4. Be Unique and Original

Create taglines that sound unique and original. Borrowing ideas is not a good idea. Your tagline should represent an idea that is entirely your own. The idea conveyed should be genuine to make the right impact on your customers.

5. Be Optimistic

The tagline of your logo should give out positive vibes to your audience. Remember that your tagline will fail if it communicates any negative message to your target customers.

6. Highlight Benefits

Your tagline should highlight some benefits to your customers. Include some crisp lines to make customers say, “Wow…I am getting this!” For instance, Café Coffee Day says “A lot can happen over coffee”. It piques curiosity, is fun and entices.

7. Use Your Brand Name

Including the brand name in the tagline is important to make it more effective. It will remind the audience of your products and services every time they see your logo with the tagline.

8. Create a Call-to-Action Statement

Create a statement that persuades your customers to purchase your products or avail the services. The statement should be powerful enough to establish you as a brand. Remember that a professionally created statement will make your logo design more dynamic and effective. For example, “Feed a Child” for a social campaign will attract many people.

9. Make it Memorable

The tagline should be created in a way so that whenever customers read your tagline, it reminds them of your brand, products and services.

Logos delight visually but a powerful tagline speaks about your brand to the people!

Fonts can play a critical role in the success of your logo design. Some designers prefer using text-based designs, while others love symbolic designs. One can also come up with logo designs that combine text and symbol. No matter what type of logo you are planning to design, paying attention to the issue of font is important.

More specifically, while selecting font for a design, ensure that it complements the design and image of your company.

Role of fonts in highlighting your business’s image

Most people are aware of the fact that using the right font can help the audience to understand purposes of your business. FedEx, for example, uses sober fonts for highlighting its corporate and serious image.

However, if someone opts for the same fonts for promoting a cartoon company, it will not create the desired impact. For this reason, before selecting a particular font for business logo design, consider the image and purpose of the company. Here are few ways you can compare fonts and logo designs.

• Font ideal for Signature Logos

Fashion labels usually opt for signature logos to highlight their brand. For this type of logo, handwritten fonts are perfect.

• Font perfect for Contemporary Logos

Contemporary logos usually possess a fresh look. They highlight the latest trends in the logo designing industry and have a distinctive appeal. Many companies prefer to use contemporary logos because it signifies that the company stays in touch with latest trends. Additionally, it conveys the message that the company takes its image seriously.

For designing contemporary logos, you can opt for an elegant or stylish font. Avoid anything loud or over-the-top.

• Font suitable for Comic Logos

Comic logos represent fun, humor, and childishness. Companies that specialize in entertaining kids or designing kids wear usually opt for these logos. To highlight the fun element of comic logos, you can use clumsy fonts. Choosing casual fonts for designing comic logos can also be a good idea.

Selecting the right font for a particular logo design is not easy. You will have to experience the process of trial and error, before finally picking out the perfect font.

When a client asks you to design a “symbol only” logo, designing it becomes more challenging than designing a logo using symbols and text. Here are few reasons that explain why designing a “symbol only” logo is a complicated process.

1. Not using the brand name or any other text in the logo design means designing the logo with a piece of graphic that may not be able to inform the target audience about the company or its business. For example, Apple. The half-eaten Apple hardly tells anything to its audience about the company. If it wasn’t for great advertising and many years of market presence, the logo would have faded into oblivion.
2. A logo must look unique. While you have only a few basic shapes to work with, you have to experiment with those shapes and come up with something unique that no other designer has designed before you. This can be challenging.
3. The symbol used in the logo should carry a single message which the target audience should be able to interpret easily. If potential customers misinterpret the design, or don’t get its meaning, the design will contribute little to boost the company’s brand identity.

4.  A “symbol only” logo can put you through a number of copyright issues. It is possible the symbol you have used has already been used by some other company. For example, the logos of Scottish Arts Council and Quark are same, except for their colors. To make sure you don’t copy someone else’s design, you need to check all the patented logos.

5. To make a brand popular, you need to promote their logo. For example, Sony Ericsson’s logo hardly says anything about the company or products it sells, but the logo is easily the most recognizable in the market because of the successful advertising campaigns used to promote it. If your client doesn’t have a budget to market and promote a “symbol only” logo, ask him to steer clear of symbols for logo design

To make a brand popular, you need to promote their logo. For example, Sony Ericsson’s logo hardly says anything about the company or products it sells, but the logo is easily the most recognizable in the market because of the successful advertising campaigns used to promote it. If your client doesn’t have a budget to market and promote a “symbol only” logo, ask him to steer clear of symbols for logo design.

If you want to design a “symbol only” logo, you need to give a lot more attention to details to make sure the design does not match any other existing logo’s design. You should also promote the logo heavily to make your users familiar with your business.