3 Tips for Choosing a Logo

August 24th, 2007 Theresa Shafer

1. Text Treatments: text logos are simple, the company name is always right there. Most high tech logos are text treatments, they are clear and simple. With text logos you have instant impact, customers don’t need to decipher anything. Another benefit of text treatments are logo aspect ratio comes naturally with words. They always seem to work whether you are shrinking or stretching them. Examples are Google, IBM, Intel, and eBay.
2. Icons: symbol logos can be recognized faster, our brains process images quickly than words alone. But they require more  work and $$$ on branding and presence before people have the connection between symbol and company. Examples are Nike’s swoosh, Apple’s apple and Linux’s penguin. Notice these logos have nothing to do with the companies product: they are about being different and being memorable. They are also very simple designs.
3. Keep it Simple:  like many other types of design, the best logo designs are elegantly simple. They shrink, stretch, or twist without losing their intangible emotional resonance. Color may add to the design, but they still look great in black and white. In fact, most logo designers use grayscales to do the initial design, then move it to color. They have to look good on your business card, on literature, and on your website.

We’ve already blogged about how adding a logo to your business cards and website improves your credibility (and makes you more memorable), we used logoworks  and were very pleased with the results.

Entry Filed under: Consulting Business, Startups, Rules of Thumb, tshafer