5/5 Logo Design Tips for Small Business Branding

Think of a situation that you need to brand your business or product without having a logo, it is merely impossible. I have never seen any brand in my life without a logo. Logo not only gives recognition to your product but also provides instant and powerful brand image of your business to the customer mind.

A brand logo must be the clear cut message about the company or product, like if we take the example of Nike ‘swoosh’ it gives the sign of excellence in customer’s perception and makes the clothing designer unique and unforgettable among the other clothing experts.

Designing a logo is not an easy processes and of course branding is the thing which is a continuous process before and after logo designing.

Complete understanding and interaction between business owner and a logo designer is obligatory for defining and designing the powerful brand identity. Thus, both should do their work with complete thoughtfulness and care. Here are few tips for both the parties that could help in designing the perfect brand identity.

Guidelines for Business Owners:

If you are a running business owner or going to start a new one, you must be thinking to have a logo or redesigning, but before contacting any logo design firm you first need to do some home work to get a best brand identity for you business. The following few points would help:

- Mission, Vision, Goal, and Objectives

You should be clear about your mission, vision, goal and objectives before going to a logo designer. Your logo must portray all the value you have for your brand, and also signify the mission and goals you have.

- Target Audience

Analysis of your target audience is one of the main objectives you should consider before designing a logo. Your logo should comprise of those elements that can attract your target audience. Like for example you make products for children, you first imagine what my logo should contain that can attract potential customers and give my brand recognition as a children’s products making company.

- Perception of Logo

Now you can think and make an image inside your mind that how your logo should look like. What type of shape it will have, what color would best describe your company and brand and what type of fonts would be suitable for portraying the true message to your audience. Additionally, you can focus on imagining the tagline and images you may inscribed in the logo for better brand strategy.

- Clear Communication

Your logo need to be clear in communicating the right message of your brand. A logo should not have ambiguity and is not crowded with unnecessary elements.

- Budgeting

Finally, you can estimate your budget and search the market for suitable logo designing firm. A suitable logo designing company would be low in price but high in quality and also they would be able to process your order on time with accurate design at first round.

Guidelines for Designers:

After delivering all thoughts by business owner, work of the designer starts. A designer must focus and brainstorm about the things which were told by the business owner and make imagery in mind and on a piece of paper. The following lines will surely help the logo designer for designing a best logo for SMEs.

- Simplicity

Simplicity is the key for extraordinary logo design. World most powerful brands and well recognized logos are simple. The reason is that a simple logo can instantly make place in the mind of people because of its easy understanding. So the designer should focus on designing simple logo for better compliments.

- Colors

Colors play vital role in the logo design. Designers are advised not use more than three colors in a logo for better recognition and quality. Also every company has its own brand color; using corporate color in a logo is the best practice.

- Typography

Different typography and letterform are used for different purposes. A good logo has those fonts which accurately describes the nature of the business. There are lots of options but the font you select should directly depict the message a logo want to portray.

- Compatibility

You cannot neglect the factor of compatibility of the logo on different objects. Many companies use their logos for printing on different objects like websites, banners, promotional material etc. so you need to test the logo for compatibility before delivery. One other thing is that a logo should look good and compatible in black and white as well.

- File formats

Usually logos are designed in Vector format for printing and Raster format for web publishing. But it is better for you to provide a logo in maximum formats like .psd (photoshop-file), .gif (graphic interchange format), .jpg (joint photographic group), .tiff (tagged image file format) and .png (portable network graphics).