5 fundamental principles for a brand new logo

5 fundamental principles for a brand new logo

What makes a logo a perfect one? All the memorable and timeless logos comply with 5 basic rules. In this article we will go through the 5 basic principles of a good logo so that your new company can make a successful start.

The 5 most prominent fundamental principles that you must remember while designing your new logo:

• Simple
• Recognizable
• Timeless
• Versatile
• Appropriate

1. Simple

A good logo is a very simple one. A simple logo ensures high recognition and the logo is memorable and often versatile. Well designed logos have a unique feature in which there are not too many elements added. The power lies in their simplicity and recognition, “Less is more”.

A simplicity does not mean that you simply show the service/product in the logotype. A new restaurant, for example, may not necessarily contain a knife and a fork. A dentist’s logo is not always a mark of a molar. You can name a lot of brands that have simplicity in their logo without having their service/product in the logo. Apple, McDonalds, NS, Coca Cola etc are some good examples.

2. Recognizable

Recognizability actually coincides with simplicity. A simple logo is easy to recognize and does not need to indicate exactly what the company is doing. Paul Rand (Graphic designer of logos including: IBM, UPS, ABC) said this about the design of your logo:

Surprising to many, the subject matter of a logo is of relatively little importance, and even appropriateness of content does not always play a significant role.

This does not imply that appropriateness is undesirable. It merely indicates that a one-to-one relationship between a symbol and what it symbolized is very often impossible to achieve and, under certain conditions, objectionable. Ultimately, the only mandate in the design of logos, it seems, is that they be distinctive, memorable, and clear.

3. Timeless

An effective logo is timeless. In other words, it withstands the test of time. Is your logo still effective in 10 years or 50 years? Trends come and go and we always recommend Elephant Design. Don’t simply follow the competition, which all have a drawn style, but develop your own style that is simple, recognizable and timeless.

4. Versatile

A well designed logo must be versatile in its use. For example, it should be possible to use the logo for online purposes as well as for printing and other applications. It is important that your logo is formatted as a vector graphic so that it is scalable to any size.

You can ask yourself these questions if you are designing a new logo or if you have an idea for a new logo:

• Can you use the logo in one color?
• Is the logo small still recognizable?
• Can you print the logo in a large format?
• Can the logo be used on a dark photo / background?

An easy way to develop a versatile logo is to start by designing the logo in black and white. From the black and white design you are going to add color depth. By means of this approach, the basis of the logo is always versatile.

5. Appropriate

The company logo, appearance and colours must fit in with the company’s needs. So, of course it is good that if the logo should appeal to kids, you should use bright colours and a nice font. The same colours and fonts are of course not desirable when you design a logo for a law firm.

Here we also come back to simplicity. The logo must be appropriate to the brand and does not necessarily have to show what you are doing as a company. 94% of the logos of the largest brands do not show what the company does.