When you think of popular brands like Apple, McDonald’s, Budweiser, and Amazon – what comes to mind first? For many, the answer is their iconic logos.
A company’s logo serves as the foundation of its brand identity. When done right, brand logos can become an invaluable marketing asset that make the first impression and draw more customers to your business.
Let’s look at how a strong logo can contribute to the success of your e-commerce store.
The importance of a strong logo for your e-commerce store
E-commerce stores have become popular among customers because of one core reason – they’re convenient. One of the many benefits of ecommerce is that it offers the freedom of choice, which means that customers get to choose from thousands of options, compare prices, and buy products, all from the comfort of their homes.
Even though building its own online store has become more accessible than ever , this also makes e-commerce a competitive space. An abundance of choices means you’ll have to try hard to set yourself apart from the competition and be seen by customers. A strong brand logo can be a great asset in this regard.
Well-designed brand logos help your e-commerce business in three key ways:
- Communicate your brand values to customers.
- Help you establish a strong and credible online presence.
- Serve as a visual reminder that makes your brand instantly recognizable.
Furthermore, logos can help foster brand loyalty and play a crucial role in customer retention. Customers are more likely to stick with brands whose values they recognize and can identify with. That makes it important for e-commerce brands to reinforce their core values with customers in every possible way.
So how do you design a brand logo that is simple, effective and an apt representation of your brand values? Here are a few dos and don’ts to keep in mind.
Dos of creating a logo design
Here is a list of essential things to do while designing your brand logo.
Keep it simple
Simple designs work best when it comes to brand logos. You shouldn’t risk alienating the customers by including complicated graphics and vague references that confuse them about what your company is and what it does. For instance, if you own a tech business, it would be wise to include visual elements in your logo that refer back to your business, like the outline of a computer or a piece of binary code.
Choose the right colors
Every color palette used in a graphic design corresponds to certain values and emotions. For example, female skin care and hygiene brands can incorporate a combination of white and pink in their logos because these colors are synonymous with feminine values. Similarly, fast-fashion brands like H&M use bright colors in their designs to elicit feelings of freshness and youth in customers.
Keep it mobile-friendly
This tip is especially helpful for e-commerce businesses that expect a majority of their customers to visit them through mobile phones. You should incorporate responsive images in your website logos. Responsive logos are logos that change shape, size, color, etc. This will help ensure your customers see your logo correctly, irrespective of the screen size.
Include images or icons
This is about using the picture superiority effect – a psychological phenomenon that makes humans recognize pictures better than words. Including images or icons in your logo can help customers recognize and remember it much better than text-only logos. Some of the world’s leading brands, like Apple and Nike, often opt for picture-only logos!
Don’ts of creating a logo design
Here is a list of things to avoid while designing a logo for your business.
Do not copy other brands
Copying other brands, especially well-established ones, can harm your brand image. A copied or borrowed logo design will make your brand look inauthentic and by extension, untrustworthy. If you copy a well-known brand, chances are customers will regard you as no more than a cheap knock-off.
Do not rebrand too quickly
Customers need time to become familiar with your brand and its logo, and Rebranding too quickly can confuse and alienate them. It is wise only to rebrand when it’s absolutely necessary for your brand image or business operations.
Do not select the wrong font
Like color palettes, fonts are associated with values and emotions. For example, a simple, monospaced font like Times New Roman is better for a business periodical. Younger, urban brands can experiment with other fonts like Comic Sans, and using the wrong font can affect customers’ thoughts.
Do not ignore small details
Attention to detail is crucial in graphic design, especially if it’s fundamental to your brand logo. Brand logos are expected to be printed and displayed on screens and surfaces of all sizes. The smallest mistakes and discrepancies can be accentuated on certain screens, making your company look shoddy and unprofessional.
At Brandignity, we have been helping businesses increase their digital footprints and establish formidable online personalities for over 10 years. Our comprehensive design and branding services include everything from logo design to custom mobile apps. We leverage our experience to create high-impact co-branding strategies that will help you create a strong web and social media presence. Explore our service catalog and get ready to take your brand places!
Your brand’s logo sets the tone for your entire company. Creating image recognition is one of the most powerful things you can do to keep customers coming back and attract new ones. However, you also don’t want your logo to stick out like a sore thumb. Ideally, it will permeate everything you do from product packaging to your web design without overwhelming the user.
According to the Small Business Administration, there are approximately 32.5 million companies in the United States. One way you can stand out from the competition is making your logo as recognizable as possible. The more people see it, the more familiar it becomes.
There are many ways to incorporate your brand’s logo into your web design. Here are our favorites along with a few examples to show you how creative you can get.
1. Repeat Typography
If your logo uses a unique type, you can repeat elements of it throughout your design. Use the same font family as your logo for headers and subheaders, for example. You could also choose a single letter or two and repeat the look of it throughout your site.
Nikki Kay Photography uses a beautiful serif typeface with elements of script for the logo. Notice how the lowercase “G” has a pretty little swirl for the tail. The letter G throughout the site repeats this same style, referring the user back to the logo and setting a tone for the design.
Other letters use this technique in H2 headings, such as repeating the look of the “T.” The text gets paired with a simple, non-bold, sans-serif font that doesn’t detract from the uniqueness of the overall look.
2. Place the Logo Where Expected
Although not as subtle, put the logo where people expect to see it on your website, in the upper left corner or upper center. They will use your logo as a home base and likely click on it when on secondary pages to return to your landing page.
Just because you place the logo where people expect to find it doesn’t mean it has to take over your design, though. You can keep it small, so it doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the design. Just make sure it is legible.
3. Pick Up Image Elements
Another way you can reinforce your logo in your web design is by picking up some of the visual elements of your emblem and incorporating them into accents on your page. Grab a color and use it for the background. If you have a symbol for a logo or as part of your logo, use it as a divider or arrow to point the way to other elements on the page.
Pareto Health adds a subtle look that ties into their logo perfectly. Their logo is both a word mark and a symbol. The designer grabs the blue and green design, blows it up, makes it slightly transparent and adds it to the corner of the hero image. As you scroll down the page, you see the image repeated for the live chat icon and in other areas of the background.
4. Select the Right Color Palette
The site’s color palette selection can also add emphasis to the logo. You can either choose something contrasting, such as a light background for a dark logo or select the colors within the logo and use them for the background and accents.
If you aren’t sure what hues to choose, pull up a color wheel and look for complementary colors with high contrast. You want users to be able to read your text, so a dark background requires light text and vice versa.
5. Incorporate Into the Background
Another thing you can consider is blowing the logo or elements of it up and turning it into a background. You can make it slightly transparent, grab only one part of the design or waterstamp it onto an image.
Get creative with your logo as your background. You want the finished product to be subtle but recognizable. People shouldn’t see the logo as background at first, but after they’ve spent a little time on your page, they’ll realize what you’ve done to reinforce your branding.
UK design agency Ninety uses a logo with their name and the number “90” just under. They then take the nine and the zero and make it into just a very subtle gray outline and blow it up to a larger size. They then place it on a solid black backdrop for an elegant and subtle logo impact.
6. Remember the Favicon
When people pull up your site on their web browsers, it may be one of many tabs they have open. Look across the top of your browser window. Do you see tiny logos representing each site? You might see letters, symbols or boxes filled with color.
Think about how you can incorporate your logo into your site’s favicon so it stands out and people can find the tab with your page quickly when bouncing back and forth between competitor sites. A single letter, basic images or colors works best.
Brainstorm Until You Get It Right
You don’t have to fully brand your site from day one. Over time, you’ll come to better understand your brand’s personality and how to fix your business in your target audience’s minds. Add subtle hints of who you are and symbols standing for your company over time until your site is the perfect mix of branding and helpful content. You can always reverse things or add things as you go along. There’s no wrong way to incorporate your brand logo, because nothing online is permanent.
Eleanor Hecks is the editor of Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.
Your logo is the face your company shows the world. It helps customers identify your brand at a glance and a lot more. People can develop an almost emotional connection to a brand and your logo is a graphical representation of that. Plus, in this modern, highly-visual age, logos are a necessary part of branded messaging. Choosing the right color, font and symbol can help you create a uniform concept that translates seamlessly across print and digital platforms — ultimately leading to increased brand awareness and eventually increased revenue.
Let’s look at some of the ways in which entrepreneurs can develop timeless logos to not only create a unique brand concept, but a long-term, successful one. Below we will teach you how to design a logo that’s perfect!
Simplicity
One of the first characteristics two keep in mind is simplicity. Keeping the design simple in structure and color will make it easy for customers to identify and it will keep your logo easy to see no matter what size it is. Think about popular logos like Chanel, Nike and Shell. Each one is very unique but also very simple. You can identify them from a distance and they can be printed in black and white and still be easily recognizable.
Versatility
Also, pay attention to versatility. In addition to scale, your logo and brand concept needs to be able to translate into multiple formats. The right logo will do more than grace your website and social media. It could also end top on business cards, t-shirts, signage, product tags and letterhead. Make sure your logo will translate to each format. Moreover, your logo needs to be digitally versatile as well. Your design will need to meet different dimensions requirements depending on where you display it and those parameters can vary significantly between platforms. Ideally, you will need a logo that makes sense in square layouts as well as landscape and portrait formats.
Meaningful
It is important to design a logo that offers some meaning as well. Whether you choose a stylized font (e.g., Coca-cola), a symbol (e.g., Lacoste) or an abstraction of your business initials (e.g., Tesla), keep in mind that your logo is meant to remind people of your company. The right logo will represent something about your business that is significant. Take Coca-cola for example. Its heritage and history is a key component of its brand concept; it has “always” been there. In addition to brand identity, your logo might also reflect what makes your company unique, demonstrating whether you are more traditional or dynamic. By choosing something meaningful, you help make your business memorable.
Using Your Logo to Advantage
Once you have created a simple logo that is both versatile and meaningful, it’s time to put it in action. Business materials and promotional products are obvious choices. Adding your logo to packaging, printed items like business cards and menus, giveaway items or your website should be on your work to-do list, but don’t stop there.
You could add logos to company uniforms, company vehicles and interior signage too. The more your customers see your logo in association with your business, the more readily they will come to identify your brand by the logo alone. You can also gain some traction by getting active in your community or industry. Sponsoring industry conferences, supporting local sports teams and contributing to different causes will help you get your logo out in front of your market.
Take the time to develop the right logo for your company — one that is simple, meaningful and versatile. With that graphic, you can help make your brand timeless as well as easy to recognize and help your business as successful as possible.