Choosing the right logo: an essential part of a brand's identity

The logo makes you instantly identifiable

Do I really need one?

For any company or brand that wants to become more visible, the answer is yes: you can hardly do without one. It's a central element of any company's identity, and if you ever want to attract potential customers, you need to give special attention to your visual communication. 

Without a logo, you're basically invisible to consumers as they can't see you among competing brands! But if your high-quality logo is proudly featured on your website, your social media, your products or anything really, you'll leave an impression on the minds of everyone that encounters it. And they will remember your brand the next time they see your logo!

In an increasingly connected society that's dominated by marketing messages of all kinds, the consumer's attention span has become very short. If your logo appeals to them at first glance and helps them better understand your company, you might have already achieved part of the conversion process.

A key element of your graphic identity

Your logo is one of the most important elements of your brand's or company's visual identity. It is part of a visual universe that includes the choice of colors, design elements and highlights, fonts and much more. This identity must be consistent and offer a visual experience that is intrinsically connected to your business and what it stands for.

It's hard to imagine, for example, an accounting company owning a very childish logo sitting side by side with very rich fonts and dull colors. The whole thing simply doesn't make sense: neither in itself, nor when it comes to the professional and trustworthy image the company wishes to inspire.

A brand's graphic identity is more than just its logo, but the logo itself is central and absolutely necessary. Its variants and usage guidelines are often described within the graphic charter, which you absolutely need as part of your visual communication strategy.

What makes a good logo?

A good logo reflects the brand's image

As the first visual display, the logo must carry on its shoulders the weight of catching consumers' attention and faithfully representing the message and values the brand wishes to communicate. If the company is looking to reach a young audience, a minimalist or offbeat logo will have more impact than a serious, sophisticated one. On the other hand, if a company is more focused on luxury and trust, it may be better to avoid bold colors and childlike fonts. The design of a logo cannot be done without taking into consideration the type of products or services the company is selling.

That's why designing a logo usually takes time, because there's a real marketing angle to consider. Let's look at these simple logo designs, provided free of charge by the Canva tool, and consider how they might be applied to real companies:

• The first one uses gentle, playful colors, and features a rainbow that looks as though it was painted. The logo evokes a sense of childhood, which might be appropriate for a kids’ clothing store, as the example implies.
• The second logo was designed to suit a cleaning company, and is a little bit more abstract. The motion of the logo and its small blue stars suggest something clean and shiny.
• The third logo is bold, using a flashy color, and the brand name looks like it's been painted or written by a marker. It's a perfect fit for a fresh and free-spirited make-up brand.

A good logo is eye-catching

It goes without saying that a good logo must be appealing to the brand's future customers. It must be of excellent quality, not too off-putting or even offensive, with a choice of colors that blend well together, and not too complex. The latter is quite important, as we often forget that the logo is frequently used on various types of supports, and must be perfectly understandable in all circumstances.

It's a fine idea to tell a story through your logo, but you have to be careful not to overload it with symbols, images, illustrations, icons and text, or else you would be saturating your customers. It's better to have a simple, minimalist logo that invites discovery than one that is overly complex, and current design trends seem to agree.

A good logo is useful

The best logos are often those that are the most useful: with a single symbol or icon, optimized even in small format, the brand is easily identifiable. And that's 100% what megabrands like Apple and Nike do, with their instantly recognizable logo icons. Their competitors are outmatched.

A good logo must be of high quality on every support, so that it won't be distorted. It may exist in different color versions, which will stand out better against a given background. At our agency, we always design logo variations for our clients, so that they can be rendered on both light, dark or colored backgrounds. In short, it's important to think about the various uses your logo could have in the early stages of its design.

A good logo makes you stand out from the competition

The trick to a good logo is to find the right balance between sticking to your core and standing out. To do this, it's never a bad idea to take a look at what your competitors are doing, so as to understand what kind of logo the public is used to. However, it should never be about copying anyone else! It should only help you going one step further to making your logo truly unique. Some ideas would be like incorporating an element from your company's history; creating a mascot to be used in your all your communications; giving your logo a more digitized dimension; or breaking away from the color codes usually used by competing brands.

How should you create your logo?

Design it yourself to save money

Designing your own logo to reduce the cost may seem like a good idea, but unless you've got solid graphic design skills, we strongly advise against it. After all, simply having the right idea for your logo is not more than a good start. You need to be able to apply it by designing, assembling and drawing the logo, and adapting it to formats compatible with all your supports. You need to manage spacing, colors, transparency, formats, readability and the different variations you'll need.

Many tools to help you create your logo have emerged in recent years, and although they may seem free, their more advanced features usually require a monthly subscription. This is true of Canva, to name but the most popular of them. Moreover, these tools do not offer advice, but simply propose examples that you can then adapt to your needs.

Choose a digital agency to create your logo

When creating a new logo or redesigning an existing one, we advise you to work with a graphic design professional, such as a digital agency or a freelancer. Not only can an agency adapt your logo to your style, your history and your needs, it can also conceive your whole graphic identity for you, which can then be applied to your website, your social networks or your overall marketing supports. Choosing a professional for your logo is also the best way to ensure that your logo is of the highest quality, easy to read on all formats and unique.

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