The Elements That Make Up a Powerful Logo

Big and bold? Or small and subtle? Dazzlingly colorful, or neutral? What makes a logo powerful today, when the average customer is exposed to hundreds of logos daily? Many great logos are simple, memorable, and timeless – but you know all that already.

Instead of dwelling on the core principles of effective logo design, let’s zoom in on the particular elements that can really make your logos succeed.

The Right Colors

Back in the day, the Apple logo used to be rainbow-colored. Today it’s gray. Does that make the Cupertino giant any less exciting than it used to be? By no means. Apple has grown since then into one of the world’s coolest companies.

But the evolution of the Apple logo reminds you that choosing the right color for your brand depends on many variables, including your audience, industry, brand perception, and what colors your competitors are using.

Consider all of these variables and use color psychology as your starting point. Don’t say no to experimenting with different color combinations before you decide on the final version of your logo.

Memorable Typography

Consider for a moment the Coca-Cola, Vogue, or FedEx logos. All of these logos use typography in a way that makes the brand instantly recognizable. The same can’t be said about Uber’s 2016 redesign – people weren’t crazy about it, and two years later, Uber redesigned the redesign.

The first thing you need to determine is whether typography plays a key part in your logo. If it does, you may want to develop a unique font for your logo. Differences between fonts can be subtle, but custom typography can make your brand special.

Scalability

Logos today are used everywhere online, not just on websites. They are used in apps, on billboards, in print, on t-shirts, on coffee mugs. To optimize the scalability of your logo, using a vector logo may not be enough.

For example, when a logo is shrunk to a very small size, text may no longer be visible and the effect the logo creates might not be as strong. That’s one of the reasons MasterCard recently dropped the text entirely from their logo.

At the end of the day, testing your logo for scalability is crucial to ensuring it is usable across mediums. Your logo design may be beautiful and authentic, but if it can’t be used everywhere, you need to keep working on it.

Authentic Design

Great logos are authentic – they reflect the vision of the brands they represent. They do not copy or reproduce already popular logos. They don’t simply mix up popular design elements and brush them all up with the most trending colors on the web. But what makes a logo authentic?

Rather than a specific design principle, it’s the interplay of all the logo’s elements. That’s why, once your logo mockup is ready, it’s important to run an authenticity check on your logo. Does it really define what you stand for? Does it capture the essence of your brand? Or is it just pretty?

How to Test Your Logo

The best way to ensure that all the different elements of your logo come together into a powerful and memorable design is to use a great mockup generator. A mockup generator allows you to see your logo in action across formats.

That makes it easier for you to determine whether it’s good or not before it goes live. You can also show the mockups to a small sample of your audience and ask them to rate your logo. This lets you polish and refine your logo until everyone is delighted with it.