Designer Tips: Why a Good Logo is Essential to Your Brand

Laura: Everything! It conveys the voice that is intended to speak to the target audience. It tells the story of your brand in a snapshot.

Alcindo: To me, a logo is the visual representation of a brand after the branding process. Logos can communicate brand values, personality, and quality.

Adam: A logo can communicate many things, both positive and negative. If a logo looks like it was done cheaply, then customers will assume the product is also cheaply made and low quality. That doesn’t mean they’re right, but they have to judge the book by its cover.

The same can be said for high-quality professional logos. Your logo doesn’t need to tell you what the product in the package is—that’s for the packaging design. Your logo can communicate what your brand is about and who you’re appealing to. It can be luxurious, sophisticated, fun, whimsical, cheeky, sage, or many other adjectives.

Laura: A target market, a price point, and, if possible, a general vibe (masculine, fun and approachable, high-end luxury, etc.).

Alcindo: I start the conversation to understand where they are as a brand (branding maturity), what they want to communicate, and who are their target and competitors.

Adam: A few basic things like their name and an understanding of their product. Some other helpful things we look for are vision and goals for the company. Is there anything that makes your product unique from your competitors? Who are your customers that we are targeting? And what is the message, essence, or image you want to portray to those customers?

Laura: It depends a lot on the client! Some clients like to be super involved, and we collaborate during the draft process, while others find it easier to see a finished design or mockup before they can tell what they like or don’t like.

Alcindo: My process is based on Gathering Information (briefing), Research and Ideation (concepts), Prototyping and Approvals, and Delivery. I always start a new logo design project after the branding identity process, with a good definition of the brand and who we will serve. Having a good conversation about the entrepreneur and business is essential.

After gathering all the information, with the branding process concluded by me or by the client, I start my research and development of the concept. At this point, a style board with a target profile, colors, textures, and fonts will be presented to the client to make sure the brand is aligned with the brand.

The next step is to create logo concepts and applications. We have three logo concepts (versions) and their application in real life with the usage of realistic mockups. After reviews and approvals, a final version of the logo and its usage manual is delivered to the client.

Adam: We always start our process with a discovery call where we start our data gathering for the rest of the process. We get into great detail about the company, the founders, their story, their customers, and lastly, some general creative direction. After that meeting, we gather internally to discuss strategy and approach before developing mood boards.

Once we have an approved mood board direction, we build out what we call style scapes. This is essentially an expanded mood board that goes more in-depth and might have some preliminary design work or sketches. The last part of our concept phase is to create actual original designs. From here each designer on our team might have different approaches. Some start with sketches and some prefer to dive right into Adobe Illustrator and start hashing out what’s in their head. Once we have our well-rounded concept designs, we present those to the client, again usually as part of a larger cohesive brand identity.

From there it’s pretty typical, with a few rounds of tweaks before finalizing and handing off to the client.

Laura: Trust is one. It’s important to trust that your brand is in good hands and that your designer has your goals and best interests in mind when they present their ideas. I think another common challenge is understanding some of the fundamentals of logo or packaging design –—the requirements and functions that are necessary for any design to be successful. But as the designer, it’s my job to help explain that!

Alcindo: The main challenge is an unclear vision of their brand. Most startups think more about products and services before creating a clear vision of the brand, making it challenging for the designer to understand their needs. Clients also may have unrealistic expectations about the resources and process to create a quality logo, creating budget limitations. And finally, clients may be hesitant to trust the designer's expertise and may resist suggestions or recommendations.

Adam: They all can be encapsulated in this common question we get in the first email: “We already have a logo and an idea for our bag design. Can you give me a price to make the design for us?”

The first challenge is the logo they’re coming to us with is very clearly designed by a cheap site like Fiverr and isn’t unique at all. It’s very hard to design around a poor logo.

Second, they are coming to us with a design in their head already, when in reality, they are paying us for our expertise and our proven ability to come up with unique ideas. Our process and experience almost always mean we are likely to come up with something that is more suitable and more profitable for them in the end.

Lastly, most clients who are just starting their first business have no idea how much our branding and design services cost. They’ve seen an Instagram ad that told them these entrepreneurs started their million-dollar company on a dime. You can find cheap designers, but graphic design and branding are definitely “you get what you pay for” services.

Laura: The fundamentals of a logo such as scalability, working well in single color, and being able to translate to several mediums. If your logo can do that, you are already of to a good start. I think it is truly how well it represents your brand and speaks to your audience! A great-looking logo won’t serve you well if it speaks to an audience that isn’t buying your product.

Alcindo: A logo should be relevant to the brand. It should represent the brand's identity, values, and message. An effective logo is an asset of branding to communicate what your brand is and stands for, is memorable and unique, can be recognized by people, and is versatile from social media, and website to packaging applications.

Adam: Effective logos are concise and strike an emotion. It certainly helps when the company name is short, unique, and interesting. The name can determine what direction you go creatively as well. The logo shouldn’t be super elaborate and intricate as that sort of design doesn’t scale to small sizes well and can make viewers gloss over it.

Your logo should also be unique and hard to replicate. Too many small brands just pick a font and type out the letters. You don’t have to have a symbol or icon in your logo, but if you have what we call a “word mark” with just letters then there should be some kind of customization, even if it’s small.

Laura: Consistency is really important to developing a good brand. All of your marketing collateral, social presence, packaging, etc., should have a cohesive feel. They don’t have to be twinning, but fonts, color palettes, and themes help create that unified message and increase brand recognition.

Alcindo: In my opinion, visual identity comes first, but we can't be limited by this idea. During the logo ideation, I use mockups to explore and refine the logos. My favorite mockups are business cards, uniforms, signage, and packaging. Sometimes it is necessary to add an environment and menus.

Adam: Colors, typography, and graphic elements like textures and patterns. These elements make your brand more distinctive. It’s not easy, but the ultimate test is to remove your logo from a design and see if your brand message still comes through as you intend. For example, if you remove the iconic golden arches from the McDonald's French fry containers, you still know where they come from because of the color.

Alcindo: Here are some useful tips for designers and clients to get a better logo:

Branding first. Start with a deep understanding of your brand’s identity, values, and mission.

What does your brand represent? What emotions or messages do you want to convey through your logo?

Feel your brand. Think about adjectives, emotions, and concepts associated with your business. These words will serve as inspiration for your logo design.

Your brand and your logo are for your client. Creating and understanding your buyer persona will help to create a visual representation that talks to them and makes them connect to your brand. Don’t rely solely on your judgment. Present the logo in different contexts and get opinions from others.

Simplicity is the key. The best logos are simple, memorable, and easily recognizable in any format, size, and application.

Collaboration. Both clients and designers must collaborate to create a logo that represents your brand and resonates with your audience.

Adam: Our advice for anyone starting a brand or rebranding and working with a design company is to have a clear understanding of your products, your intended customers, and what makes you unique. It’s also very helpful to not come with an agenda, but rather be open-minded and allow this company you’re paying good money to do what they do best. In almost every scenario, that will make the end product better and make you more money.

If you’re ready to work with a professional to build your brand’s visual identity, we’ve assembled an incredible network of designers who have been around the Roastar block a few times. They’ll listen to your vision — and make it so much better than you could have imagined.