Everything Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Logo Designs: Logo Design Guide to Startups

A logo design is no less than a tool that helps you communicate your brand message and makes your brand identity known to your target audience. It’s your visual identifier that makes your brand stand out in the crowd and let people know the values upon which you have laid the foundation of your business. Being a startup, you might be already caught up in between a lot of tasks, among the daily hustles, you keep procrastinating the need of getting a logo designed. On the contrary, a logo design is something that you can’t afford turning a blind eye to. After all, it’s the one and only branding assets of yours, which paves the path for the rest of your branding efforts.

Why Should You Get a Professional Logo Design?

According to research: "It takes only 10 seconds for a client to form a first impression."

After you finalize the name of your startup, the next thing that comes to focus is your company logo. Being a startup maybe you are not in a position of hiring even 3 employees, but there is one thing that you can surely do to come across professional, reliable and well-versed in your field is getting your logo design done. To put it differently, your logo is something you can’t cut corners with.

Your logo is a make or break feature of your brand identity, which helps you establish a good first impression. Therefore, everything that goes into a logo must be picked and implemented carefully. If your customer does not like your company logo, they will not proceed further with you for any sort of partnership and collaboration. Needless to say, a good logo design builds the trust factor and the audience feel more confident with your brand, and they do not hesitate to engage with you.

Which Elements Should Your Logo Incorporate? Ø It Should Be Timeless

A logo should always be a timeless piece of your branding that you can keep as your brand asset for years and years to come. A logo which is too trendy and vague, cannot be with you as a timeless emblem. Keep your logo creative at the same time clear and straightforward, or else it will start looking dated after a small period.

• It should be Simple

A logo is designed to serve as your visual identifier, and a visual identifier is supposed to be crisp yet simple. Something that audience can connect with instantly without having any problem with the decoding of the elements that it incorporates. Your logo should be able to define the tone and core message of your brand in the first glance, which is only possible with a straightforward, thoughtful, and professional design.

• It Should Be Versatile

In this digital age, logo designs are not only designed to be on your storefront. Your logo goes from billboards to business cards, to social media as well as all your branding collaterals. A logo, which has intricate 3d details and grids, is not going to be convertible throughout all these media. Therefore, you need to design a logo which looks equally flattering and flawless across all the platforms. Which Type of Logo Do You Need?

Logomark and logotype are two primary forms of logos you can select from, or you can come up with a combination of both for your company logo. Let’s understand the difference between both of these. Logomark is just an identifying mark or symbol, without the brand name mentioned. Nike, Apple, and Shell are a few prominent examples to describe this form of logo. While Logotype refers to the name of the business which is designed uniquely. FedEx, Coca-Cola, and Google are few of the famous examples that are known as iconic logotype logos designed so far.

It is highly recommended to use the brand name in the logo, especially for the startups. Moreover, you can always add up a logo mark version to your identity, or you can also make a combination of both, once you know that your brand has now been developed and you are in a position to be experimental with your custom logo design.

Which Color Should You Use?

Your color selection entirely depends on your industry, brand position and audiences’ preference. Other than that, when it comes to color palette selection, it’s better to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. You will be able to find great ideas and inspiration for what works and what doesn’t in your industry.

For instance, if you have an ecommerce site that sells resort dresses, you would like to select the feminine colors for your logo design. On the other hand, if you run a law firm or any other authoritative business, you would want to keep your logo low-key. Although there is never a hard and fast rule that you need to follow for the color selection, but still the color psychology helps you a lot in choosing a color that fits perfect to your brand’s tone and overall personality.

• Red: Enthusiasm, vitality, fear, power, risk
• Yellow: Warmth, friendliness, positivity
• Blue: Trust, professionalism, consistency
• Black: Luxury, class, sophistication, power
• Green: Nature, peace, freshness, quality
• Purple: feminine, spirituality, ambition, royalty

Which Font Should You Use?

Similar to the color scheme, font selection also depends on your tone and brand identity. The typography you use, speaks volume, and lets others know what kind of company you are. Either you are a fun or lively brand, or you are a brand which is poised and firm, your typography communicates all that you want to convey to your audience.

For instance, if you wish to come across as a contemporary brand, you would want to create a modern logo with Sans Serif typography that reflects the latest trends in the industry. Google, so far, is one of the most high-profile brands in the history who ditched its age-old serifs fonts and embraced the contemporary style with sans-serif.

• Serif Font: The fonts have a little foot at the end of each letter. Luxury, sophistication, professionalism
• Sans Serif: The fonts have smooth edges and lack the line/foot on the end of each letter. Modern, Trendy
• Script Fonts: Fonts are generally curvasive and decorative. Feminine, sophisticated

Key Takeaways

Designing a logo for your startup can be an intimidating task. You need to be careful about each and every element that goes into your company logo. It’s always recommended to hire a professional rather than relying on the cheap logo design services that no doubt get your work done at the lowest price point, but you get the service at the cost of trust, reliability and professional identity. Be very careful of the elements mentioned above, in a nutshell, make sure your logo is scalable, memorable, timeless and convertible across all the media, only then you will be able to maintain a strong brand identity without having a need to make constant tweaks to your logo design.

Karla Norman is a Marketing Expert at Invictus Studio, a custom logo design company in Dallas Texas. She has been in the digital marketing for the past three years and has a good command of content writing, SEO and digital marketing.