Now before we go over the process of meeting with a client brainstorming logo ideas sketching logos
learning illustrator and then designing and finalizing logos in Illustrator.
We really need to go over what the qualities of an effective logo actually are.
Effective logos are relevant.
They're beautiful they're unique they're memorable and enduring as well as a few other attributes.
So we're gonna go over that in this lesson and by the end of this lesson you'll know what attributes
all the best logos in the world have.
So first of all the logo needs to be relevant to the brand.
So think about your client's company and their intended audience.
In other words the person or the company you'll be designing a logo for and their intended customers.
So ask yourself this what kinds of logo designs would be relevant to their products and services the
client provides.
So what kind of designs are going to attract the attention of those potential customers.
Do you want to grab attention so that more people purchase their product or service.
What kinds of designs are going to be pleasing to the eye.
Are warm colors or cooler colors more appropriate to that brand.
What about typography.
What kind of font should you use.
Of course a logo for an extreme sports channel could have a grand style font or some kind of bold strong
font but a logo for wedding photography company should have a different fun so the logo design should
match the ethos or the branding or really the character of the company itself.
What people associate this company with.
So what kind of values and stories they associate themselves with and you also need to make sure it
appeals to its customers.
Now the next criteria I want to go over is simplicity.
So effective logos are also simple.
Now that doesn't mean they're too simple.
For example a logo that consists of just typing the business name in Times New Roman font.
Just calling it a day.
That's not unique or distinct which we cover next.
So logos shouldn't be too simple or simplistic but they should also not be too busy and cluttered.
This is one of the biggest pitfalls that many of my university students fall into when they're designing
logos in one of my classes.
So they make the logos too complicated with unneeded effects like drop shadows Bevel and a boss or they
add a lot of unneeded objects and decorations.
So a well-designed logo is simple and yet effective.
And by the way these are not real examples from students I've just created some examples that are too
busy so you can see what I mean effective logos are also distinct so they're unique they're different
from the competition's logos and really any other logo.
So logo designers are paid not just for the final product which is of course part of what they're paid
for but in order to get to that final product the design logo.
It takes time and an idea so logo designers and all graphic designers for that matter are paid for their
time and ideas just as much as they are for the final product.
So ideas have value and a good idea for a logo is what leads to that well-designed and distinct logo.
Good logos are also memorable.
So I want you to close your eyes.
Go ahead and do it.
Hey.
I see you don't close your eyes.
All right now that your eyes are closed think in your head of the McDonald's logo.
Do you think you could draw it right now.
What about the Apple logo.
Think of a couple other companies and just think of their logo.
Now think of van Gogh's Starry Night.
Could you draw that one.
You can probably remember what it looks like.
But there's details that you might miss.
So a lot of these criteria work together.
You want this logo to be memorable whether you're doing a abbreviated version just with the initials
or just one kind of symbol like Nike swish for example.
But simplicity helps make a logo memorable so they work together.
Good logos are also enduring so you don't want to use trendy fonts.
You want a logo to be able to last.
Even if it's redesigned 10 extent a lot of the best logos have been around for decades.
You don't want the logo just to look dated and right away.
You know next year or even in a couple years you also want a logo to be versatile.
So it needs to be able to be printed in black and white or gray scale and full color on various media
such as distributed online and broadcast at various sizes and in print and other electronic media such
as mobile applications.
And this is one reason we use Illustrator and we'll talk about this with vector art and vector illustrations
if you zoom in or enlarge on it.
You want to put it on a billboard for example.
It won't pixel.
And finally a logo should be aesthetically pleasing it should be a beautiful logo that looks good.
A good logo is relevant to the brand that's associated with it's simple but not simplistic.
It's just not too busy it's distinct from the competition in other logos from other industries as well.
It's memorable.
So it's easier to remember and it's easy for the average person to see it.
It's so simple that it's associated with the brand and it's easily remembered by people.
It's enduring.
So it doesn't go out of style it's not trendy and it's also versatile so able to be printed and broadcast
and put on mobile media and online media in various sizes and in grayscale and color.
And finally it's a beautiful logo systemically pleasing.
So we're going to be going over in this course how to create logos that have all of these criteria.
I'll see in the next lesson.