According to the ‘Top 100 Global Brands Scoreboard’ the top 50 brands & logo designs in the world are, in ranking order:
Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, Intel, Nokia, Walt Disney, McDonald’s, Toyota, Marlboro, Mercedes-Benz, Citi, Hewlett-Packard, American Express, Gillette, BMW, Cisco, Louis Vuitton, Honda, Samsung, Dell, Ford, Pepsi, Nescafé, Merrill Lynch, Budweiser, Oracle, Sony, HSBC, Nike, Pfizer, UPS, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Canon, SAP, Goldman Sachs, Google, Kellogg’s, Gap, Apple, Ikea, Novartis, UBS, Siemens, Harley-Davidson, Heinz, MTV, Gucci and Nintendo.
You would think that an analysis of all of these logo designs would give us some good commercial logo design tips…
Well, luckily the website Webson did a bit of an analysis for us…
The % below identifies the percentage of these 50 brands that hold to this view:
- The name does not describe the product sold (94%) (ie. in most cases a logo is used to identify a company, not describe what it does.)
- The by-line tag is not included in the logo (90%)
- The font style is clean and clear (84%)
- The logo design uses one colour only (74%) (white & black not counted as a colour)
- The logo design uses letters only without the symbol (74%)
- The logo design is a made-up name or ACRONYM (72%)
- The logo design is rectangular in shape (66%)
- The logo design is one word only (62%)
- The logo design includes the trademark symbol (54%) and is placed in the top right (48%)
- The name is 6 letters or less (52%)
- The name uses upper & lower case (44%) (excluding ACRONYMS)
- The background is filled and solid. (52%)
- The pronunciation includes three sounds/syllables (44%)
- The predominant colour base is blue (40%)
What does it take to make a great logo?
A great logo tells a story about a brand -- your name, your mission and your principles.
Designing a logo is simple, right? Think again. There's more to crafting a brand's visual identity than just placing a name in a square and calling it a day. Logo designers are in high demand, and it's for good reason — a logo is often a company's first impression, one that can impact a customer's brand perception, purchase decisions and overall attitude toward a product.We live in a society painted with brand logos. Even toddlers who can't yet tie their own shoelaces recognize many logos or are able to deduce what a company sells just by looking at its brandmark.
For those who are about to embark on a brand design journey, or think it's time for their company's visual identity to undergo a face lift, Mashable asked some some design experts to provide tips on creating a great logo.
1. Be unique and clever
A logo is what helps distinguish a brand from its competitors, so it's important that the image stands out from the rest — something many brands struggle with.
"What’s important is to create something that you believe is different from anything already out there,” David Airey, a graphic designer and creator of website Logo Design Lovesays. "It’s highly unlikely (some say impossible) that what you create will be original, but that should be the goal."
Creating a unique design isn't all about avoiding imitation, but also about designing something out-of-the-box. It’s tempting to just throw an industry icon on the page, but it’s important to think creatively. "The Mercedes logo isn’t a car. The Virgin Atlantic logo isn’t an airplane. The Apple logo isn’t a computer," Airey notes in his book.
2. Understand the brand
Yes, a logo is an image, but it’s also an introduction to a brand. The logo must reach a specific audience and when designing, you must keep this in mind. Write down what you think about the brand; perhaps even create a mood board with imagery that reminds you of the brand’s ideology — check out websites like Niice for some inspiration. But be wary of becoming inspired by only aesthetics rather than deeper meaning. "Researching other visual brands can be helpful, but designers need to be careful not to take the inspirations too literally," Harkins says. "Any design work must be original and map directly back to your client’s unique brand attributes."
Is the brand utility-driven or is it more focused on evoking emotion? Is it contemporary or quirky? What does the customer care about, and what does the brand aspire to be? While it is helpful to stay up to date on design trends, it's more vital to stay true to a brand's overarching personality.Here's a quick brand personality evaluation that can help you along the way.
More than anything, know what your logo means. Every logo has some kind of a history, filled with meaning and purpose. Take Apple, for instance — the fruit is missing a "byte." Or Wikipedia, an unfinished globe of puzzle pieces covered with glyphs from different writing systems. Both logos are simple, but have an added twist that circles back to brand ideology.
3. Color is key
When taking the brand’s personality into account, you have to think about every aspect of the image. Bright and bold colors may grab someone's attention, but could also seem brash; muted tones exude sophistication, but could be overlooked. Every color has a different implication and can bring nuance to your message — don't fall into the trap of conveying the wrong message because of a simple brush stroke. The Logo Company released an article "The Science Behind Colors" and an infographic displaying The Psychology of Color in Logo Design. Here’s a quick break-down:
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Red: energetic, sexy, bold
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Orange: creative, friendly, youthful
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Yellow: sunny, inventive, optimism
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Green: growth, organic, instructional
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Blue: professional, medical, tranquil, trustworthy
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Purple: spiritual, wise, evocative
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Black: credible and powerful
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White: simple, clean, pure
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Pink: fun and flirty
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Brown: rural, historical, steady
4. What's in a name?
According to Airey, a logo consists of two elements: A wordmark and a symbol. Before a company can think about solely representing itself with a symbol, a great deal of advertising must be done (think: Starbucks or Mercedes). Some companies choose to stick to Logotype entirely, like Ray-Ban, Coca-Cola and IBM.
5. Keep it easy and flexible
It’s important to have a balanced combination of simple and quirky — you want your logo to be interesting, but you don’t want someone to have to sit and stare, analyzing the logo. A good example is FedEx's logo, a simple Logotype with a twist. The image utilizes negative space to create an arrow which connotes speed, precision and direction. Additionally, the company changes the color of the “Ex” in order to classify the type of shipping. Amazon, too, uses just its name, but also refers to its wide inventory with a small arrow pointing from a → z.
In the digital age, where logos will appear on multiple devices and across social media, you must design something that transcends paper. It must look great on different backgrounds, work for apps, icons, avatars and print, and it must be flexible in size. Take Adidas, a brand that incorporates the same motif of three parallel bars in all of its designs. The visual changes slightly depending on where you see it, but it always contains similar components.
"Finding a logo that can still be relevant (or not feel outdated) in a matter of years, or even months, when we don't even know what the web will feel like, seems to be a bit more of a challenge," Raj Abhyanker, CEO of Trademarkia says. You want to design something that will last through the ages, but you must be open to small iterations along the way. Most, if not all, brands will create a style guide that lays out exactly how the company should present itself across the web -- here are some examples of great design guidelines.
6. Use online resources and tools
Sites like Logomaker and LogoYes are logo design interfaces that are easy-to-use and free