your logo does a lot of work to say something about you at first glance
#1: colour
Before you see a logo, its shape or name, you see its colour…
red: energy /love/urgency
red ‘sells’ – you knew that already
orange:/creative /brave /confident
good choice if you want to be a bit different
yellow/joy /happiness /play
say hello to yellow for an artistic vibe – from kids to creatives
green/fresh /healing /natural
fun fact: the human eye sees more shades of green than any other colour
blue/trust /loyal/calm
fave of banks, airlines, health & social media, often a ‘man’s’ choice as they are prone to colour blindness
pink/compassion /sincerity/sweetness
from Barbie to the FT, pink can always find a home – it’s not going to hurt after all
purple/royal /luxury/spiritual
purple, achieved by the secretions of sea snails & a rarity until synthetic ‘mauveine’ was discovered in 1856
brown/simple /loyal/nature
from chocolate to your deliveries, you can rely on the wholesomeness of brown
black/dramatic /sophisticated/secure
honest, reliable, prestigious, glamourous, the list goes on – what’s not to like?
white/simple/innocent/pure
obviously needs to be with another brand colour, but the pairing can be powerful
#2: shape
After the colour of a logo you see the shape – what shape are you in?
circle:/friendly /protective/inclusive
I like a round logo, mine is round, it’s powerful, gives you a bit of a hug and has momentum
square:/professional /strong/practical
honest, solid and stable, the square is perhaps the most common logo shape – it always fits in
triangle/powerful/perfection/unity
balanced, or balancing, a triangle demonstrates purpose, power and direction
organic/comforting/natural/approachable
get your slippers on and a bathe in the warmth of its comfy curves
abstract/conceptual/different/unique
an abstract shape will need to work hard to get across meaning, upside is – it’s different
#3: font
After the colour & shape of a logo you see the font – what type are you?
serif:/elegant /legible/traditional
what did the Romans do for us? They gave us serifs – little extensions on each letter to help the eye read on
slab serif:/bold /grounded/distinctive
A.K.A. ‘Egyptian’ the Brutalist serif – best used sparingly
sans serif:/clean /legible/modern
sans/without serifs, generally enjoy larger x-heights than serifs, clearly seen since the early 1800s
decorative:/distinctive /trendy/characterful
like chilli – adds some zing, pep, pop and best used sparingly
cursive:/distinctive /niche/characterful
for a personal touch from invites to crafty online courses, cursive is the way to go
These are the basic forms, and with programs like FontForge, Glyphs, FontCreator, FontLab, Type light and even Adobe Illustrator creating new fonts is accessible and can make you really stand out, but that comes with warnings as fonts are often subject to copyright, so tweaking an existing font may not simply make it yours. The new font designed for PayPal (Pentagram rebrand) PayPal Pro is a customized version of LL Supreme, which is a redrawing of Futura, whereas The British Heart Foundation (BHF) commissioned a custom typeface called BHF Beats to be part of its brand refresh (Wolf Olins) and is completely original.
Need a little logo mojo? I’m angie – branding buddy to the stars of start-ups and scale-ups, helping them shine with the power of design of logos, brochures, websites – stuff like that…
#brandingbuddy