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Art of Logo DesignCopyright January 2006: Niyam Bhushan. Inspired by the vision of Osho. Publishedunder the Free Documentation License (FDL)01: Must Be A ShapeA simple, vector, shape.Exactly like a glyph.Imagine the alphabet with a new character-shape added to it.Thus, a logo has to be the most primal shape you can imagine.At times, a logo could also contain more than one shape in it.02: Must Be ScalableAs a shape, the logo must scalable from about 5mm mm in size, to about the size ofa football field, without distortion.To test the scalability of your logo, start with a logo that is scaled to 5mm insize, make a copy double its size, and go on doing this until you fill an entiresheet. Then print it out and see if the shape loses any detail or suffers from anysort of distortion.Sometimes, a minimum scalable size of around 1 cm is also acceptable, though itdoes limit the use of the logo conditions where you have to use it less than thissize, for example on a tie-pin, or printed on components or products at that tinya size.03: Almost A Square Or A CircleThe logo must have a bounding box that is almost a square or a circle.A logo that is too tall, or too wide, will suffer when you scale it down to amaximum size of 5 mm tall or 5 mm wide. The second dimension will almostdisappear.04: Convert Strokes to Rectangles, Curved Strokes To Outlined ShapeA logo cannot contain a line or a stroke as its element. Each line or stroke in alogo, must be converted into a thin rectangle, so that it appears to be a stroke.The famous IBM logo does not have stripes. It appears to have stripes. In reality,those are thin rectangular boxes cut to form the contours of the letter-shapes.05: Add A Mnemonic FactorMost logos are forgotten moments after they disappear from view. To aid memoryrecall, the logo must have something unique and unusual about it, that aids itsrecall.The logo of apple computer has an icon of an apple, but the 'bite' on the right-hand side is its strong mnemonic factor.06: Play With Negative Spaces Or Counter SpacesThe apparant empty space or empty spaces around the shape or shapes of a logo,must also tease. If someone looks into them, a new shape should also emerge thatadds to the visual metaphors of the logo.
 
The shape of the Adobe logo contains two triangles pointing down, and one arrowgoing up. The empty spaces around these shapes forms a stylized 'A' shape.The logo of Hindustan Times contains two horizontal rectangles, followed by twovertical rectangles. From a distance, they echo the letter shapes of H and T.07: Logotype Is Not A LogoA logotype, no matter how stylized, cannot be the logo. The only time a logotypecan become the logo as well, is if the name it represents contains four charactersor less.Examples: IBM, BBC, NeXT, SONY, NDTV, NBC, CNN, and a few more.However, using alphabets creates a problem: the meaning of the logo would only beunderstood by those who can read that alphabet. The vast majority of the worldcannot read English. Try the sub-continents of China and India as an example,where two-thirds of the world population dwells.Never be short-sighted about designing a logotype as a logo that only English-literate people can understand. If successful, the logo will be used in marketsand for audiences you cannot imagine.Poor examples of logotype as logo: Microsoft, Virgin, Airtel.How ironic that all these three brands are making a great push to enter non-English literate markets with their products and services. Of the three, Airtel istargetting illiterate masses with its mobile and telephony products. Most ofvirgin's products and services can also appeal to illiterate people who can affordthem. Ditto for Microsoft's speech or telephony products.08: Mascot Is Not A LogoA mascot is an illustration and therefore makes a poor logo. The Linux communitysuffers because it only has a mascot, the penguin, but not a unique logo.Air India has its Maharaja as a mascot, but also has a logo that is unique and isemblazoned everywhere as well.What the logo can achieve, the mascot can never achieve.A mascot is optional. A logo is never optional.09: Illustration Or Photo Is Not A LogoA logo is a simple, primal shape, that captures the essence of what it represents.It achieves this without using tones and shades like a photo would, or strokes andsketchy lines like an illustration.A logo is powerful, because it is so simple.10: A Logo Is ColorlessAlways design a logo as a black on white shape.Then draw a white on black version. This to test how it would look against a blackbackground, say a black tee-shirt.
 
Then draw a simple outline shape, which is neither black nor white. just anoutline shape. This to check how it would look if you emboss or engrave it on asurface, such as a glass door, or on leather, or have it cast in gold or anothermetal.You add unique, corporate colors to a logo solely to use unique color combinationsfor creating a corporate or brand identity. Seldom do you notice that a logo getsused in black-and-white most of the time, such as on continuation sheets, and evenwhile faxing or photocopying, where it gets devoid of its colors.11: Use One Or Two Colors If PossibleEach color you add to a logo almost doubles its costs of production. A logo withthree colors is expensive to paint or produce on non-paper surfaces. One with fouror more becomes even more difficult.Designers try to justify four or more colors by convincing clients the logo willbe economical to reproduce using the CMYK colors of printing, such as on desktopprinters or in offset printing. However, a client also has to use a logo on non-paper surfaces, where CMKY may become impossible or difficult and expensive.12: Colors Must Be Web, Print, And Video SafeUse colors that can be represented on the web using1. the web-safe palette of 216 colors, or the expanded web-safe II colors;2. offset printing on coated and uncoated paper, such as newspapers;3.video-safe colors, such as broadcast television.Sometimes a color could be visible on the screen, but cannot be producedaccurately in print, or vice-versa. So be careful while choosing colors for alogo. The color must fall in the common color-gamut of all the three media.13: A Logo Cannot Have Metallic ColorsHow will you represent metallic colors, such as gold or platinum, accurately onthe web, in print, and in video? None of these media reproduce metallic colorswith their color models.What will you do with your dependency on metallic colors, if the logo has to beetched, embossed, or engraved on a metallic surface, anyways?14: Test Inverse ColorsSub-consciously, you tend to design a logo to be used against a white background.It could be eventually used against a black background, so invert the colors tosee if it retains its look. If not, you may have to add a white box around thelogo, and that may just break the logo.Test the color version of the logo by placing it against backgrounds of white,black, and various other colors.Test the logo by placing it against one of the colors that matches one of thecolors of the logo. How will you invert or preserve the color combinations of alogo in such a case? Will you place it against an enclosing box of white or black?Or would you use the black-and-white version of the logo against coloredbackgrounds.The Benetton logo is an example worthy of study. So is the Apple logo, gracing so
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zcip.vr9014

Thanks for your share.

reply05 / 13 / 2009
Bandicoot

Great article Niyam. Thanks!

reply02 / 11 / 2009
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