Complete Guide: Designing A Logo In The Digital Era
Logo design & brand identities define businesses' personalities and brand values, especially in the digital era. Check out these amazing logo design tips!
Logo design & brand identities define personalities and brand values of businesses. Most big companies would even invest huge amount of money for their branding especially their logo. However, standards of logo design have since changed so much in this digital era. There are certain key standards that is recommended to be followed if you want to keep up with the digital trends.
As we know that technologies are keep changing, especially in the past 10 years, logos have been appearing more often in personal devices through online social channels than in public or traditional platforms such as TV, magazines, billboards, etc. Since social channels also have been changing the concept of branding to a much personal level, marketers found these changes as an opportunity to be able to target and interact with customers in more strategic ways. The main strategy is to engage with users across multiple different social channels including video platforms, websites, digital publications, messaging apps and offline channels. But this also creates challenges for logo designers that each channels are different from one another, and how a designer can create 1 logo design that is compatible across all these platforms.
In this article, we are going to cover 9 key points on how to create a logo that is compatible to various platforms in this digital era.
1. Research Your Client’s Business
Research would be the first key point that is important before you start design a logo for your client. You need to have clear understanding of your client’s business by. You need to keep in mind of 5W1H (what, who, when, where, why, how) and keep questioning your client’s profile, such as who is their primary customers, what is the key value the business wants to portray, where the business located, and etc.
2. Keep Your Logo Clean, Clear and Simple
Created by Wik Kee Y | https://www.behance.net/gallery/98634635/FoodWalk
One of the characteristics of a strong & memorable logo design is that the idea is clear. To visualise a clear idea, you need to have a simple design approach and a clean design presentation. No cluttered lines, no more than 2 typefaces, less colour palettes, less graphic elements and less abstract approach. Remember, that less is more.
3. Create an Adaptable
Created by Ahmed Yasin | https://www.behance.net/gallery/94575039/Turkish-Airports-Authority-Corporate-identity
When creating logo design, you should keep in mind that the logo will appear in across multiple different platforms. You have to consider the whole branding in a much bigger picture. You should test and check if your logo is flexible enough when the clients are able to use the logo on various platforms.
4. Design for Mobile
Created by Elizabeth Suhanina | https://www.behance.net/gallery/84287075/Tip-top-Goal-achievement-app
Businesses know the importance of mobile platforms especially in this digital environment. They understand that mobile is a new strategy to communicate with end customers. Because of this, as a designer you have to understand that your logo design should fit across different sizes. You need to test if its looks good on small screens as well as if it’s large prints.
5. Create a Key Message
Created by Allan Peters | https://www.behance.net/gallery/110038765/Loving-All-Peoples
You might be able to design an attractive logo, but if it doesn't have a strong value of a message, your client’s brand can be easily forgotten. Remember that when a logo carries a strong brand message, it becomes a self promotion tool that will last long in people’s mind.
6. Strong Colour Palette
Created by Md Sohel | https://www.behance.net/gallery/105112845/Hoco-brand-identity-H-modern-letter-logo-design
In this digital era, colours with vibrant tones are much more preferred and being used by businesses. The main reason is because it is mostly appear in digital format. In digital screen colours are coded with RGB, so when you were designing the logo, keep in mind to create the colour mainly for digital purposes, and then adjust it for prints.
7. Scalable Logo Using Square Grid
Created by Stanislav Levishchev | https://www.behance.net/gallery/81207145/Treble-Logo-Design
As we know, most of the digital platforms requires us to us a square images to upload for profile pictures. So when you were designing a logo, make sure to use a square art board to create a logo, or maybe you can prepare a secondary logo for the square requirements. Another side notes specially for small logos, you can slightly bold the logo so it is still clear even in small sizes.
8. Reconfigure Your Logo
Created by Stanislav Levishchev | https://www.behance.net/gallery/81207145/Treble-Logo-Design
Businesses may using your logo in various platforms and it involves a wide variety of application and sizes. In other words, your logo design should be flexible in a way to be reconstructed to suit different platforms’ requirements.
9. Use Logo Symbol & Font Combination
Created by Daniel Escudeiro | https://www.behance.net/gallery/102278499/Tatil-Design
There are plenty of logo fonts available online these days and many of them are high quality standards. Before making sure that you pick the right font, you should keep in mind if the font personality suitable with your client’s brand value. You can check our free fonts and see if it fits your needs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, your logo design in digital era should be made available into different resolutions, social media, and other electronic media. Logos’ function for print and digital media are quite different to some extent. So as a designer, i think we should follow what businesses’ needs for a better marketing approach.
