Top 5 principles of effective logo design

There have been numerous creative logo design showcases, logo design resources and logo design tutorials posted across the Web. While these help you to create a powerful toolbox for your logo designs, first you need to gain a solid understanding of what makes a logo design good and what you need to consider before starting.

A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic and simple in form, and it conveys the owner’s intended message. A concept or “meaning” is usually behind an effective logo, and it communicates the intended message. A logo should be able to be printed at any size and, in most cases, be effective without color. A great logo essentially boils down to two things: great concept and great execution.

You should follow the five principles below to ensure that your design meets all of these criteria:

Simple

Simplicity makes a logo design easily recognizable, versatile and memorable. Good logos feature something unexpected or unique, without being “overdrawn.

Memorable

An effective logo design should be memorable, which is achieved by keeping it simple yet appropriate.

Timeless

An effective logo should be timeless. Will yours stand the test of time? Will it still be effective in 10, 20 or 50 years?

Versatile

An effective logo works across a variety of media and applications. For this reason, logos should be designed in vector format, to ensure that they scale to any size. Ask yourself, is your logo still effective if it is printed

Appropriate

How you “position” the logo should be appropriate for its intended audience. For example, a child-like font and color scheme would be appropriate for a logo for a children’s toy store, not so much for a law firm.