Your logo is the foundation on which your business sits. It’s a representation of your company/organization and should be original, timeless and unique. These 7 mistakes are most often made by amateurs, and are mistakes you’ll want to avoid if you choose to design your logo yourself (though I would recommend hiring a professional, wether it’s Clearmark Studios or some other professional).
7. Raster vs. Vector
Any professional graphic designer knows the difference between a raster image and a vector image, and what programs to use to create a professional looking logo: Adobe Illustrator or Coral Draw. The difference between a raster image (aka bitmap, made of pixels, causing the image to blur when enlarged) and a vector image (made of mathematically accurate points) means the difference between having a blurry mess of a logo or a clear professional logo.
6. Color Matters
Your logo design should easily move from one color, to black and white, to full color with no lose of impact, meaning, or representation. You should also pick your colors wisely. Using colors your competitors use may not be the best way to go, remember the goal of a logo is to be timeless, unique and original.
5. Relying on trends
Bevels, glows, swooshes and drop shadows are all overly used and now outdated trends that make your logo look like it belongs in a museum. A well designed logo can with stand the test of time. That means your logo should represent your company; wether you use a drop shadow or a beveled element, everything you do to your logo should have a purpose other than “it’s what’s popular now”.
4. It’s just too complicated
Your logo will display at varying sizes, quite possibly in black and white as well. An overly complex logo will not translate well when shrunk down, and if you’ve create a complete logo through color changes, you’re going to have a hard time translating that to black and white. “Keep it simple stupid” is a cliche for a reason.
3. The wrong typography
Each font has a personality. And it’s a professional graphic designer’s job to choose a typeface (aka font) that has a personality that fits with your company. There are three major mistakes people make when choosing a typeface for their company: 1) Choosing a font because it looks “cool”. You should choose a font for your customers, not for you. This logo is meant to attract your ideal customers. Just because you like that font doesn’t mean it belongs in your logo. 2) Choosing just to choose. Picking the first font that you see or come across will result in a bad typography choice. Even if you have a fantastic icon a bad font choice will make the whole thing look woefully awful. 3) Choosing too many fonts. A pro will tell you, two maybe three fonts at the most. Any more than that and things start to look very crowded, and a little like the circus.
2. Using stock art
Buying stock art inherently goes against the purpose of a logo. A stock image is a pre-created image or graphic that anyone with the right amount of money can buy and use. If someone else decides they like that stock graphic as well there’s nothing stoping them from buying and using that graphic as their logo as well. Now you and someone else have the same logo. This in no way allows you to stand out.
1. Copying another’s logo
Some designer worked hard to create a unique logo for that company. Using the exact logo could be breaking copyright laws, but it also looks bad for your company. If you are using another logo as a reference, make sure it’s only for inspiration and not plagiarism. The purpose of a logo is to reflect and represent your business or organization. Simply copying someone else’s logo will do neither.