As you move forward in your career, your logo designing skills should be honed as well if you keep practising it. However, to come up with something extraordinary, that would create a striking impression; simply practising is not enough.
Listed below are 5 steps that can help you improve your logo designing skills and create a logo that leaves a lasting impression on the minds of your target audience.
1. Conduct In-depth Research
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Logo design is not about mixing and matching a few colours and making it look pretty. It may sound clichéd but a logo is the face of your brand and thus it should have all the correct elements that would click with the audience. Thus, in-depth research is extremely important. From your client to their brands and their competitors, as a logo designer, you need to keep your game up and see what you can do to come up with a dynamic logo or may improve their existing one.
Thorough research means that you understand the company and the brand and what it does. Similarly, you need to be aware of the competition as well. Research of all the related sources from their website to social media platforms, everything should come under your scrutiny. You must be wondering why to study social media platforms? Well, it is the best place to learn about the targeted audience and what they want from your client.
2. Deep & Probing Questions
If you are working on your logo yourself or you have been asked to improve an existing logo of a brand, the second most important thing after the research is to ask deep and probing questions that would help you create their custom logo. Probe deeply and find out the vision behind the brand and what exactly do the leaders in the company perceive about it.
From the target audience to the ideas for growing the business, you need to ask everything. Ask about the brand’s competition, long-term goals and even if some questions seem irrelevant, it is essential that you ask the questions anyway as it will only add to the improvement in designing a custom logo.
3. Mobile-Oriented
The third most important step when it comes to logo designing or tweaking is; that it should be customized for the mobile phones. Whether you are designing a logo from scratch or improvising an old one, both should be customized according to the requirements of the mobile phones. When you are conducting the research, you will realize that many companies have simplified and flattened their logos to make it easier to see on the mobile screens. From Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft and eBay and many more have adopted this strategy and minimalized their logos.
The reason behind all tech giants adopting this element is that mobile phones have become more popular for online navigation than desktops and laptops and too complex designs can lose their impact on the mini-screens of cell-phones. To keep the logo recognizable, it is of utmost importance to keep the logo identifiable and minimal for the small mobile screen.
4. Step Out from Comfort Zone
Want to phenomenally improve your logo design or polish up your skills to an extraordinary level? Then, the font that you use can make all the difference. A unique and distinctive font can become your brand’s identity and set it apart from the competition. Take the example of the Harry Potter franchise. The unique font that was introduced in the first Harry Potter movie more than twenty years ago is a trademark for the brand. The audience automatically associates that particular font with everything that has to do with HP franchise. New fonts are being introduced every now and then, and you can also find one that really identifies with the brand you are working on.
If you think that you will have to pay for the new fonts, then it is a misconception. With tools like Adobe Illustrator, you can tinker with various font styles without having to spend money on them. Some others even offer trial services before you purchase the actual thing. So, go ahead and experiment with fonts for some inspiration. You don’t have to necessarily spend a lot of money to take advantage of new fonts, either.
5. Study the Maestros
When you go online, there is myriad of logo designs and there are galleries full of it. However, not all these designs are done by gurus in the field. In fact most of them are the creation of students and amateur designers. To get true inspiration, you must study the maestros in the field and only then will you be able to improve your logo design.
When it some to learning, do not compromise; learn from the most phenomenal maestros in the field – the big brand logos. Don’t settle for less than the best when it comes to logo designs and get your inspiration from those who have managed to persist even after the arrival of all the new technology. Whatever you do, you need to remember that when it comes to log design, your targeted audience will never pay attention to its minute details. On the contrary, they will just glance at it for milliseconds and that’s the time you have to make an impression. Keeping your designs minimal yet impactful, it needs to touch a chord with the subconscious human instincts at their most primal level. Whatever you do, always design or improvise the designs keeping the human audience in mind. They are no experts of all the intricacies in your design. They need to connect with the brand on a psychological level with a few milliseconds.
This is what you can see when it comes to the logos of famous brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s or even the tri-petal design of Adidas. Simply put, try to understand the psychology of the audience you are targeting and you will be able to establish yourself as an extraordinary logo designer and improve your logo designs phenomenally.
Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash
