A logo is a crucial part of the branding process. It’s what people see first, and it’s what they remember. A logo should be a company’s identity and tell the audience about the company. Logo disasters happen when companies don’t put enough thought into their logos or don’t care about them.
Designing a logo is an important task. It will be the face of your brand, and it will be what people associate with you. A good logo can make a company stand out, while a bad one can make it look unprofessional.
Many ingredients can go into creating a disastrous logo, but you can also do some things to avoid these disasters and make an outstanding logo.
Here are the ingredients to avoid if you want to refrain from making bad logo designs.
1) Excessive Graphic Detailing
The first ingredient you should avoid when designing a logo is too much detail. The best logos are simple, so don’t worry about adding extra elements to your logo because you can’t. If you keep adding vectors, graphics, and concepts to the brand’s logo design, it will become a hodge-podge.
Abstain yourself from using too many graphic elements in one logo because the last thing any brand wants is for its target audience quickly forgets the brand mark.
However, if your audience knows your brand’s name, you can make an elaborate logo. Sometimes it might just work, provided it is attractive and unique. Then again, you need to be careful when over-accessorizing your business logo.
SOLUTION: Simplify your logos, so they’re not too much or too little.
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2) Overabundance of Colors
The second ingredient you should avoid when designing a logo is using too many colors. A multi-colored logo signifies nothing in particular because all the colors have different moods, so it becomes difficult for people to settle on one definition.
This is why it is necessary to make a limited color palette. Instead of having an extensive color scheme with over five hues, stick to fewer colors because it’ll be easier to plan the logo.
Colorful logos are not just for kids. They can promote a company’s culture, values, and personality. However, brands must be careful when using color combinations in their logos.
Nonetheless, the use of color in logos has changed over time. In the past, companies would use one color for their logo design and stick to it for all corporate communications. Nowadays, brands use various colors in their logos to represent different aspects of their brand personality and identity.
It all depends on how the brand wants to portray itself. Once that is decided, it becomes relatively easy to decide what to use and not to use.
SOLUTION: Limit your color scheme or know how to use a more extensive palette.
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3) Inappropriate Typeface
When designing a logo for your company, it is essential to use a font that matches the brand’s image. Many fonts are available online, but they are all not fit for the logo you may be currently making.
Choosing a typeface appropriate for the company and its branding is necessary. This helps the company stand out and makes the brand image more memorable than if there was a wrong font.
The wrong font choice can make or break a logo design. The wrong font can be unprofessional, inappropriate, or just plain ugly. If you’re looking for a great typeface and want some inspiration, check out these famous logos with their corresponding fonts!
When choosing a typeface for your logo, you must consider the audience and the message you are trying to convey. Knowing that fonts are not just a matter of preference is vital. If they are not appropriate, they can create a wrong impression on your audience.
SOLUTION: Choose a befitting, readable, and attractive font.
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4) Lacking Creativity
Nothing in the world can ever look unique or attractive without creativity. That’s a given. Creativity is key to logo designing.
Creativity is important in logo design and a critical factor in determining the success of a brand. The lack of creativity in logos is a problem for the designer and the company that wants to be represented by such a logo.
The lack of creativity has been caused by various factors such as:
- The pressure of deadlines
- The desire for simplicity
- A lack of innovation
- Lack of ideas on what to do next
However, you must ensure the concepts, compositions, and designs are original when being creative. Many designers find inspiration from looking at what has been done before. This is an excellent way to avoid coming up with something too generic.
Creativity is good, but the logo must be one-of-a-kind, or the brand will just be like any other.
SOLUTION: Be creative with both existing and new concepts for unique logos. Here are examples of some smart logos.
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Explore: Want to see more kickass logo ideas? Hop here.
5) Incorporating Clip Arts
Clip arts are not always the best choice for logos because they may not convey the right message about your brand. Clip arts may not be the best option if you want something more professional and sophisticated.
Clip arts are usually considered to be an outdated form of design. Designers often frown upon them because they are not considered a “real” form of design. They are also not used in logos because they don’t have the same level of professionalism as a logo with a custom illustration.
Clip art has been around for centuries, but it’s time to say goodbye to them as they have been replaced with more refined vector graphics.
SOLUTION: Customize simple or elaborate illustrations for flexibility and attractiveness. Here are examples of some creatively illustrated logos.
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6) Cliche and Generic Shapes
Some of the worst logo designs are those that are cliche and generic. These logos do not have any meaning or connection to the brand. It is crucial to get a logo that is unique and creative. This will make it easier for customers to remember your brand.
There are many reasons why a logo might be called cliche or generic. One of them is the shape of the logo. Some logos have too common shapes, such as a circle, triangle, square, or rectangle.
A good logo design will have an original shape and will not use overused shapes. These shapes can be geometric, organic, or abstract. The point is not to add any types of lines and shapes that have been used many times by other brands.
This said, if you do use cliche shapes, there is one benefit. People know the shape and the meaning attached to it, so they might quickly understand what your brand is about. For example, the pictorial is evident if a herbal medicine company uses a pestle and leaves in its logo. On the other hand, using a bitten apple for a tech company is original and exciting.
So when using generic shapes, just remember to be creative in how you use them.
SOLUTION: Be original when working with conventional and unconventional shapes.
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7) Including Raster Images
If you’re a graphic designer, professional, or newbie, you need to know this basic rule of logo designing: never use a raster image! Using an image, graphic, or text that will pixelate if you adjust the size is considered a sin.
The problem with raster images is that they cannot be resized the way vector graphics can be thus, as soon as you play with the size of the image, the quality deteriorates.
When designing befitting marketing, branding, and advertising materials for the brand, designers must make sure not to convert the logo into a raster image because then it’ll be difficult to resize it, position it on colorful backgrounds, and use it on different graphic designs.
SOLUTION: Only use vector graphics to ensure quality is always maintained.
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8) Inconsistency In Logo
The importance of a logo is not lost on designers, which is why they spend so much time coming up with a perfect logo for their clients. This can be done by using proven techniques or by trying new things and experimenting with what works best.
However, there are some instances where logos don’t get the attention they deserve. This is when inconsistency starts to creep in. A good example is when companies have different logos for their marketing materials than they do for their website or social media accounts.
What if Nike’s tick mark was reflected horizontally in some ad campaigns? Well, for one thing, that will look odd, and secondly, you will become curious. However, if Nike sometimes uses the mark on its own and other times adds the brand name, that’s acceptable, right?
When using your brand logo for different channels, it is important to ensure the logo is consistent. This is why many famous brand logos have a complete graphic style guide that instructs people (designers and marketers) on how to use the logo and how not to use it.
If you use the logo inconsistently, it is hard for the audience to recall it. Some famous brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Windows, and Mcdonald’s have been consistent with the way they use their logos. This is why they are among the famous logo designs of the world because they are so recognizable.
SOLUTION: Be consistent with your logo on all channels for all purposes.
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9) Putting Useless Textures
There are some techniques that designers use to touch-up logos. They add the frills and frizz to accentuate the logos more. One such excessive element is texture in logo design.
What is texture? The dictionary defines it as “the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance.” The trick to using texture in design is to be careful with the type of texture and the quantity of texture.
If the trick is done right then, the logo design can look pretty awesome! The grunge effect is the most used texture in logos, but designers can use any other texture depending on the client’s design brief.
SOLUTION: Know the tricks to use texture so the logo looks good.
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10) Senselessness In Logo
The number one thing that a logo must do is make sense. This is the least it can do. An example of a senseless logo is the notorious Uber logo, which had to be changed much quicker than most. People, designers, and logo enthusiasts couldn’t figure out what it represented. It was the most hated logo of that year.
On the other hand, the Amazon logo is spectacular. It’s simple yet meaningful. It’s not silly or stupid. The yellow stroke from the letter “a” to “z” signifies that the eCommerce store has everything available.
Thus, the ingredient to avoid in a logo is senselessness. If your logo is idiotic, people will make fun of it, and countless examples of logo designs have been trolled many times.
SOLUTION: Make sense of your logo, so it has meaning and message.
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It is not easy to make a logo for a brand because many factors need to be considered, such as the brand itself, the target audience, the competition, the trends, and the industry guidelines. When designing a logo, follow some rules and techniques that have helped designers and brands over the years. If you want to deviate from the mundane, know-how and when you can break the rules and conventions. Good Luck!
