7. Guidelines for logo design

Start with a blank sheet of paper and divide it into three columns. In the first one write adjectives that describe your brand and the benefits it offers. Think of words like:

• modern
• fun
• cheerful
• healthy
• relaxing
• fury
• trustworthy
• fun
• and so on

Let free association help you brainstorm logo ideas.

Go to the second column and write a list or sketch symbols that you think will capture well the essence of your brand and the benefits it offers. They can be abstract or literal , represent an idea or an object. Again, get help from the free ideas association. Nothing is off limits at this point.

Next, take out your paints, your colored pencils or pens and in the third column of the same sheet of paper create some color swatches that reflect the adjectives you used in the first column. For example, if you wrote fun and cheerful, then select colors that you associate with being fun and cheerful. In the same way, if you wrote adjectives like relaxing and healthy, choose colors that you associate with those adjectives.

Take a 15 minute break and then go back to your list.

Circle up to three adjectives from the first column that you think best describe your brand. Circle up to three symbols from the second column that you feel represent the best possible, and finally from column three circle two colors that you think best represent your brand.

Colors in design are a vast subject, but for now this is the way you should think about using color in a good logo design . Whichever color you have chosen as the primary color for your logo, your secondary color should be either a complementary color or an analogous color.

Note: Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are complementary colors , for example blue and orange, while colors that are next to each other on the color wheel are analogous colors .

Use complementary colors if you used adjectives like happy and vibrant to describe your brand, and use analogous colors if you used adjectives like serene, calm or harmonious. Colors like black, white, gray, and brown can work well with both complementary and analogous colors.

• What kind of logo is it? An abstract symbol, an illustrative symbol, a logo based on a font, or a combination of a symbol and a font?
• If the logo is a combination of a symbol and a font, how do the two work together? Does one frame the other in any way? Are they overlapping, stacked, or adjacent?
• Is the logo memorable? if so, what colors, fonts or graphics are being used to make the logo stand out?
• What does the combination of colors, fonts and / or graphics communicate about the brand? Fun, stability, innovation or something else?
• Is the logo relevant to what the organization or company does?

What logo design tips have you learned just by looking at large logos? How can you incorporate the best qualities or ideas of these brands into your own design?

Now is the time to get down to business. We are going to play with 3D logo design. A logo generator is a fun, practical, and low-stress way for beginning designers to try out different logo ideas, to become familiar with making design decisions, and to understand how a logo is created.

Let's say you're creating a logo for a clothing company called The CoatHanger. Just type the name in the bar and select clothing brand from the drop down menu. All templates designed specifically for clothing companies will appear with The CoatHanger name on them.

Browse through the templates and select the one you like best. Don't worry about colors or fonts at this point - just look at the overall design.

When you click on the template of your choice, it will open the Logo Maker. For my example I chose the 3D logo design template that appears here.

You can start anywhere, but we're going to start with the controls on the right and work from the bottom up. we will first select our background color. See Clarify your ideas for logo design . What colors have you chosen for your logo? this is a good time to try them and see which one you like. You can use the color picker to try different shades of the colors you have chosen until you find one that matches your idea. If the background is not going to be part of your logo design, then change it to be white or transparent. For my example I changed the background color to a lavender shade which I find quite feminine.

Moving on from the background settings, let's navigate through the graphics and look for one that comes as close to your ideas as possible from Clarify your ideas for logo design . Keep in mind that you may find a graphic that looks nothing like the ones you circled, but works better than the others for your logo. That's what happened with my example - I was looking for a windblown coat but came across an excellent graphic of a clothespin that I felt captured my "elegant" adjective.

The graphic looked pretty small in my layout, so I clicked and dragged it to a size that I felt works best. This brings me to another great Logo Maker tool - you can rearrange and resize any of the elements and, if you don't like what you've done, you can hit the reset layout button at the top right of the layout. of your logo and start over.

Finally choose a color for your icon. If you have chosen a white or transparent background, now is the time to choose the main color for your graphic. I have chosen white, since I want my graphic to stand out from the lavender background.

Now go to the controls on the left and work from top to bottom. Here you can add text and change the font style and color. Experiment with the available fonts until you find one that you think best represents your adjectives. Clarify your logo design ideas . In my example I decided to keep the existing font that came with this template as I felt it represented my "modern" target without being too cool, but I changed the colors. Next I added the slogan "Fashion and Style" under the name of the business and change the font and its color.

Many beginners believe that experienced designers sit down and come up with hundreds of logo design ideas and come up with the right design in one sitting. This is simply not the case. Good designers evolve through experimentation, patience, and practice. So don't be frustrated if your design doesn't quite work the first time. The beauty of a logo generator and these design guides is that you can play around with it until you have a good design that works for you. Just hit the reset button and start over when you can't continue. This is an alternative layout I came up with by moving things around and changing the background colors.