How To Design A Memorable Logo For A Small Business

When it comes to the various designs and graphics that you will need for your business, it is your logo that will truly become the face of your brand. Your logo will often be the first thing that potential customers encounter when they come across your business. It will shape their first impression of your business, and it will become indelibly associated with your business or brand in the minds of all those who see it.

After all, that is what a good logo is supposed to do. Your logo is meant to become a symbol of your business or brand. By its very nature, it should stick in the mind of the viewer, and ideally, your logo should be instantly recognizable as belonging to your business or brand, regardless of any other context surrounding the logo when it is presented.

Think of some of the most iconic logos – the Twitter blue bird, the Facebook lowercase “f” – these logos are relatively simple in their design, however they are instantly recognizable, and there are few people who could not immediately identify the brand to which each logo belongs.

No, your logo may never reach the iconic status of the Facebook, or Twitter logos, but it should be the very best representation of your own personal brand. In this post, we will take a look at how you can design the most memorable logo for your small business.

Know Your Brand

You can’t design a logo that truly represents your brand until you have a solid concept in your mind of who and what your brand is. The development of a clear brand identity is the crucial first step to any successful logo design.

Your brand identity is the set of essential factors that make your brand unique.

Ask yourself:
● What are your brand values?
● What does your brand accomplish?
● Who does your brand help?
● What is the origin story behind your brand?

While you may not have complete answers to all of these questions, they will help to guide you to develop an idea of exactly who your brand is. It is fine to have free-form, abstract, or partial answers to some or all of these questions, the idea here is to focus a basic concept in your mind of the core image that you would like your brand to portray.

Your brand identity may evolve slightly along with your business, but if you have put genuine effort into this initial exercise, your core brand identity should remain fairly consistent over time.

Go “Window Shopping” For Inspiration

Once you have a solid brand identity in mind, take some time to do a little “window shopping” to get an idea of the different styles, and types of logos that are out there. You can do a Google search for logo designs, browse graphic design inspiration sites like Behance, Logospire, and others

Take a look at a wide variety of logo styles, types, and colours and see which appeals most to you. As you “window shop” the various logo designs you will likely start to see a common theme develop among those designs that appeal to you the most. Take a closer look at what these designs have in common. Are you tending to choose the same style of logo design? Are you drawn to a particular font, colour, or icon? Pay attention to these details to help you narrow down your vision for your own design.

Choose Design Elements That Reflect Your Brand

Now that you have laid the foundation for your basic logo design concept, it is time to start hammering out the critical details.

Make sure that you allot enough time to really analyze the individual design element details that you select for your logo design. These details will wind up being reflected in everything from your business website, to your social media banners, and brand marketing materials, so it is important that each detail is chosen with care.

While the design style, and font should be something that will stand the test of time, the colour that you choose for your logo will likely be the most memorable, and impactful design element of all.

Colour

Colour has a proven effect on our emotions and of course our buying decisions. You will want to choose a colour, or colour theme that represents your brand, and has the desired effect on your customers.

Do you want your brand to portray action, excitement, or fiery passion? Then reds, oranges, and yellows would be a natural choice.

Does your brand reflect a love of nature, environmental values, holistic sensibilities, or a desire to heal or soothe? You may want to consider a logo colour theme based on earthy, calming colours like brown, blue, or green.

As you make your final colour selections, be mindful of the fact that the colours you choose should be able to be reflected over and over again on all of your marketing materials to build brand continuity.

With colour out of the way let’s talk a bit about the other design elements. You will need to decide on a basic logotype. Do you want a stylized text logo that puts your brand name front and center, or do you prefer an image or mascot logo where the icon stands as a visual representation of your brand?

You will also need to consider more minute (but still important) details like the thickness of the lines, the size of the logo, and the style of the font that you would like to use. The majority of these details will be determined by your own personal style preferences and the theme that best fits your brand identity.

DIY vs. Professional Design Execution

The last step in creating a memorable logo for your small business is bringing all of these carefully chosen elements together to execute your final logo design vision. When it comes to creating your logo you can choose to either work through the design steps yourself using one of the DIY design platforms or hire a professional to create your logo to your specifications.

For those who prefer the DIY approach, There are a number of user-friendly graphic design platforms that make it easy for even novice users to create a great-looking logo for little to no cost. However, you may find yourself feeling stifled by the limited design element choices available. On the flip side, you can hire a logo designer through a graphic design service platform to have your logo crafted by a professional. You will pay a higher cost of a professionally designed logo, but you may find that the unique finished product is well worth the expense.

We hope that we have inspired you to get out there and start designing a truly memorable logo for your small business. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!