This article comes courtesy of Mashable and is the first in a series looking closely at logo design, a topic I’m very passionate about.
Logo design is one of the first considerations for a founding team of a new company. It’s also a carefully navigated quagmire for an aging brand that needs a refresh.
We’ve consulted a panel of web design and logo experts about the basics and not-so-basics of creating a great logo for new and not-so-new web-based companies. In this three-part series, we’ll share their insights on trends, hiring designers, typography and more.
Our panel includes UK logo designer Graham Smith, designer and logo design blogger Jacob Cass, and Raj Abhyanker, CEO of Trademarkia, a firm specializing in trademarks and logos.
Read on for their advice, and designers, please share your own experiences and opinions in the comments section.
Biggest Challenges for Startups
Cass says that one of the most difficult aspects of logo creation for startups is finding a logo designer whose work is good and who is still within a startup’s meager budget. If you don’t have a stellar logo designer on your founding team, and if your product needs more than a bare-bones logotype, hiring this kind of talent on a shoestring budget can be a challenge.
Smith echoes this concern, stating that startups’ main challenge is “to not look like they have purposefully spent all their money on coffee and code and have not put aside any funds for things like the logo design and other marketing avenues.
“They of course may have limited funds, but unfortunately this will reflect badly on them regardless. Some of these companies just look lazy and uninterested in how their visual identity might fair with the punters.”
As far as a “lazy” logo goes, Smith cites the “classic Beta mode” as a repeat offender in startup identity, calling it cheap and uninspiring. And, he continues, “A truly dire and unremarkable logo can have some kind of festering negative outcome.”
Also, Cass says startups should should think about “if they need to hire just a logo designer or a ‘brand identity designer,’ who would create a full visual system that represents the brand. It’s also important to remember that your logo is not your brand.”
Smith cautions startups to realize that branding can often be the differentiating factor between two companies with similar products and ideas. “Be cunning; assume that another company might come along with a similar startup idea to yours but specifically have a killer logo and identity. If the cards fall right, they will likely create a bigger splash than the original startup.
“Better to put all your resources on the table at the beginning and stake your whole reputation and own confidence in your idea and come out all guns blazing, so to speak.”
He says Flipboard is an excellent example of a carefully planned identity that was inspiring.
Abhyanker takes a similar approach, saying a large concern for startups is “standing out from the crowd, being distinctive and suggestive of the goods and services offered while serving as a marker to identify the logo owner’s company.”
He also introduced the dual concepts of simplicity and distinction as primary considerations for startups’ logo designs.
“A logo is really the first core message, the identity, that any brand provides to the world. And it has to be a logo that will work not just on a website homepage and on business cards but also as its Twitter or Facebook icon. So, you want it be distinctive and yet simple at the same time.”
Traditional Versus Web-Based Company Logos
Abhyanker makes a salient point about one of the main differences between traditional and web logo design. “The web is constantly changing — and at a much faster rate than the brick and mortar world ever has. When you think of websites from early 2000, they look nothing like the web that we know and experience today.
“This means that the web is constantly being redesigned. Finding a logo that can still be relevant (or not feel outdated) in a matter of years, or even months, when we don’t even know what the web will feel like, seems to be a bit more of a challenge.”
Cass on the other hand, says that other than budgets and timelines, “There really shouldn’t be any difference. The process and fundamental principles of ‘good’ logo design should always stay the same.”
As a longtime logo designer, Smith notes that print logo design used to be the bigger challenge. “Now, he says, “with the sheer variety of desktop and mobile devices, platforms and products, designing a logo or icon for the web generally presents more of a challenge.”
In other words, logos need to work for multiple apps, icons, avatars, favicons and other branded collateral — and of course, traditional print business cards, as well.
And don’t think that the color issues of print design are behind you. “Like traditional print,” Smith warns, “color can easily go awry on the web. Color calibration and profile generation across devices and software can leave many people dizzy, and the ensuing results can look pretty awful. As you would need to ensure that your print-based logo reproduces well in CMYK color, you need to ensure that your web-based logo will resize and adapt to various screen sizes and resolutions with color consistency. Creating icons for the complete range of Apple devices is almost a science and quotable job in itself if you are not used to it.”
