CSULB |  COTA  |  DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN

​CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD LOGO DESIGN

As with any facet of creative practice and design, times change and trends change as well, however the following are some of the enduring basic rules and principles of effective logo design that most designers tend to agree upon.

Visit, the Logo Lounge for their compilation of annual trends:

The Logo Factory provides an extensive review of issues.

1. Simplicity

Simplicity is not simplistic. Don't make this mistake. A simple design is easy to read and comprehend and simplicity allows the logo to be versatile and memorable. It should look good on everything from a business card to a billboard. These days a logo also needs to function as small as 16x16 pixels for a URL address icon, known as a Favicon.

Really good logos feature something unexpected or unique, often in a subtle, almost subconscious way.

A smart “hook” can be a witty way of capturing one’s memory.

Effective logos utilize a simple, clean, and easy to read and often times distinctive font/typeface.

Logos which leave the strongest immediate impression on the mind also use no more than two colors.

The myriad of new logo designs coming along over the past couple decades, largely brought on by the computer revolution and the internet, while seductive, are also difficult to verbally describe, therefore raising a great deal of debate as to their effectiveness.

2. Memorable

Simplicity effectively results in memorability. The most effective logo designs are always memorable, largely because they are refined in their sensibilities, getting to the essence of the forms and shapes, parred down to the fewest elements to effectively achieve the same impression.

Our minds like to generalize complexity into simpler geometric forms, therefore capitalize on this for quickly making a mark in the mind, and ease to remember.

3. Timeless

There is a lot of debate about what it means for something to be “timeless”, however the principal is that an effective logo should have enduring qualities that enable it to stand the test of time. Today, it’s rare to find a company with the exact same logo in effect for 50 years. More often than not, even a well known logo will undergo some level of refreshening after 20 years. Some exceptions, CokeCola, GE, Nike, and a few others.

4. Versatile

An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications and works in just one color. A logo should always be designed in vector format (Adobe Illustrator), to ensure that it can be scaled to any size without degradation of quality.

Aspect ratios, or the height to width, is critical. A logo that is too tall or skinny, or too wide and short, can become cumbersome to work with or implement well up the road. This is not an absolute rule.

5. Appropriate

How you position the logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for a children’s toys store, it might be appropriate to use a playful font and color scheme, but it probably wouldn’t be so appropriate for a law firm.

CSULB |  COTA  |  DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN  |  BIO

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