Logo design is the art of making a simple, memorable shorthand for your business that supports your brand values and identity. Because the final product is simple, people often think she process is simple, but it actually takes a lot of work to effectively convey the essence of your business in such a simple package. Here are some common mistakes that inexperienced designers can fall into when designing a logo.
Failing prioritizing readability
Creativity and style are obviously very important in logo design, but it’s important that they don’t come at the expense of readability. A logo’s job is to communicate. If the logo is so stylized that people aren’t sure what the name of the business is, then the design is failing to communicate effectively.
Using confusing visual puns
This point continues off the last one. In the same way that a pun is play on words, a visual pun is a play on visuals. An example might be a cheese delivery service logo that has a van with Swiss cheese wheels. It’s also common to see a graphic element used to replace a letter of the brand name in a logo. Visual puns can be very effective when they are done well, but can cause problems when they are not. This is particularly true when using a visual pun in place of a part of the business name. This is only effective if it is unmistakeable that the visual element is supposed to be a letter and it is completely clear what letter the visual element is standing in for. We need to ask ourselves, “Would someone seeing this logo for the first time understand what is happening? Would they know what the business name is?”
Trying to say it all
A logo doesn’t need to convey every aspect of the business, but it needs to support every aspect. Trying to cover every little thing the business does can result in a messy, overcomplicated design. It can also be limiting because if the business decides to branch out into new markets, those new aspects will be missing. If a business offers drive-up oil changes, quick maintenance, and tire rotation, it can be tempting to use those three elements as the basis of the logo. However, if that business starts offering windshield chip repairs, then that aspect of the business will be conspicuously missing. If the logo focussed on an automotive motif more generally, the design will work as the business grows.
Bring too clever
People love clever logos. For example, the negative space between the E and the X in the FedEx logo makes an arrow and the arrow in the Amazon logo points from A to Z to capture that they sell basically everything. Those are great details, and once people clue in to them, they feel an extra connection to the design. Trying to get too clever can backfire, though, and create a deign that is confusing or fails to effectively convey the brand’s message.
Failing to get outside feedback
We’re all familiar with the famous drawing that can be a duck or a bunny depending on how you look at it, or the drawing where some people see a young woman while others see an old woman. The same can accidentally happen in logo design. There have been many classic examples over the years of major logo releases that are instantly met by people in the public saying “Oh, that looks like [insert something rude/offensive here]” (I won’t go into the rude details here, but two prominent examples that come to mind are the logo for the 2012 London Olympics and Slack’s 2019 logo redesign) and, unfortunately, once people see the logo that way, it’s very hard to un-see it. When we work on a logo design, either as the designer or the client, we view the designs already knowing what we’re trying to show. Taking the time to have a number of people look at the logo designs with fresh eyes and little context can help us spot things that can be seen differently from how we intend.
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My name is Mark Garrison and I’m a graphic designer and illustrator based in Victoria, British Columbia. I have more than 20 years of experience producing creative work in a variety of media and using strategic thinking to build and grow projects.