Articles & Tutorials by Scratchmedia,
London web designers
A
name, symbol or trademark of a company
or organization




Text
Illustration with company’s name on or around
the illustration
Symbol
A combination of the above
 Goal
is to project the company’s intended
image
 People
process an image more readily than
words alone.
 Simple and direct
 Give brand name recognition and add visual
appeal
 Text
Logos—different fonts convey different
impressions on the audience



Thick font—strength and power
Script font—elegance and austerity
Slanted typeface—conveys movement
 Symbol
Logos—use an image to convey an
actual or abstract representation of a
business



Less Direct
Take on a company name
Entirely new symbolic meaning—Nike swoosh,
McDonalds golden arches
A
brief amount of text can compliment and
clarify the symbol
 Financial
or legal institution—conservative in
design and color (navy, maroon, dark teal)
 Artist
or design company—more abstract,
contemporary
 People
process an image in their mind more
readily than words alone
 Easier to resize and recolor for various design
purposes
 Need various logo sizes
 Need a web version (72 ppi)
 Need a print version (300 ppi)
 A black-and-white version
 A color version
 When
people see your logo, you want them
to think of your company and no one else!
 Important not to violate any copyrights or
trademarks of other companies.
 A logo is one of the simplest ways to make a
brand name recognition impact.
http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/logos1.html
 In
order for a logo to be visually effective, it
must exhibit certain related fundamental
design characteristics:
 Shape—recognizable
 Presence—fills available space
 Weight—bold
 Contrast—distinct edges
This article describes how to employ these
simple characteristics to create a strong
logo, using real-world examples.
A
distinctive logo (or icon) has a recognizable
shape, so that it is still recognizable from its
outline. Your brain loves to use shape to
identify things, because it can do it very
quickly. (Note: this is also the main reason
why white space is important).
 What gives a logo distinctiveness? The outline
should be simple, but not too simple, and
clear. Also, meaningful elements should be
clearly differentiated, with the use of white
space where required.
 Try the squint test on the following logos...
No matter how you treat the
Apple logo, its strong outline
shape is unmistakable.
Lotus's unique shape works very well, set
in a circle of contrasting color. The other
meaningful shapes (word and letterform) fit nicely inside the shape, with just
enough clear space to keep the elements
sharp.
At small scale, this logo fails in several ways. One problem is
that the shape is made of a combination of thick and thin
elements. On the squint test, thinner elements are the first
to disappear, so the remaining shape has to be bold and
clear. This shape is not bold enough, due to: a lack of
'integrity in a solid form; insufficient white space between
elements; drop shadow adding visual 'dirt'.
This logo also has inconsistent weight,
employing thick and very thin sections
together. Ignoring those, the remaining central
shape is nondescript. The image is too busy,
made up of several adjacent planes that don't
have enough contrast to carry weight.
Your logo has good presence if it fills much of
the available space with shapes that carry
meaning (e.g. words, recognizable symbols).
This makes it bolder and clearer, and hence
more recognizable. The more space you fill
with elements that don't either help
recognition or add meaning, the less
presence your logo will have.
See how much of the rectangles they
occupy are filled by these 2 logos. The
City Hall records logo is even bigger
than its bounds.
The words make up very little of this logo, only
around 13% of the area. The ellipse shape is
very common, and unrecognizable on its own.
Note how the font used is too bold to be clear
to read. The only strength of this logo is its
bold color.
The key elements "FTL" are too weak to
draw the focus. The FTL letters are lacking
white space to differentiate them and
suggest that they are significant. The
strongest forms are the spiral line and the
dark oval, but neither is meaningful.
 Good
weight means that a logo (or icon or
logotype) does not rely on fine (slim or light)
features in order to be recognizable. If a logo
is bold, it can be effective in more
environments. The best logos have a weight
of presence are recognizable when viewed
alongside other strong images.
 The
use of color is vital to getting a clear,
bold logo or icon. Too many colors,
gradients, 3-d effects and complex patterns
can be detrimental to your logo's weight.
 Tip: Try to use as few different colors as
possible.
Remember, the more colors a logo has, the
harder it is to reproduce in different
formats.
 Tip: Avoid gratuitous 3-D effects - your logo
must work without them.
In IBM's logo, the horizontal lines are a
secondary feature to the main shape. The
logo is still recognizable without them.
 Strong
weight, color and shape make
Dell's logo recognizable.
 The
text is way too light, as is the other
visual clue (the palette shape). The 3-d
emboss effect on the text also reduces
contrast and readability. What has a farm got
to do with a painter's palette?
 Contrast
aids shape-recognition by making
the edges between elements clearer. Good
logos (and icons) have lots of contrast on the
edges of meaningful visual elements.
 The squint test is great for checking
contrast. Also consider that users may be
colorblind. Another helpful test is to try
desaturating your logo in a graphics
application, and check whether it is still
clear and recognizable.
 (See
also all good logos above).
The RockShox logo uses both color-on-white
and inverse (light-on-dark) contrast
together, to good effect. Great presence
and strong colors make this impactful and
highly recognizable.
 The
McDonald's logo has less tonal
contrast, but the perceived contrast
between strong, flat colors makes the
shapes clear. Note the clear space
around the text.
 The
logo shape behind the text is too light to
see clearly. Also, the important "venture
capital" text is too weak in light grey. On the
squint test, you are quickly left with only the
strong single word "Mobius", which may not
be meaningful.
 Text
has too little edge contrast, as it's less
bright than the highlight from the 3d effect.
 Text
is too thin for so little contrast against
background.
 The
End