Research Point: Logos
How many logos can you name? McDonalds? Nike? Apple? All huge multinational corporations with millions to spend on building brand recognition. Have a look at logos and see how they work – pay attention to the colour schemes and simple designs. You will probably also find that, although you could not recall them immediately recognise them – banks, shops and products. Can you immediately recall the OCA logo?
Some of the common themes/rules I found with regards to logo design included:
Keep it simple: successful logos are minimalistic and clean. They use negative space effectively and often are based on simple shapes. Fussy designs will not be as easy to remember.
Use simple shapes: the majority of logos are based on simple shapes. Circles are often used as these have connotations of trust and reliability – important qualities for a company to be associated with.
Consider colour carefully: colour psychology plays a major role in logo design. There seems to be a focus on the primary colours, particularly red, which in terms of business, has associations with passion, strength and endurance. The colour choices should reflect the philosophy, personality and purpose of the brand and company. Red also stimulates hunger, which is why it used for most food advertising logo colour schemes, often alongside yellow, which is associated with happiness.
Easy to remember: this relates to keeping things simple as most logos will just be glanced at in an instance, which needs to be enough time for the brain to register what brand it relates to. If someone is consistently exposed to a particularly recognisable design it will become embedded in their minds and could influence there actions (e.g. whether or not they buy a product)
Pictures often speak louder than words: logos can benefit from not including words as this keeps things simpler. If fonts are used then the personality of the choice needs to be taken into account so that it supports the brand’s identity (e.g. sophisticated or modern and clean). Some companies also use the negative space within lettering to add ‘hidden’ messages, for example the arrow within the FedEx logo.
Clear and to the point: one of the most important points to keep in mind when designing a logo is to stay true to the original purpose – what message needs to be conveyed to the target audience and is this being successfully achieved?
