Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Common mistakes made when designing a logo


Designing is an important element when it comes to companies completely dependent on design for
communications. Making any design for a national or multinational company involves a lot of creativity and widespread scope of understanding what the client actually wants. Many a times, companies loose designers and companies because they do not understand what the client actually wants. Let’s go through some steps that are necessary to avoid making when designing any concept.

Whenever you are making company logo designs for anywhere in the world, the following are important to follow,

1.       Copying other designs: Whenever you are making any concept, make sure it is original and not a copy of someone else’s work. It is not bad to do some research on designs and it’s good to take inspiration but there is a fine line between inspiration and copying a design. Make sure you know where to draw that line. Any concept must be completely different from the one you saw for inspiration. 

2.       Using amateur designers for high priority Clients: Your clients are your assets; you need to entertain them at all costs. If you lose one client you lose a chunk of your business. You need to handle clients in the most appropriate manner ever. Use a trained and experienced designer to handle important clients. This will help you in the long run. Your designer should know how to read between the lines and make the designer, hopefully, better than what the client wants. 

3.       Making complex designs: Anything that your boss or the client does not understand is complex. Keep it simple is the golden rule here. Don’t go for any complex design that acquires too much time in the making. Go for something simple yet amazing. Spending a lot of time on one design means that your other clients are on hold. This will put a bad impression on your clientele on the work flow of your company. 

4.       Choosing a bad font: Bad fonts are a disaster. If your client cannot understand the font, your design is gone to waste. Your time and effort with it. Don’t go for something too simple either; the design should be in line with your font and vice versa. There should be no clash in these two because the font and the design will be on the forefront of the big picture. They will the face of the company, you should keep these simple and in line with each other. 

5.       Using bad colors: Bad colors are similar to bad fonts, they just make you move away from the product or service the company has to offer. Choosing the right color is key to making a good concept work. Understand color psychology and also the color requirements of the client. This will help you in analyzing what combinations to use and what not to use. 

6.       Too much effect: Using too many effects may make the concept look bad. This will make the images look blurry and distorted. Avoid using these too much. 

7.       Crowding your design: Make your design simple and distinct from the rest. Do not use too much imagery or content. 

8.       Trendy logos: don’t run after what is new and trending. Go for something different and unique. If your concept lacks innovation, it will be a complete failure. Making a copy of an already existing concept makes the whole situation even worse. 

9.       Not listening to the clients’ requirements: Last but not the least, LISTEN TO YOUR CLIENT. They know their brand better than you. Don’t ride the ego train and make it worth their while. Make a design that compliments what the clients require from you.

All these factors contribute to making a bad and ineffective logo design. To avoid all these, a designer should be able enough to understand logodesigns in Sydney. He or she should know what the client wants, what is the brand mantra of the company, what products it offers and how does it differ from its competition. From all of this, it will be easier to decide on what sorts of color combinations suit the company best, what should be the focus of the logo and all this will be in line with the products/services offered.