ADVANCED DIPLOMA in

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To understand what a logo is, we first must
understand what the main purpose of
logos is.

The design process must aim to make the

logo immediately recognizable, inspiring
trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied
superiority.

The logo is one aspect of a company’s

commercial brand or economic entity, and
its shapes, colours, fonts, and images
usually are strikingly different from other
logos in the same market niche.

Logos are used to identify.

With the power of the Web, and more eyes watching
than ever, it’s important for a business to communicate
its unique message clearly.

The easiest way to recognize a company and distinguish

it from others is by its logo.

We’ll quickly go through 10 common logo design

mistakes that you should avoid if you want to create a
successful and professional logo.
A professional business should look The wrong people are commissioned. (Local
professional. New business owners often invest printers are not likely proficient in logo design.)
a lot of time and money in property and
equipment, but do not often match it by The business outsourced the job via one of
investing suitably in their logo. several design competition websites, which are
mostly populated by amateur designers.
Here are the most common reasons why many
logos look amateurish: The job was given to an online company that
offers really cheap logos.
The business owner wanted to save money by
designing the logo quickly themselves. All of the above can result in disastrous
outcomes. If your logo looks amateurish, then
A friend or relative who claims to know a little so will your business.
about graphic design does it as a favour.
Trends (whether swooshes, glows or bevels) come and go
and ultimately turn into clichés.

A well-designed logo should be timeless, and this can be

achieved by ignoring the latest design tricks and gimmicks.

The biggest cliché in logo design is the dreaded “corporate

swoosh,” which is the ultimate way to play it safe.

As a logo designer, your job is to create a unique identity for

your client, so completely ignoring logo design trends is best.
Standard practice when designing a logo is to use to reproduce your logo at some point.
vector graphics software, such as Adobe Illustrator. If you zoom in enough on a raster graphic, it will
appear pixelated, making it unusable.
A vector graphic is made up of mathematically precise Maintaining visual consistency by making sure the logo
points, which ensures visual consistency across looks the same in all sizes is essential.
multiple sizes.
The alternative, of course, is use to raster graphics The main advantages of vector graphics for logo
software, such as Adobe Photoshop. A raster graphic design are:
— or bitmap, as it’s commonly called — consists of
pixels. The logo can be scaled to any size
without losing quality.
Using raster images for logos is not advisable because Editing the logo later on is much easier.
it can cause problems with reproduction. It can be adapted to other media more
easily than a raster image.
While Photoshop is capable of creating very large
logos, you never know for sure how large you will have
This mistake is often made by business owners who design their own logo
or by amateur designers who are not clued in to the laws on copyright.

Downloading stock vector imagery from websites is not a crime, but it

could possibly get you in trouble if you incorporate it in a logo.

A logo should be unique and original, and the licensing agreement should
be exclusive to the client: using stock art breaks both of these rules.

Chances are, if you are using a stock vector image, it is also being used by
someone somewhere else in the world, so yours is no longer unique.

You can pretty easily spot stock vectors in logos because they are usually
familiar shapes, such as globes and silhouettes.
You can often spot this logo design sin a mile serious business such as a lawyer’s office.
away; the cause is usually a designer’s
enormous ego. Some designers also make the mistake of
including a “trademark” in their work.
If you have found a cool new font that you
can’t wait to use in a design, well… don’t. While you should be proud of your work,
imposing your personality onto a logo is
Ask yourself if that font is truly appropriate for wrong.
the business you’re designing for?
Stay focused on the client’s requirements by
For example, a great modern typographic font sticking to the brief.
that you just love is not likely suited to a
Highly detailed designs don’t scale well when lose detail and in some cases will look like a
printed or viewed in smaller sizes. smudge or, worse, a mistake.

What better analogy for thumbnail images than The more detail a logo has, the more information
fingerprints? the viewer has to process.

You’ll notice the intricacies of your fingerprints only A logo should be memorable, and one of the best
when looking at them really close up. ways to make it memorable is to keep things
simple.
As soon as you move away, those details are lost.
Look at the corporate identities of Nike,
The same holds true for highly detailed logo McDonald’s and Apple.
designs.
Each company has a very simple icon that can
When printed in small sizes, a complex design will easily be reproduced at any size.
Without colour, your great design may lose its Every business owner will need to display their
identity. logo in only one colour at one time or another,
so the designer should test to see whether this
This is a very common mistake. would affect the logo’s identity.

Some designers cannot wait to add colour to a If you use colour to help distinguish certain
design, and some rely on it completely. elements in the design, then the logo will look
completely different in one tone.
Choosing colour should be your last decision, so
starting your work in black and white is best.
 IMPORTANT
Banking Firm
Font choice can make or break a logo. middle. Every typeface has a personality.

When it comes to executing a logo, choosing the right font is If the font you have chosen does not reflect the icon’s
the most important decision a designer can make. characteristics, then the whole message of the brand will
misfire.
More often than not, a logo fails because of a poor font
choice (our example shows the infamous Comic Sans). Bad fonts are often chosen simply because the decision isn’t
taken seriously enough.
Finding the perfect font for your design is all about matching
the font to the style of the icon. But this can be tricky. Some designers simply throw in type as an afterthought.

If the match is too close, the icon and font will compete with Professional font foundries, such as MyFonts and FontFont,
each other for attention; if the complete opposite, then the offer much better typeface options than those over-used
viewer won’t know where to focus. websites that offer free downloads.

The key is finding the right balance, somewhere in the

A logo works best with a maximum of two fonts.

Using too many fonts is like trying to show someone a whole

photo album at once.

Each typeface is different, and the viewer needs time to

recognize it.
Banking Firm
Seeing too many at once causes confusion.

Using a maximum of two fonts of different weights is standard

practice.

Restricting the number of fonts to this number greatly improves

the legibility of a logo design and improves brand recognition.
This is the biggest logo design mistake of all and, unfortunately,
is becoming more and more common.

As mentioned, the purpose of a logo is to represent a business.

If it looks the same as someone else’s, it has failed in that

regard.

Copying others does no one any favours, neither the client nor
the designer.
A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic and simple in form, and it conveys
the owner’s intended message.

A concept or “meaning” is usually behind an effective logo, and it communicates the

intended message.

A logo should be able to be printed at any size and, in most cases, be effective without
colour.

A great logo essentially boils down to two things: great concept and great execution.
Design brief. Reflection.
Conduct a questionnaire or interview with the client to get the Take breaks throughout the design process. This helps your ideas
design brief. mature, renews your enthusiasm and allows you to solicit feedback.
It also gives you a fresh perspective on your work.
Research.
Conduct research on the industry itself, its history and competitors. Revisions and positioning.
Problem-solve first, design later. Whether you position yourself as a contractor (i.e. getting
instructions from the client) or build a long-lasting relationship (i.e.
Reference. guiding the client to the best solution), revise and improve the logo
Conduct research on logo designs that have been successful and on as required.
current styles and trends that may relate to the design brief. Follow
trends not for their own sake but rather to be aware of them: Presentation.
longevity in logo design is key. Present only your best logo designs to your client. PDF format usually
works best. You may also wish to show the logo in context, which
Sketching and conceptualizing. will help the client more clearly visualize the brand identity.
Develop the logo design concept(s) around the brief and your Preparing a high-quality presentation is the single most effective way
research. This is the single most important part of the design to get your clients to approve your designs.
process. Get creative and be inspired. As Dainis Graveris has written
once, “sketching isn’t time-consuming and is a really good way to put Delivery and support.
ideas in your head right on paper. After that, it’s always easier to Deliver the appropriate files to the client and give all support that is
actually design it on the computer. Sketching helps to evolve your needed. Remember to under-promise and over-deliver. After you’ve
imagination: once you understand it, you will always start from just finished, have a beer, eat some chocolate and then start your next
white paper. project.
Simplicity makes a logo design easily recognizable, A refined and distilled identity will also catch the
versatile and memorable. attention of a viewer zipping by signage at 70 miles per
hour, on packaging on the crowded shelves of a store, or
Good logos feature something unexpected or unique, in any other vehicle used for advertising, marketing and
without being “overdrawn.” promotion. Remember, the basis of the hugely effective
international branding for the world’s largest shoe
K.I.S.S. Principle of design, which translates as: Keep It manufacturer is a very simple graphic swoosh.
Simple, Stupid. It does convey a very important design
consideration. Simple logos are often easily recognized,
incredibly memorable and the most effective in
conveying the requirements of the client.
Following closely on this principle of simplicity is that of memorability.

An effective logo design should be memorable, which is achieved by

keeping it simple yet appropriate.

Surprising to many, the subject matter of a logo is of relatively little

importance, and even appropriateness of content does not always play
a significant role.
This does not imply that appropriateness is undesirable. It merely
indicates that a one-to-one relationship between a symbol and what it
symbolized is very often impossible to achieve and, under certain
conditions, objectionable. Ultimately, the only mandate in the design
of logos, it seems, is that they be distinctive, memorable, and clear.
— Paul Rand
An effective logo should be timeless.

Will yours stand the test of time?

Will it still be effective in 10, 20 or 50 years?

Leave trends to the fashion industry. Trends come and go, and
when you’re talking about changing a pair of jeans or buying a
new dress, that’s fine, but where your brand identity is concerned,
longevity is key. Don’t follow the pack. Stand out.
— David Airey
An effective logo works across a variety of media and applications. For
this reason, logos should be designed in vector format, to ensure that
they scale to any size.

Ask yourself, is your logo still effective if it is printed…

In one colour?
In reverse colour (i.e. light logo on dark background)?
The size of a postage stamp?
As large as a billboard?

One way to create a versatile logo is to begin designing in black and

white. This allows you to focus on the concept and shape, rather than
colour, which is subjective in nature. Also keep in mind printing costs:
the more colours you use, the more expensive it will be for the
business over the long term.
How you “position” the logo should be appropriate for its intended
audience.

For example, a child-like font and colour scheme would be appropriate

for a logo for a children’s toy store, not so much for a law firm.

Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a

product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any
real meaning. It derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of
that which it symbolizes. If a company is second rate, the logo will
eventually be perceived as second rate. It is foolhardy to believe that a
logo will do its job immediately, before an audience has been properly
conditioned.
— Paul Rand
The aspect ratio (the relationship between the height and width of a logo) is critical.

A logo that is too tall and skinny, or too wide and short, is not visually pleasing, and
you’ll end up with all sorts of layout issues when it comes to setting up your logo in
various artwork, especially when combined with other graphic elements (business
card, websites and the like.)

A logo that is closer to a ‘golden mean’ (almost the aspect relationship of a business
card) is much more pleasing and more adaptable to working in other artwork.

Square is pretty cool too – circle logos are very strong visually due to their square
aspect ratio.

When it comes to using a logo in social media, a square format works well.
If your company logo is to feature both an iconic logo and a
textual treatment of your company name, it’s best to have the
elements as distinct pieces of artwork (as opposed to
overlapping, intertwining, etc.)

This way, you’ll be able to use either the text or icon solo, and
the logo will still stand up.

This is particularly true when it comes to using your logo on

website & blog headers.
Your logo has to have ‘instant impact.’

Your new logo will probably not have the luxury of being in
your audience’s sight line for a lot of time.

In fact, you probably have a few seconds (at the outside)

to ‘grab’ the viewers attention.

If your logo needs to be deciphered, or has an elaborate

‘back story there’s probably little chance that it will
communicate the essence of your company, service or
product effectively.
A tagline is nice, but not as part of your logo. Wordy taglines will require a small font that
will become illegible at smaller sizes.
A tagline (also known as a strapline) is the
phrase or few words that describe a company, A tagline can create a lot of visual clutter in
or the company’s mission. many applications.

Generally stated, taglines are featured under It’s always better to have a tagline as a
the logo (or in circular logos – around the separate element that you can add when
logo.) appropriate, or when doing so will not
interfere with the design integrity of your logo
It’s not advisable to include them in the initial itself.
design phases of your logo.
Don’t change. (Almost) never. hard about it. If you decide to go ahead, then make sure
you get it right that time.
Once you’ve developed your logo, it’s in your best
interest to keep it. Brand recognition takes time (some Changing a logo dramatically more than once (in a short
studies state that viewers have to see a logo three times period of time) may tell your audience that you’re flaky
– or more – before they’ll remember it the next time.) and unreliable. Not good in business.

There’s an awful lot of logo clutter out there, so only by

repetition will your logo break through. If you’re going
to change or update your logo, think very, very long and
In 1910, psychologist Max Wertheimer had an insight when he
observed a series of lights flashing on and off at a railroad
crossing. It was similar to how the lights encircling a movie
theatre marquee flash on and off.

To the observer, it appears as if a single light moves around the

marquee, traveling from bulb to bulb, when in reality it’s a series
of bulbs turning on and off and the lights don’t move it all.

This observation led to a set of descriptive principles about how

we visually perceive objects. These principles sit at the heart of
nearly everything we do graphically as designers.
Emergence is the process of forming complex outline pattern matching, do we start to identify
patterns from simple rules. the parts that make up the whole.

When attempting to identify an object, we first When designing, keep in mind that people will
seek to identify its outline. identify elements first by their general form.

We then match this outline pattern against A simple well defined object will communicate
shapes and objects we already know to find a more quickly than a detailed object with a hard
match. to recognize contour.

Only after the whole emerges through this

Reification is an aspect of perception in which Reification suggests that we don’t need to
the object as perceived contains more spatial present the complete outline in order of viewers
information than what is actually present. to see it.

As we attempt to match what we see to the We can leave out parts of the outline as long as
familiar patterns we have stored in memory, we provide enough of it to allow for a close
there isn’t always an exact match. enough pattern match.

Instead we find a near match and then fill in the You can see examples of this a little further down
gaps of what we think we should see. under the principle of closure.
Multi-stability is the tendency of ambiguous perceptual One will tend to be your dominant perception and the
experiences to move unstably back and forth between longer you go without begin able to see the other, the
alternative interpretations. harder it will be to see that other perception.

Some objects can be perceived in more than one way. From a design perspective if you want to change
someone’s perception, don’t try to change it all at once.
The image can be seen as either two faces in profile or as a
vase. Find a way to get them to see an alternative. Then work to
strengthen that alternative view, while weakening the
You can’t see both at once. Instead you bounce back and original.
forth quickly between the two stable alternatives.
Invariance is a property of perception in which simple Imagine if you could only recognize someone you knew if
objects are recognized independent of their rotation, they stood directly in front of you and faced you, but you
translation and scale. Since we often encounter objects couldn’t recognize them once they turned in profile.
from different perspectives, we’ve developed an ability to Despite the different visual perspective we can still
recognize them despite their different appearance. recognize people.
This is the fundamental principle of gestalt. We prefer the simple circle, square and triangle like you see on the
things that are simple, clear and ordered. Instinctually right than as the complex and ambiguous shape the whole
these things are safer. They take less time for us to process forms.
and present less dangerous surprises.
In this case, seeing three distinct objects is simpler than
When confronted with complex shapes, we tend to seeing one complex object. In other cases, it’s simpler to
reorganize them into simpler components or into a simpler see a single object.
whole. You’re more likely to see the image composed of
As with Prägnanz, closure seeks simplicity. Closure is the Seeing the triangle and panda is simpler than trying to
opposite of what we saw in the Prägnanz image above make sense of the individual parts.
where three objects were simpler than one.
Closure can be thought of as the glue holding elements
With closure, we instead combine parts to form a simpler together. It’s about the human tendency to seek and find
whole. Our eye fills in the missing information to form the patterns.
complete figure.
The key to closure is providing enough information so the
In the image above, you should see a white triangle even eye can fill in the rest. If too much is missing, the elements
though the image is actually comprised of three black Pac- will be seen as separate parts instead of a whole. If too
Man-like shapes. On the right image, you see a panda even much information is provided, there’s no need for closure
though the figure is several random shapes. to occur.
Symmetry gives us a feeling of solidity and order, which we That suggests symmetry takes precedence over proximity.
tend to seek. It’s our nature to impose order on chaos.
Since our eyes will quickly find symmetry and order, these
This principle leads us to want balance in composition, principles can be used to effectively communicate
though our compositions don’t need to be perfectly information quickly.
symmetrical to be in balance.

In the image, you should see three pairs of opening and

closing brackets. The principle of proximity, might suggest
we should see something else.
Figure/ground refers to the relationship between positive unstable depending on how easy it is to determine which is
elements and negative space. which. The classic example of where the relationship is
unstable is the left image above. You either see a vase or
The idea is that the eye will separate whole figures from two faces depending on whether you see the black colour
their background in order to understand what’s being seen. as figure and the white as ground, or vice versa. That you
can easily bounce back and forth between the two
It’s one of the first things people will do when looking at perceptions demonstrates the unstable relationship.
any composition.
The more stable the relationship, the better we can lead
The figure/ground relationship can be either stable or our audience to focus on what we want them to see.
In the image, lines connect two pairs of elements. This square–circle pairs as more strongly related because they
connection leads us to perceive that the connected are visually connected.
elements are related to each other in some way.
Notice that the lines don’t need to touch the elements for
Of all the principles suggesting objects are related, uniform the connection to be perceived.
connectedness is the strongest. In the image above, even
though we see two squares and two circles, we see the
Another way to show a connection between elements is to related in some way.
enclose them in some way.
The typical way to show a common region is to draw a box
Everything inside the enclosure is seen as related. around the related elements like I’ve done above.

Everything outside the en-closer is seen as separate. Placing the elements on a different background colour than
their immediate surroundings will also work.
The circles in the image below are all the same, yet we see
two distinct groups, with the circles in each enclosure
Proximity is similar to common regions but uses space are closer to each other than they are to any elements
as the enclosure. outside the group.

When elements are positioned close to one another, The objects don’t need to be similar in any other way
they are seen as part of a group rather than as beyond being grouped near each other in space in
individual elements. order to be seen as having a proximity relationship.

This is especially true when the elements in the group

Regardless of how far apart the elements are placed or how same direction, they’ll be perceived as having a common
dissimilar they appear, if they are seen as moving or fate.
changing together, they’ll be perceived as being related.
In the image, the arrows are enough to indicate the
The elements don’t need to be moving for the principle of elements share a common fate.
common fate to be present. It’s more that they are seen as
having a common destination. While movement or change isn’t necessary, both are still a
stronger indication of common fate than things like arrows
For example, if four people are clustered together, but two or looking in the same direction which only imply
are observed heading toward the right, they will be seen as movement.
having a common fate. Even if two are only looking in the
This principle is similar to the common fate principle the same direction and are thus related.
above.
It should be noted that for parallelism to be perceived,
Lines are often interpreted as pointing or moving in the lines can also be curves or shapes, though with the
some direction. latter the shapes should be somewhat line-like in order
for them to appear parallel.
Parallel lines are seen as either pointing or moving in
Any number of characteristics can be similar: colour, shape, In the image, red circles are seen as related to the other red
size, texture, etc. circles and black circles to black circles due to the similarity
in colour.
When a viewer sees these similar characteristics, they
perceive the elements as being related due to the shared Red and black circles are seen as dissimilar to each other
characteristics. even though they’re all circles.
This principle suggests that our attention will be drawn It’s a different shape and colour from the other elements.
toward contrast, toward the element that is unlike the
others in some way. I’ve also given it a drop shadow to further emphasize it.

In the image, your eye should be drawn to the square.

Past experience is perhaps the weakest gestalt principle. In red to mean stop and green to mean go. You probably see
conjunction with any of the other principles, the other the image above as a traffic light on its side, because of the
principle will dominate over the past experience principle. three common colours. That’s past experience at work.

Past experience is unique to the individual, so it’s difficult Many of our common experiences also tend to be cultural.
to make assumptions about how it will be perceived. Colour again provides examples. In some countries, white is
However, there are common experiences we all share. For seen as pure and innocent and black as evil and death. In
example, a lot of colour meaning arises out of past other countries, these interpretations are reversed.
experience. Conventions can arise when the experience is commonly
shared, though again it’s important to remember that we
Having seen traffic lights throughout our lives, we expect don’t all share the same experiences.
The gestalt principle that applies most to space is that of figure- black lines with an equal amount of white space between them.
ground. Everything in a design of yours will be seen as one or the Together, the black lines and white space form a grey field, each
other, and the relationship between them is mutually exclusive. contributing equally to the result.
Neither can be perceived except in relation to the other, and changing
one is impossible without changing the other as well. Removing the space (in the second panel) completely changes the
field, rendering it as a solid-black shape. Not only is the space gone,
The figure-ground relationship is also complementary. Figure and but the individual elements have become a single element.
ground can enhance or detract from each other, and organizing the
two in relation to each other is one of the more important aspects of In the third panel, two of the black lines have been removed. This
design. It sets a context for how your design communicates and how it activates the space, making it appear to be sitting on top of the grey
will be interpreted. field. The ground has become the figure and adds more depth to the
design.
Consider the three panels in the image. On the left, we see a series of
•

Stable, reversible and ambiguous figure-ground relationships. Ambiguous (right)

Elements can appear to be both figure and ground simultaneously.
There are three types of figure-ground relationships: They form equally interesting shapes, and the viewer is left to find
their own entry point into the composition.
Stable (left)
It’s clear what’s figure and what’s ground. One or the other usually Depending on which relationship you set up and how you balance both
dominates the composition. figure and ground, you direct the audience to look at different parts of
the design and interpret what they see in different contexts.
Reversible (centre)
Both figure and ground attract the viewer’s attention equally. This
creates tension, whereby either can overtake the other, leading to a
dynamic design.
•

Figure-ground is not the only gestalt principle in which space plays a Closure
prominent role. Two others are these: This makes use of space as gaps between elements. Viewers fill in the
gaps with their own information to complete a whole from the parts.
Proximity Too much space and no closure occurs. Too little space and no closure
Proximity uses space to connect and separate elements by enclosing is needed. Only the correct balance between space and filled-in space
some elements in space. An example we might take for granted is will activate the space and lead to closure.
paragraphs of text on the page. The space between paragraphs is
greater than the space between lines of text within a paragraph.
 It gives positive elements room to breathe. It gives the eye freedom to
move through a design and to discover the elements it’s looking for.
The positive is seen only in contrast with the negative. Without space,
you don’t have design. You have visual noise.
Unless noise is what you’re trying to communicate, lean toward space.
People are less likely to complain about too much space than about
too little.

Space can do the following:

establish contrast, emphasis and hierarchy;
I hope you take away two main things from this lesson. First is the generate drama and tension;
connection between the use of space in design and the gestalt provide visual rest between groups of elements.
principle of figure-ground. Gestalt principles underlie much of what
we do as designers. Space can also convey attributes other than quality, such as:
sophistication, simplicity, luxury, cleanliness, solitude, openness.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, make an effort to spend
time observing how space is used in design. Don’t let space be a by- You waste space when you fail to consider it. You can waste space by
product of your positive elements. Learn to design space as much as, if overfilling it. You can waste space by trapping it inside elements of a
not more than, positive elements. The layout of any page is ultimately design and not allowing it to connect to other space in the design.
an organization of space.
Design is ultimately an arrangement of shapes, and that includes the
Consciously analyse that space, and deliberately use it to create a shapes formed by space. Don’t be afraid to use space. View it as an
better design. Don’t allow it to be what’s left over. View it as an important design element under your control.
essential design element, and then view the relationship between
space and positive elements as a design element that you shape.
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