Simple logo design ideas

Searching for a simple logo design idea?

This article well help you get a simple logo idea for your business by helping create a 'brief' & find a freelance graphic designer who will realise your ideas and give you an amazing logo!

When we talk about a brand, the first thing that comes to mind is the logo, right? The logo is the most essential part of any brand and also the hardest part to execute as a designer. A logo must be aesthetically pleasing and a reflection of the company’s credibility. Furthermore, a logotype should be in keeping with the company or product it represents and should of course stand out from the crowd. A consumer will normally just take a fleeting glimpse at a logo, and an overly complex mark will make that opportunity redundant.

An amateurish logo design can more likely make your business fail for the following number of reasons.

1. Designed By An Amateur
2. Relies On Trends
3. Uses Raster Images
4. Contains Stock Art
6. Overly Complex
7. Relies On Color For Its Effect
8. Poor Choice Of Font
9. Has Too Many Fonts
10. Possibility of Plagiarism

A logo is of massive importance in creating your companies brand identity, and you should be very careful in selecting one for your business. Don't even think about going for the cheapest option as you will pay at least twice in the long run! Find a local freelance graphic designer who will give you the perfect design, without the agency overheads.

Simple logo designs are often the best way to go with logo design, as it has a much higher chance of being memorable, and simple logos tend to perform better in both large (advertising banners or billboards) and small environments (like on a business card or Facebook profile), as well as color, grayscale and pure black.  However, creating a simple logoisn’t as simple as it sounds.  In fact, reducing an entire concept to a simple, core idea can be a challenging task for anyone and finding logo designers who are masters at this are hard to find—but they are out there!

Searching for a simple logo design idea? Ever wondered from where do the print graphic designers and brand specialists come up with such revealing inspirations for logo design? Do they just pop out of nowhere or is there a process for inventing logo design ideas? The answer is quite intricate.

The conception of a logo starts with the idea to personify a company’s image using graphic design.  There is literally no captivity of thoughts when it comes to designing a logo. So in a nut shell, an ideal logo is a lengthy process. But the question still remains unanswered..…how to get an inspiring idea for a logo design?

So, here are 9 simple sections which if kept in mind, can get you a simple logo design that is a knock out:

1. Your business:

The logo is used to exhibit the fundamental nature of your business. Best logo designs are those that reflect on what you do; what products and services you tend to offer. A general example would be a boarding shop and an investment company. Both of them need a logo design but of completely different forms. It is imperative to comprehend each industry’s basic ‘theme.’ What should a company that sells skate board ware and skate trainers look like? It certainly shouldn't have a dainty calligraphy font!

2. Your target market:

It is vital to establish your target audience before developing a logo. What age bracket will you be targeting? What is the average income level? What’s their gender, their education level, their demographics, their likes and dislikes? Always develop you logo design to meet the criteria of you target audience. Bear in mind, if your logo doesn’t appeal to your intended audience, it’s totally ineffective.

Market research is needed, so have a look at the competition and where they are advertising via the web and printed material—it will give you a good idea about what type of people your target market are or even ask any clients you already have—a series of questions, which will help build a profile.

3. Brainstorm:

Next step before seeking a freelance graphic designer and creating an effective logo design for your business is to brainstorm your heart out. Think of an image that you want your business to have with your clients. Are you serious or cheeky? Are you novel or conventional? What makes you different to the competition?

"It is also important to state that that a logo doesn’t need to show what a business sells or offers as a service. ie. Car logos don’t need to show cars, make up companies don’t need to show faces. The Microsoft Windows logo isn’t a computer screen, nor is the Sony Ericsson logo a mobile phone. A logo is purely for identification and remember that more than 90% of the top 500 logo brands in the world do not describe what the company does."

Also, think about:

• Do you have a ‘tag line’ or specific marketing message you want to include?
• Do you have any images or image ideas you want to incorporate?
• Do you have any color preferences or existing brand colors?
• Do you have any colors that you do not want to use?
• What adjective do you want your logo to project?
• What feeling or message do you want your logo to convey?

Take your time and brainstorm on paper by jotting down all of the words and pictures that jump to mind when you describe your business. Try to 'Google search' other companies with your company name and put the word 'Logo' after your name and see what comes up in searches by clicking the tab to show only 'images'.

There are typically three types of logos:

• Text logo
• Symbol logo
• Text and symbol logo

Another great tactic in the brainstorming stage is to use inspirational websites like Logopond or Carbonmade and search for your sector to get a a feel.

4. Your logo design should be simple

One reason your logo should be simple is that people process an image in their mind more readily than words alone. The other reason that your logo should be "simple" is that the simpler your logo is, the easier it will be for your graphic designer to resize and recolor it for various design purposes. Always plan beyond your initial design purposes for your logo since the ultimate goal of your business is to expand.

5. Find a freelance logo designer:

It is so important to find the right person to provide you with the design you need. It is necessary to contact a few and see some of their past work along with their rates. Then, you can decide on the right freelance graphic designer from there.

If you have done your homework in 1, 2 and 3 above then this process is made easier!

Get yourself on the internet again and do a 'local' search in Google for freelance graphic designers to see who is about and take a look at their portfolios. Do you see any branding you really think they executed well? Who are their clients? If they specialise in working for magazines like Fishermans weekly, the designer may not be for you—if you want a sophisticated modern logo for a 5 star hotel on the Amalfi coast.

The best way to find a freelance graphic designer is to get a recommendation from a friend also in business—usually a smaller one is best as they deal more directly with designers. Getting a recommendation for a freelance graphic designer by a friend who knows about your business is usually a really good reason to look the contact up. Please keep in mind the length of time they have had a good relationship with your friends company and ask what the lead times normally are and how well they communicate.

Before deciding, go with somebody with years of experience of working in an agency environment and has been there and done it—a reputable design agency is the best to look at for.

6. Does your logo stand out?

Now you should be ready to feedback from your fabulous local designer! Choose wisely from what the designer presents to you (hopefully you will have a glittering selection of a handful to choose from). It is essential for you to have a distinctive logo, one that is unlike your competitors and easily recognizable. But bear in mind, it should follow the general theme of the industry you are in.

Having a logo design similar to your competitors will not get you distinguishable from the rest of the pack. Hence it is a nice idea to stay a class apart from your rivals with something more striking and simple—with an outstanding design concept behind it.

Ask yourself; is a logo still effective if:

• Printed on the something the size of a postage stamp?
• Printed in one colour?
• Printed on something as large as a billboard?
• Printed in reverse (ie. light logo on dark background)

7. Is your logo clever?

The logo above is a nice piece of work. The colors are perfect for a photographer, the lettering is modern, the overall feel is contemporary and the stamp works on it's own works well on marketing material and prints. It’s everything that it needs to be.

However, my favorite type of logo design is that which takes the brief one step further. Rather than just making something attractive and on point, other designers look at the design process with a pinch of added intelligence and a perspective that skewed enough to see things differently than the bulk of designers out there practicing.

Mainly a plant hire company, the 'GF' concept was then tilted to give the feel of a piece of machinery scooping up (the company do a lot of foundation digging work) and they client was very happy with the overall logo.

8. Think about fonts:

Making the right font choices for your organization's brand identity is absolutely critical to successfully capturing the image you want to project. The careful choice for fonts is very important, because fonts display emotions and bridge communications with the onlookers.

Good graphic designers know what fonts have evolved over time according to various fashions and know that each has their place in history according to the rules, standards and guidelines at the time.

Just as we get feelings from colours (think reds and burnt oranges for nice warmth) we get feelings from fonts too. Pay attention to the proportions, style, form and shape of the fonts the designer has selected for you too look at. Are they bunched up or are they spaced out, rounded or square. It's especially important in logos to consider the overall form that the typeface gives the logo. Make sure elements align ans the overall concept is balanced.

"Choose a type face that you think will match your work. ie. Oldstyle, Modern, Slab Serif, Sans Serif, Script, Decorative."

Consider the weight of your type. If you are a construction company would you want an elegant and pretty font? No, of course not, you want something that evokes stability and security. Similarly, if you are selling beauty products you don't want thick and heavy font because it just doesn't look right.

9. Is it flexible?

You can use your logo virtually anywhere and under any circumstance to spread its positive message, so you need to be confident that your final decision is going to still be as strong in each appearance.  Here are some tests to see how flexible yours will be:

• Does it work well in black, reversed out and in full color?  Make sure that when you take out the color you don’t lose the concept too
• Does it work well in various sizes? It should work well in both large and small sizes
• Is it adaptable?  It needs to be able to work both horizontally and vertically
• Is it ‘vector-ized’? Logos should be created using vector-based software which gives the ability to save the logo as various file formats and makes it scalable
• Readability? Not only does the logo need to work at various sizes but so does the text

Here are some examples of simple logo designs I have created for my clients.