What Makes an Effective Logo?

One of the most important things you can do in order to better build an awareness of your brand is to have an appealing and recognizable logo. Your logo is, in many ways, the face of your business. It’s on your business cards, your promotional materials, and maybe even tee shirts.
You want people to see your logo and instantly know not only who you are, but what you do. If you can pull off something like this as a small business, you’re already a few steps ahead of your competitors.
But what exactly makes a great logo? We can learn quite a bit from just looking at well-known logos. And this is more than just taking ideas from popular brands; in most cases, these are logos that are designed by people who know how to grab an audience’s attention and help build a brand.
Three key elements in a successful logo are:
Make it Timeless: Think of the “I Love New York” logo. It’s so simple but is one of the most well-known logos there are. This is a timeless logo because it tells a very simple and quick message without using gimmicks. If your company has a message or service that can convey this sort of information easily, you might consider this approach. When you don’t have to rely on many creative factors, your logo stays relevant for a very long time.
Make It Simple: Sure, the example above could be listed here as well. But by simple, think more along the lines of McDonald’s, Nike, or even Apple. These are all very simple one-object logos that don’t even have the name of the company anywhere to be seen. Granted, you truly need to have great brand recognition for this to work, but the simple logo helps, too. People tend to remember simpler logos more so than overly colorful complicated ones.
Make it Creative (But Not Too Much): Think about Apple or Starbucks. These are logos everyone knows but, as logos go, have nothing to do with the product the company represents. The Starbucks logo doesn’t have coffee beans or even a cup of coffee. There’s no computer or anything at all technological about the Apple logo. So think of something that means a lot to you—one single object—and see if there is a way to make it work for your business.
How’s your logo fare when compared to these tips? Are you good to go as you are or should you be thinking about alterations?

 

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing

 

Good points, but also be prepared that someone will hate your logo, no matter what. Also when creating the logo, you should look for competition's, but not the small competition you have, but the large companies you want to become.

 

Nice write up. I would also think you would want it to convey a general sense of the business.

 

Nice write up, thanks. A few more what I have experienced....

1. Avoid those shiny effects ( shadows, gradients )
2. Avoid icons / pictures in logos
3. Keep it in simple text , a highlighted one
4. Make sure your logo highlights more than the navigation menu or other objects on the page near by
5. Use no more than 2 ( 3 in worst ) colors
6. Always make a vector format for the same ( consider other printing formats as well ) who knows when your brand might become big enough to be on cups, shirts and what not ?
7. Avoid tag lines, and keep the logo itself say everything , taglines do help but kind of old now..
8. Stick to what the brand says, this is important
9. Always try at leats 2 variations, may be 3 just in case...