One of the vital steps in building a successful brand for your business is the company logo as this often forms the first impression of your company.

After spending quality time researching and choosing a business name, the logo will be the piece that carves out a memorable part of your business in the customers mind once they start associating your company with the logo. Great logo design is more than just displaying your name in an appealing font.

They say people form an opinion of a company within the first few seconds

Powerful logo design should be strong and balanced without clutter to distract from its message. The following are solid guidelines for inspiring logo design and your branding.

• It should be distinctive and easy to spot at a glance.
• The visuals and imagery should be appropriate for your company.
• It should work in harmony with your company name.
• Your logo should always be created in an legible font.
• And finally, the logo should look great in black and white as well as colour.

These are the basics. During the logo design process, every single part of the process should be carefully thought about and experimented with. For example, did you know that even the font that you choose can help customers form an opinion of the service they may receive at your company?

Colour should also be a major decision regarding your logo. There are many colour theories that prove that colour can seriously affect the viewers desire, trust and willingness to use a particular business.

For example law and financial companies tend to favour strong powerful colours to project trust and stability. Natural health companies favour green to show the vibrant, earthy nature connection.

Choose a logo created by a professional designer that understands the important factors of logo design to fit you with a logo that works for your company and brand. You will be more likely to be remembered and recognised by your existing and potential customers and build confidence in buyers that they are choosing the business that is right for them.

Here are two examples of well known logos to show how a few logo differences can completely change customer perception.

The Innocent Logo

Take Innocent Smoothies as an example. The choice of lower case type, the illustration of the almost crude but simple, child like and friendly character with the halo combined with the phrase ‘little tasty drinks’ in simple English written in lower case should make you feel that this is a business who does not want to come across as bold, serious with a powerful ethos but would rather let its customers feel relaxed in their choosing, knowing that the company seem friendly and inviting! All from looking at the logo.

The Herald Logo

In contrast, the Herald logo has a completely different feel from Innocent. This is defined by the market place where newspaper readers often become loyal to the press that they read every day and the values of the Herald reader differs greatly from Innocent.

Imagine how different the newspaper would look simply by choosing a new font. Your perception of the paper would be altered and this is a perfect example of why fonts are something that should never be seen as an afterthought to accompany a graphic, fonts define your logo and customer expectations.

If you require a logo or feel that your existing logo could do with a makeover from PN Design, be sure to view my portfolio of previous logo designs or view more information about my logo design services.