Inventors Common Graphic Design Mistakes – Logos

{Don Debelak’s new book, Turning Your Invention into Cash is now available on Amazon for $3.49. Go to Amazon.com and enter inventions Don Debelak to purchase. From the author of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Bringing Your Product to Market.}

Your logo is an essential part of your company’s and your product’s identities. A lot of care must be taken when designing them. Most of my clients are small business owners and so many of them have spent their careers treating their logos as an insignificant detail. Very little recognition occurs when a business appears generic. The following list exposes the many issues I see too often with poor quality logos. This logo article completes the series of common design mistakes.

10 Common Logo Mistakes:

1. The logo wasn’t designed for all mediums

The same logo you designed for your business card and letterhead may work on your brochures and flyers, but what about when you develop a website? Will it break up too much as a web graphic? What happens when you find a sponsorship opportunity and your logo is needed for a tiny space down at the bottom of an advertisement? Will it be clear enough to read?  Consider every medium: print, TV, web, embroidery, etc. This may involve having a couple variations of your logo: one that is set vertically and one that is set horizontally. If you have a flashier logo, a simpler version may come in handy when there’s not enough room to be so showy. Keep all logo variations consistently designed.

2. The logo doesn’t work in black and white

You’ll also need a black and white version of your logo for anything that won’t be printed in color. It’s not usually as simple as printing your color logo in black and white. Certain elements can fade away and become less legible or distinct. Develop a black and white version that has the same contrast and impact as the color version.

3. The product or industry category isn’t relevant in the design

I’m not saying that if your product is a guitar accessory you need a guitar graphic in your logo. Just give some sort of essence towards music or sound, etc. Sometimes the company or product name already begins that association. With a name like Wallace Guitar Accessories there may be more freedom for far out designs although you’re usually better off having something that will speak to people at first glance. Abstract logos have their place—they can be interesting and memorable, but that takes more time to establish.

4. The logo is unoriginal or cliché

Make sure to research your product and company category to see what others have used for their logos. You want to become part of the group, but don’t mimic them. Steer your logo in the direction of unique and groundbreaking.

5. The logo uses clipart or generic symbols

What a great way to be unoriginal and cliché! A lot of clipart has terms that don’t allow it to be used for logos anyway, but even if you were able to, why would you want something so commonplace in your design? Same with generic symbols that you can find within fonts such as Dingbats and Wingdings: they are used by millions of people all throughout the world. Don’t expect to be innovative when including them in your logo.

6. Poor font decisions

Can you name any fonts? I’m sure a few come to mind: Times Roman, Arial, Comic Sans… Since you’re not a designer, your list of known fonts is pretty short, so what does that mean about them? They’re too common to make your designs unique. Dig deeper. Most quality fonts need to be purchased. Search the web for the perfect one or consult your designer who already has a library full.

You’ll also need to consider how the font works within the overall logo. It should flow with the design and make sense with the concept. A watery, bulbous logo would work best with a watery, bulbous font or at least one with rounded letters. Don’t compromise legibility for a font that’s too stylized or fanciful. If the letters are too difficult to recognize people will mispronounce what it says, and if the letters are already too hard to read at normal sizes, think about how it will look when the logo is scaled down.

7. No attention was paid to letter spacing

This is one of those minor details that really does make a difference. The spacing between letters is called kerning and proper kerning doesn’t necessarily mean having the same equal gap between each letter. Every letter has a different shape. Some letters match up perfectly, but some combinations leave oddball gaps that should be fine-tuned. It’s more noticeable as you zoom in, so if an improperly kerned logo was ever featured at a large size, its unprofessionally spaced letters would stand out as amateur and look like a mistake.

8. The logo is heavy on text effects / Photoshop filters

This is also a great way to look amateur. When someone first experiments with Photoshop or similar programs, they apply all the effects like drop shadows and bevel/embosses or the filters that make their work look watercolored or plasticy. These  ” out-of-the-box” tools need to be handled with care. Beginners don’t know any better, so they apply them in thick coats with results that look like an overworked project from junior high.

9. Bad color combinations or choices

Red is a bright color that stands out, yes, but does that mean it’ll make your logo stand out? Not necessarily. So many logos already use red, so it’s become sort of monotone. However, if red has some significance to your branding, then take that into consideration. If you deal with medical supplies or tomato juices, the color red will have some meaning and that’s exactly what your color choices should do: have meaning. Colors should make sense, be harmonious and provide enough contrast for legibility. And remember, there is more to choose from than the basic primary colors!

10. The logo wasn’t built in vector-based software

Raster graphics are pixel based-graphics. Pixels are the dots in your screen that blend together to make up the images that you’re seeing. Digital photos, scans and anything produced with Photoshop or similar software is raster. If you’ve ever blown up a photo from the web, you can really notice all the little squares that make up the image. Now imagine if your logo was produced this way. Its quality would break up and look fuzzy as you enlarged it, or it would break down and fade away as you shrank it.

Vector-based software, like Adobe Illustrator, is mathematically based. Every line, curve, square, etc. that is drawn has a set of information that decides its shape. A vector logo maintains those mathematical equations, so when the logo is scaled the math is proportionally rewritten to accommodate that new size. Everything will always be nice and crisp since vector graphics aren’t dependent on pixels.

Like all rules, some can be stretched or broken if done for a very good reason, however, many of the rules above are pretty strict! You want people to view your company and products as important, distinguished and well established, so don’t represent your company with an unprofessional, amateur logo. If you take my list of common mistakes into consideration you’ll be able to move one step closer to those goals.