Logo Design Guidelines

Hello world! My name is Mike Ploger and here at Visme, we want to help you take the proper steps in brainstorming the perfect logo design.

First impressions are everything. For people, this likely starts with our appearance. You likely made an initial judgement on me just based on my hair color, or my black Visme polo.

Online, first impressions come from our social media profile pictures. What’s that one picture that you’re okay with the entire world seeing? Now, for companies, a first impression is often made from a logo.

Yes, a simple image can either direct an individual towards or away from an entire company, just like pictures do with people. The average person might not realize it, but logos are also representations of what a brand stands for.

Everything from their values to their mission, to their story. This is why it’s crucial to have the right logo for your brand.

So where do you begin? Don’t fret. In this video. I’ll give you some ideas to help you realize your perfect logo. Let’s get started.

1. How To Brainstorm Logo Ideas

Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm. I cannot say it enough and while it seems so obvious and easy, I have a couple pieces of advice to ensure you’re making the most of your time.

Timing is Everything

First, find the right time to sit down and let your creative juices flow. For me, it’s often right when I put my head on a pillow to close my eyes and go to sleep. For others, it might be when you are on your way to work with a coffee in hand.

Let it Rip

Then, whenever you’re feeling the most creative, let it rip. Do your best to stay focused and avoid distraction. Brainstorming can often lead to a chain reaction. Once an initial idea comes to mind, more will start flooding in.

Write (or Type) Everything Down

And hey! Don’t just let your ideas hang out in your head. Put your thoughts to paper. Whether a brilliant idea or something that you’re a little hesitant about, making note of all of your ideas will come in handy later on down the road.

Let Your Ideas Marinate

And lastly, when you’re all tuckered out from your brainstorm session, let your ideas marinate. Get away from it for at least 24 hours and then revisit your ideas.

You’ll have fresh eyes and this will help you decide what will or will not work when it comes to the branding portion of your brainstorm.

2. Get On Brand

A challenge for any company is determining its brand. What’s the story? What are the goals moving forward? Is there a mission statement? What does your brand stand for?

These are all crucial questions to answer when deciding on a logo that resonates with your brand. It’s okay if you don’t have the answers to these questions just yet, because after all, that is what I’m here for. So I have 3 easy steps to help you get on brand.

A is for Adjectives

First, find a list of adjectives that you feel best describe your brand. Maybe your brand is delicate, mature or unique and original. Write a minimum of twenty-five adjectives to start before narrowing it down to the five that you feel fit best.

Perception

Next, write down how you want people to feel about your brand. Maybe you want others to see your brand as fearless or dependable or adaptive. Create the ideal perception for your brand.

It’s All About Feelings

And lastly for getting brand, what emotions do you want to instill in others from your logo? Should they be excited? Should they feel a sense of calmness? Maybe you want them to feel all warm inside.

Whatever the case may be, this will help shape your design later on.

3. Create An Inspiration Board

Now that you know the feelings that you want to exude, create an inspiration board. Like Pinterest? You might be asking yourself, and my answer to that is yes. It’s just like Pinterest.

Find designs, colors, fonts, images, styles, anything in the design world that grabs your attention and put all those inspirations into one place like on a physical poster board. So later, you can identify trends that you like the most.

4. Types Of Logos

As you’re looking for inspiration, keep in mind if you like an image-based logo, text-based logo or a combination of the two. There are seven different types of logos, each emphasizing fonts, colors and styles just a little bit differently.

There’s lettermark or monogram logos, and some of the more famous lettermark logos include HBO, CNN and a personal favorite of mine, KFC.

A second option is wordmarks or logotypes. These are quite similar to lettermark logos, except these logos focus on the name alone as the companies have distinct names.

Several social media companies use pictures and logo symbols, and these are most often used by established companies who are instantly recognizable.

Abstract logos can be completely unique to your brand. Think of Pepsi. I have no idea what their logo is exactly, but I do instantly recognize the brand the second I see the logo. Mission accomplished, and a job well done.

Maybe you have a mascot associated with your brand. If so, why not make the mascot your logo? They’re recognizable and fun! Think Pringles, Kool-Aid or Mr. Peanut from Planters.

The combination mark logos are exactly as they sound. Take the name of a company, add an image to it and you have the combination mark logo.

And the last logotype that we have is the emblem. These are much more traditional, and they’re often used by schools or massive organizations such as Harvard and the National Hockey League.

Three Aspects

There’s three aspects of your logo that you want to carefully consider. The font, the color and the style. The typography that you choose can help reinforce your brand’s story. Make sure that the font that you choose matches the adjectives you used to describe your brand.

When you look at your board, are there particular colors that you favorited more than others? Maybe you like bright reds and blues, or maybe you often picked from the greyscale. The colors you choose can help determine how you’re perceived.

Lastly, what style trends do you see on your board? Vintage looks? A floral style? Maybe hard lines and a more modern look? Make sure the styles you liked factor into your design.

5. The Final Steps

Alright, you’re in the home stretch. Once you’ve developed some ideas, invite some others into your designs to add perspective. They could be family or friends, previous clients, mentors, you name it.

Find someone that you trust and get a second opinion. Then take a look at what other logos look like in the same field. This can help draw inspiration or it could show you what you don’t like. Just whatever you do, don’t steal other people’s designs.

Another thing you can do is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Just like when analyzing their feelings, try to put yourself into their minds. Do you like your logo then?

And lastly, the final step in the brainstorm extravaganza is to not forget the end game. Where do you see your logo going? On the website? On business cards? In front of a building? Soon your logo will be much bigger than a thumbnail on a screen or a doodle on a piece of paper.

Okay, it’s time to stop watching me, clear yourself from distraction and submerge yourself deep into your own thoughts.

And hey! Once you nail down an idea, look no further than with Visme to help the design process take flight. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel to see how we can help you and your design life. We’re always creating new content just to help you.

Thank you so much for watching and good luck brainstorming. For now, I’m Mike Ploger with Visme, helping you Make Information Beautiful.