Wrong way, go back

Logo design seems simple. It seems like something that should not take more than five or ten minutes ... pick a colour, make a curvy line, write in the company's name, and you're done! Actually, logo design is more difficult than any other type of design. It is the equivalent of having to say everything you want to say about your company in only five words ... slogan writers understand the difficulties that logo designers face! Logo design is a very honed skill, and as such, you'll see some cringe-worthy logos about. To make sure that your company's isn't one of them, check out our stops, no's and don'ts of logo design!

Stop - When your logo starts to look like everyone else's

Colour combinations, types of curvature, gradients, shadows etc in graphic design move in trends - sort of like fashionable clothing. You need to know what everyone else is doing in logo design, to know what you shouldn't be doing. Facebook, Apple and Google all have quite memorable logos with several easy to copy features ... so ignore them completely!

Don't - Set a tiny budget

There are some fantastic things in life that are free. Unfortunately, the time of skilled professionals usually isn't one of them. Hiring an ultra-cheap graphic designer is likely to leave you with an ultra-cheap looking logo.

No - Raster images will not work

It takes a little technical skill and time to create a vector version of a logo design. Vector images are created using mathematical relationships between precisely defined points; raster images are created with pixels. Both look roughly the same at small sizes, but when you blow up a raster image for a poster or billboard, it will look like a mountain of fuzz. Raster image design is cheaper, but will ultimately be a major frustration.

Stop - If you find yourself squinting at the design

Logo design needs to be bold not only to be memorable, but to be easily reproducible across a wide range of sizes and formats. If you need to look for more than a second to see what the logo really is, you'll need to rethink the design.

Don't - Choose designs that lose their effect in grey-scale

There will be times when you'll want your logo to be printed in greyscale. Newspaper advertisements are much cheaper when you choose the greyscale version; printing of staff manuals and other in-house documents won't be worth doing in full colour, etc. Naturally, all logo design looks better in colour - but you shouldn't end up with a homogenous blob when you take that colour out.

No - Windows fonts are never a good idea!

There are plenty of fantastic sites for free fonts. Let your graphic designer give you some options, though. Not all of the font files are created optimally - some have their apostrophe's missing, some cannot reproduce capitals, etc.

Stop - Before you include a second font

Typeface is a fantastic way to add to a mood. When you have more than one typeface (font), though, that mood gets inevitably muddled. Your customers will never spend as much time staring at your logo as you will, and need something a lot simpler.

Of course, a fantastic graphic designer will know all of these things anyway! However, as a client you'll be giving them guidance and steering them in certain directions - use these guidelines to make sure you steer your logo's graphic design towards success.