5 Golden Rules for Designing a Successful Logo

The keys for creating a quality logo, according to creative agency Tatabi Studio

Elena Sancho of Tatabi Studio (@tatabi), a design studio that specializes in branding, spoke to us about the basic rules to ensure any logo can stand the test of time. Although all designs will appeal to different people according to taste, there are some objective principles that can give a logo quality. They will help guide your designs in the right direction.

There should be an idea behind the design

It is more likely to connect to users when there’s a story behind a logo. Look at Amazon, for example: it tells the story that Amazon has everything, from A-Z, the arrow relates to the delivery of the products and, finally, the line suggests a smile, that of the customer when they receive their package or the company when they send it, implying the friendliness of the brand.

Logos without concepts aren’t memorable, ideas are what makes them interesting.

It should be coherent with the brand

All brands have their own personality and, when it comes to designing a logo, you’ve got to think carefully about what yours is. A good way to do this is to think of it as a person’s personality with specific traits. Are they fun? Are they classic or child-like? Let’s think about the car brand Audi. It’s technological, innovative, elegant, connected to metallic, neutral colors. A good logo design must go hand in hand with the brand’s personality.

It should be easy to read

It might seem obvious but it’s amazing how many logos are illegible. When the public can’t read a logo properly, it fails at one of its most essential aims. It’s not worth going for an ingenious, intricate design that people might not even understand. Below, you can see the typical problem of quite a few logos for heavy metal bands. After a while, you may be able to work out that it says Sasquatch.

It should remain clear whatever size

A logo should always be legible, even in the smallest sizes. The image isn’t always going to have pride of place. It may also be printed on small objects. Think about a poster where a number of logos appear. Certain styles, for example, when the name of the company is featured alongside the larger logo, may get lost when shrunk. In the poster below, how many logos can you really read well?

It should be timeless

It’s important to follow trends but don’t be ruled by them. It’s possible that a certain trend might provoke initial enthusiasm but later go out of fashion. If we analyze the evolution of big brand logos, we can see that they make slight adjustments as the years pass but their essence remains the same. When designing a logo, a balance must be struck between the modern and the timeless.

Elena Sancho of Tatabi Studio explains these and other rules of logo design in her course, Creation of an Original Logo from Scratch.

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