8 things that make a good logo

# 1: Recognizability

Logos are unique symbols designed to help people recognize a company and its values. They're very much about familiarity and trust. A good logo is immediately subconsciously associated with a particular company.

# 2: Suitable for the target group

A good logo speaks to the emotions of a predefined target audience. The soft drink Fanta, for example, is very funky, trendy, and a bit hippie-like, just like the target audience it's aiming at. And that's what the logo looks like. A high-priced orange juice in the premium segment, on the other hand, speaks to a completely different target audience – and naturally needs to convey a different look and feel.

# 3: Transferability into branding

A good logo can be further developed and reflected in the rest of the branding. These are often referred to as secondary style elements.

# 4: Timelessness

A good logo should not only reflect the latest trends today, but also be relevant in five to ten years. Of course, corporate design can always be adapted; especially in the last few years, there have been numerous logo updates that can be traced back to the flat design trend kickstarted by Windows 8. Logos of ThyssenKrupp, Google, Facebook, eBay, and many more have been subtly modified. But the basic tenor of a good logo should aim for timelessness from the very beginning.

# 5: Less is more

A good logo is a symbol that represents the company and its values. It doesn't always have to be the full company name or be decorated with complex clutter. The best logos are the simplest, without a lot of clutter, simply because they're more memorable. And that's the whole point. So, less is more.

# 6: Scalability

A good logo has to work in different sizes. For example, there's always a minimum size that we as a design agency define. But even if a logo is only 1 cm in size, it still has to work and be legible. This means you shouldn't cram too much text into a logo, because then it won't work in a smaller size. Conversely, the logo must also work in a larger format, for example, on a poster.

A tip: Always create logos in a vector program like Adobe Illustrator, never in a pixel-based program! This is the only way to ensure infinite scalability of the logo without any loss of quality.

# 7: Black and white

A good logo must also work in black and white, not just in the company colors. This is very important. When I create a logo, I first do it in black and white, and only when it's almost finished do I add colors.

# 8: Possible uses

A good logo works both online and offline. Especially these days, it's crucial that logos work just as well on smartphone displays as they do on large screens, but of course also offline on all advertising media.