Love your logo: How to choose a logo that suits your business and your brand

The first thing to consider when selecting a logo for your company, even before asking what message you desire to convey, is who are you trying to communicate with. Brand design is, in a sense, an ongoing dialogue with your customers, so identifying who you are striving to communicate with can allow you to better formulate your message.

Jericho Phire of Ipseity Creative, a commercial art and design firm in Cape Girardeau, emphasizes this aspect of logo design.

"Researching your audience, identifying what it is your audience is looking for and comparing your company or business with others that are similar in nature to yours is crucial," Phire says.

Callie Miller of BOLD Marketing in Cape Girardeau echoes a similar message.

"What many business owners struggle to comprehend is that their target demographics very likely don't think or behave the same way they do," she says. "That creates a significant disconnect between a brand's image and message, and its customers. And that disconnect very likely begins with a brand's logo, which is often a prospect's first encounter with a business."

Smiling business people reviewing paperwork in office

Once the audience is known and the intended message to them is formulated, the company is ready for the next step of selecting one of three common logo styles: font-based, illustrative or abstract. Font-based logos use the letters of the company name in the logo design. Illustrative logos denote some attribute or service of the company. Abstract symbols are simply graphic shapes that become tied to a particular brand and receive meaning in that way.

For smaller companies, using something font-based or illustrative is likely the best route to take, as abstract symbols require a lot of marketing to bring the logo to a place where the consumer begins to associate the symbol with the brand and its mission.

Miller also recommends being aware of the limitations of your own comfort zones.

"Business owners (like most of us) gravitate to the familiar and the known, to what they are personally comfortable with. It was true for William Faulkner, and it's true for logo design and brand development: 'Kill your darlings,'" Miller says.

After the selection of the logo style, it is necessary to consider color -- not just because of the meaning a particular color may convey, but also in how the color may affect the reproduction of the logo. You must be sure the color you select jives with the logo and, by extension, the message you are trying to send to the audience, without letting it rule the design.

Phire explains, "Sometimes color letterheads and logos don't always copy well in black and white. And logos are sometimes screen printed on T-shirts for special events. Often those logos are all white or all black on a colored shirt. Therefore, an all-white version and an all-black version of a logo is important. If it looks like crap in black and white or as a single color, then it's not an effective logo design."

One aspect of logo design that would likely elude the novice is the psychological principles that are applied to create a successful logo.

Phire describes these principles simply as "the things our minds subconsciously do when we interact with logos and graphic design in the world around us."

It is perhaps this key part of design that makes the next suggestion so important: hiring a designer.

"Across the marketing industry, experts will tell you that a great logo is timeless, versatile, relevant and memorable. And that's all very true -- but only if the business behind it is all of those things as well. At BOLD, we're focused on making sure the two coincide," Miller says.

Your logo can become one of the most integral parts of your brand, so investing in a designer can be a vital step in ending up with the logo that is right for your company.