Logos are important when it comes to establishing a company’s presence and are one of the core elements when creating the branding for a new business.

When it comes to commissioning a logo for your business, it is important to understand what a logo’s purpose is, the thought process behind creating a logo, and how your input can help shape the results.

Why do we need a logo for our business?

A logo is a piece of imagery that allows a company to build brand recognition in the public eye through its inception. A logo is usually the very first thing a potential customer sees when they start their brand journey and should be the most recognisable part of a brand.

What to consider when commissioning a logo

When setting a brief with a logo designer, it is important to express what you want the logo to achieve for your business. What key messaging should your logo have? What feeling do you want the logo to convey? Are there any specific design elements or colours that you wish to include or avoid? Do you need a strapline?

This will help both you and your logo designer to better understand the aims and design features that your logo should incorporate.

What should logo designers consider when creating your logo?

There are many aspects to consider, such as recognition (how recognisable/memorable is the logo?), scalability (how does the logo work when enlarged or shrunk?), legibility (understanding what the logo is trying to communicate), competitor analysis and so forth.

Creativity is perhaps the most taxing of the design process; establishing a high level of creativity within a logo is important and sets the tone for all those who see it.

But none of these considerations can be achieved without clear communication between the client and the designer throughout the briefing process, establishing messaging, and engaging in productive discourse to achieve decisive critical thinking. This critical thinking is key to producing streamlined and effective results in a timely manner.

How to apply critical thinking to your logo choices

Throughout the design process, you should be presented with a variety of logo designs to review. This allows you to be involved in the design process as well as helping the logo designer to better understand your logo needs.

For many businesses, providing feedback on design work may be something they have no experience with – but critical thinking can help.

Think about what parts of the design draw your focus and ask yourself why that is? Perhaps it’s the shape or the colours, or maybe it reminds you of another design that you have seen before. This style of critical thinking will allow you to better understand the designs presented and why they do or don’t work.

Additionally, ask yourself what deeper meaning can be drawn from these points or even from the whole design, as there are both psychological and metaphorical aspects to logos. Humans are highly perceptive by nature when it comes to visual stimuli, our brains are programmed to focus or ignore certain things within our field of view and a logo is not exempt from this process.

Summary:

Commissioning a logo is the first step towards building a strong brand and requires specialist knowledge and understanding to be executed correctly and to create a logo that will be memorable and enduring.

V Formation has graphic design specialists available to help you further understand the branding process. Contact us today to see if we can help you with your branding.