Anyone setting up his own company has to overcome a number of challenges, especially in the start-up phase. These include choosing the right company logo so that you can differentiate yourself from the competition and attract your target group.
Logo design as part of the corporate identity
Future customers should associate positive associations with the service, the offer or even with individual products. Ideally, the corporate identity develops as the identity of the company from entrepreneurial action (corporate behaviour) and the external impact from communication and marketing (corporate communication).
But in addition to the actions and performance of the company itself, the corporate design also plays a significant role as the third factor of corporate identity. Corporate design is the external appearance of a company. This may include employees’ work clothes, but also business cards, the vehicle fleet, advertising materials and packaging.
The company logo in particular has a very special influence on the corporate identity of companies.
Basic questions before logo development
Many founders already have a certain idea of what their own company logo should look like before founding a company. But the choice of logo design should not be a gut decision. Ideally, the chosen logo will accompany the company for many years and establish itself as a visual figurehead with recognition value. Personal tastes should therefore not necessarily come first.
The target group
Before deciding on a logo design, it is important to define the future target group. As a start-up, you have to deal with the question of who you want to address visually with your company logo. A start-up from the IT industry, which develops fitness apps, for example, naturally has a different target group than a tax consultant.
The company values
Your own identity as an entrepreneur can also have a direct effect on the design of the logo. A few questions can be helpful in recognizing which characteristics the future company logo should convey:
What characteristics does the company bring to the table? How will these be conveyed through entrepreneurial action in the future? What is the philosophy of the business? Are there values that are important in the company? What vision is to be realized with the founding of the company? Here, too, there are clear differences.
A local shop for regional specialities from organic farming relies on different values than a management consultant for finance and accounting.
The Competitors
Even if you as a founder naturally want to do everything differently and better than the competition, it is still worth taking a look at the visual appearance of your competitors. It’s not so much about clumsily copying visual elements for your own logo design.
Rather, a sober evaluation helps with the fundamental decision: What does and what does not like? What does the competition value? Are there industry-specific design features that all competitors use? Will your own company serve a special niche in the future that competitors have not paid attention to so far?
The greater the knowledge of the respective competitors, the higher the probability of distinguishing oneself from them through a special logo design.
The Different Logo Types
With the insights into the target group, the company’s own corporate philosophy and the analysis of the competitors, the decision for a logo design is a lot closer. But before the actual logo design can begin, founders should also familiarize themselves with the different types of logo designs.
After all, the type of logo can also leave a lasting impression on potential customers. If you set the right priorities here, you will pave the way for success for your company as soon as it enters the market.
The wordmark
As the name suggests, a logo design as a wordmark is the representation as a word. The company logo as a word mark is therefore often the font-based form of the company name. Well-known examples of word marks are “Sony” or “Coca-Cola”. Large companies and manufacturers in particular rely on this type of logo design because it is particularly memorable and simple.
However, such large manufacturers usually have a very long history. The word mark implies the company’s values and requires no further explanation. Companies that are at the very beginning of their history are not doing themselves any favors with such pure word marks if the name offers no recognition value.
The local business for organic products from the region would have to spend an immense amount of energy on advertising measures if the founder Ms. Muster uses her name as a word mark. Of course, in this case there would be the possibility of supplementation, e.g. “Samples – regional and organic”. However, it is questionable whether this addition achieves the desired effect.
The challenge of a word mark is also the selection of typography, i.e. the font chosen. The color and the spacing between the letters also have a significant effect on the first impression. A remarkable example of a suboptimal design of the word mark is the sports manufacturer “Uncle Sam”.
The chosen font Brush Script, which every user of Microsoft Word knows from the font selection, is used hundreds of times by German companies, often craft businesses. Admittedly, it has not harmed the success of the company.
The trade marks
The sign marks as a logo design are also based on typography, spacing, and color selection. The initials of the company founders are often implemented as a trademark.
A well-known example is the fashion and cosmetics group “Coco Chanel” with its two intertwined and mirrored C’s on the back. In the German-speaking world, the clothing manufacturer “Clemens und August” has made a name for itself as the “C & A” trademark.
The figurative mark
Choosing a figurative mark as your first logo design requires a certain amount of self-confidence. In addition, trust in one’s own marketing concept is required, because a pure figurative mark as a logo is and remains an image, i.e. a graphic symbol without further textual addition.
The best-known examples of our time are probably the apple from “Apple” or the little blue bird from “Twitter”.
Figurative logo: The combination of word and figurative mark
Small and medium-sized businesses in particular use a combination of words and images for their logo design. The advantage of this combination is that the company name is displayed in full or as an initial. In addition, a small graphic or symbol ensures recognition value and association with the company name.
The mobile phone company “E-Plus”, for example, uses such a connection with a small green plus sign in the upper right corner above the company name. And “Deutsche Telekom” has also made its pink T with four dots of the same color its brand logo.
The best international example of how a combination of word and figurative mark has established itself as a separate figurative mark is probably the sports manufacturer “Nike“.
For a long time, the logo consisted of lettering and hooks under the lettering, but today the Nike hook is a figurative mark in its own right with absolute recognition value.
The abstract logo design
An abstract element in the company logo is particularly suitable for companies that cannot clearly represent their product portfolio graphically. Well chosen, however, such an abstract element can increase the recognition value.
A well-known example of such an abstract logo is “Adidas“. Since its foundation in 1949, the “Adi Dassler Adidas Sportfabrik” has used the three stripes as its brand logo, which are still known today. In 1971, the Trefoil was added, a logo made of a trefoil through which the three stripes run.
The company presented another redesign of its logo in 1990. Since then, we have known Adidas as a font with three diagonal stripes placed above it, which are supposed to imply an ascent or a mountain.
Key visuals, the mascots
Key visuals are the mascots of companies. If they are properly staged through appropriate marketing measures, they can achieve the desired recognition instead of a classic logo design. Well-known examples of key visuals are e.g. the Michelin man, the Obi Bieber or the Haribo gold bear.
The emblem
Another option for a logo design is the shape of the emblem, the coat of arms, the badge or even the seal. The logo forms a self-contained design of image and word. The challenge for such a logo design is the clear structure.
Because such an emblem should be recognizable from a distance if possible. Well-known company logos as emblems are car manufacturer “Lamborghini” and the coffee chain “Starbucks”.
Deciding on your own logo design
With the knowledge of the many possibilities of logo types, it becomes clear that the decision for a logo design is not a daily project. Rather, it is crucial to deal with your own goals, your values and your target group. A successful logo design is the result of a process.
Because even if you hire a professional logo designer as a founder, your own clear ideas about the desired corporate identity in the future have a decisive influence on the implementation as a logo design.
If you also think about the logo type and its effect from the outset, the decision-making process will be made easier immediately. This is because comparing three different image logos is of course easier than choosing from two examples of different logo types.