Have you ever wondered what sets a great logo apart? Most of the time, you see the finished product of a logo design, but creating a beautiful logo is a long, thoughtful process of getting to know the heart of your biz and your dream clients. Each element — from the colour story down to your fonts — is intentionally chosen to tell your story and reflect your brand’s personality. Today, we’re delving deep into the anatomy of a great logo and what sets it apart, from choosing the perfect colour palette to fonts that form a positive impression of your brand.

Why Is a Logo So Important?

Logo design is all about storytelling: it represents who you are and what you stand for to help clients and customers form an authentic connection with your brand. In a digital world where visual is king 👑, your logo is the face of your brand and one of the first things your customer recognizes about you. 

Think about the brands you interact with daily: chances are, you instantly know where to pull in the Starbucks drive-through because of the green logo and white Siren and can imagine the Coca-Cola logo without even having a can in front of you. All of this considered, an effective logo is essential for cultivating a strong, memorable and recognizable brand identity for your small business that resonates with your dream clients.

Before the Logo Design

Defining Your Brand Personality

When it comes to crafting the perfect logo, you’ll want to start by defining your brand personality: the attributes and characteristics of your brand! Maybe your small business is elegant, gives off a more carefree, creative feel or is built on thoughtfulness, loyalty and trust. No matter what it is, defining your brand personality is the first step in crafting a great logo — and should be done before you even begin sketching out your logo design!

Who is your Ideal Client?

Once you’ve defined your brand personality, you want to make sure it aligns with your ideal client. Think about who your dream customer is and what they value: reflect on their lifestyle, their career, what problems/challenges they’re facing and what they look for when choosing a brand to support. Being familiar with your dream client will help you go into your logo design knowing how to appeal to your customers and craft a positive impression of your brand that aligns with your ideal client’s values, lifestyle and desires.

The Anatomy of a Great Logo

Now that you’ve defined your brand personality and are familiar with your dream client, a great logo design seeks to achieve alignment between your personality and your dream client’s values, needs, lifestyle and desires to create a sense of loyalty, credibility and memorable brand identity. Logo design is all about storytelling and is thoughtfully crafted to appeal to your dream client. Here is what goes into crafting a great logo!

The Colour Story

In the world of colour psychology, each colour affects how your consumer perceives your brand. In fact, colour is so important to your brand identity that 62-90% of customers’ first impressions are based on colour alone! Therefore, your colour story is a key component of creating a positive perception of your biz, resonating with your dream clients and evoking an emotional connection to your products or services. Colour -> emotional response -> drives consumer behaviour.

Choosing the Right Hue

A great logo design intentionally chooses colours to communicate your brand’s values and create a positive emotional response from your dream client, whether you want to convey a sense of playfulness, trust, loyalty, creativity or friendliness! Of course, we all have our unique perceptions of what different colours mean to us, and there is room for subjectivity, but in general, each colour has an overarching feeling or mood associated with its hue. Overall, it’s best to choose colours that feel authentic to you and your biz, align with your brand personality and appeal to your target audience!

What Your Brand Colours Say About You

1. Pink: nurturing, soft, warm, sweet, playful

2. Red: powerful, passionate, energetic, excited, strong

3. Orange: friendly, energetic, lively, courageous, creative

4. Yellow: optimistic, friendly, happy, cheerful

5. Brown: earthy, authentic, warm, reliable, serious

6. Blue: trustworthy, loyal, logical, intuitive

7. Purple: spiritual, imaginative, wise, authentic, quality-driven

8. Green: natural, nurturing, kind, balanced, calm

9. Gray: timeless, neutral, reliable, intelligent 

10. Black: powerful, sophisticated, glamorous, elegant

11. White: sincere, pure, simple, peaceful

What’s Your Type? Finding The Right Fonts

Along with colour, fonts are an important component of what makes a great logo. A logo designer will choose fonts that communicate your personality and resonate with your ideal audience. Similar to colour psychology, brand font psychology studies how different typefaces influence consumer behaviour and perceptions of your brand.

Why Fonts Are Important in Logo Design

It takes 5 to 7 impressions for your dream client to remember your brand — and your fonts are key to building a consistent, memorable brand identity! The way text is written matters: your typography changes the perception of your brand. If you don’t believe us, then picture our website header written in comic sans. You would probably perceive us as less professional or credible — showing just how powerful typography is in influencing what we think of a brand (and how likely we are to work with them or make a purchase from them).

What Your Brand Fonts Say About You

1. Serifs: established, trustworthy, timeless, classic, reliable

2. Sans serifs: modern, engaging, honest, sensible, forward-thinking

4. Script fonts: elegant, creative, thoughtful, personal, feeling-driven

5. Modern typography: unique, distinct, intelligent, innovative

6. Decorative/display fonts: unique, casual, fun 

The Details: Telling the Story of Your Brand

At its core, logo design is all about storytelling. Your logo is the face of your brand helping you create a consistent, memorable and authentic identity that resonates with your dream clients and customers.

Apart from your fonts and colours, graphics and details make all the difference in crafting a unique logo design that reflects the heart and soul of your biz. Your logo can pay homage to the name of your brand, what you create, your tagline and so much more! Your main logo, alternative logos and submarks offer room for creativity when it comes to making your brand stand out.

Examples

Our logo incorporates the monarch butterfly as a symbol of how we help creative entrepreneurs and small business owners take flight, the transformation our clients undergo and the story of how we began. 

When working with our incredible clients on their branding, we love incorporating unique details that reflect their journey. For example, our recent logo design for modern calligraphy studio Karson & Co. incorporates a calligraphy pen to reflect Karson’s dedication to the art of hand-lettering. For Blackbird Photography, these blackbird sketches were the perfect complement to the brand’s heirloom imagery.

Versatility

When the elements above come together — from the colours down to the fonts and graphic details — they work harmoniously to create a logo design that is well-balanced, thoughtful, versatile and simple enough to be used across platforms and mediums. 

Designing Your Logo for Use Across Platforms

A great logo must be used consistently and effectively. That means that your logo needs to be designed for use across platforms, from your print materials down to your profile pic. To do this, a great logo design:

1. Avoids too much complexity. Otherwise, its details will get muddled when it is sized down!

2. Effectively uses white space so your logo stands out and doesn’t look cluttered. This is especially important when it is being used in a smaller capacity, including your Instagram profile picture!

3. Can scale up or down easily. A brand designer equips you with guidelines for sizing your logo up and down for use across platforms without sacrificing effectiveness!

4. Moves beyond just a primary logo, and includes logo variations, submarks and alternative logos. This helps you to create a consistent brand image, reflect your personality and achieve versatility in your design!

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Do you need help creating a logo that tells your small business’s story and connects meaningfully with your ideal client? We’re a boutique branding studio that specializes in storytelling-driven branding and web design for creative entrepreneurs and small businesses. Head here to book a free discovery call with us to start creating a beautiful brand that leaves lasting impressions!