It’s a common sense for someone to want something done flawlessly. As well as in logo design, a designer is required to create an attractive, timeless, memorable, and meaningful logo design.
There are some important points to be concerned to design a good logo, both for the designer and client. A logo will be used in a long period of time on various mediums, so a good research and insight will need to be well-prepared as a start for the logo design concept.
However, there are few things that can be concerned as boundaries or in the other words, useful knowledge that can be helpful for a designer to start designing a logo. A designer can easily make a decision during design process by looking closely at these points below.
1. Do not start your logo on Photoshop
Photoshop is useful for processing photographic or bitmap images, meanwhile logo is should be made in vector format. A logo is to be explored for various use, thus a vector format is needed for a logo because of its flexibility. It’s resolution will not change when enlargement is needed without maximum limit, editing will be much easier, and the file size is also relatively small.
To start designing a logo, a designer can use vector processing software such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. Vector files usually has EPS, AI, CDR, SVG or SWF extension.
2. Do not use bitmap as a part of logo
Prepare for more difficulties by using bitmap as a part of logo. Small resolution on bitmap file doesn’t work well for image enlargement. Meanwhile with high resolution, the file size would also too big. In other words, vector files and bitmap doesn’t meet each other in a logo design.Prepare for more difficulties by using bitmap as a part of logo. Small resolution on bitmap file doesn’t work well for image enlargement. Meanwhile with high resolution, the file size would also too big. In other words, vector files and bitmap doesn’t meet each other in a logo design.
3. Don’t use auto-trace graphics as the main part
While Adobe Illustrator has Live Trace, CorelDraw also has Trace Bitmap feature. Both purpose is to change bitmap into vector graphics. But when the original image has low resolution, the tracing will not have a good result.
Besides, there will be a lot of unclear and irregular graphic overlapping. This will become a problem in the next design and printing process. A vector graphic derived from auto-trace feature sometimes has hundreds or thousands small shapes, more hours should be spend to clear them one by one.
4. Stop overusing filter or special effects
Special effects or filters like shadows, light glow, flare or bevel might look nice but not as a logo. The use of flat colors is more recommended, because according to its function, logo will be applied to various mediums. If you want to experiment with special effects, do it as a secondary step after the basic logo design is final.
5. Do not copy images from the internet
It’s the easiest trick- if you want to make a logo with a roaring lion, you just googled it and found an attractive image. Image downloaded and traced, then ready and satisfying for a logo. But we must remember that the original image has a copyright. A logo actually needs originality, not only an interesting image quickly made up in an instant.
6. Stop mixing RGB and CMYK colors
The new version of Adobe Illustrator allows to mix RGB and CMYK colors in one page. This might be an interesting feature, but be careful when making a logo which will eventually going to printing process. The mixing of CMYK to RGB or vice versa cannot automatically converts one palette to another. It will be wise to use one color palette at a time; CMYK for printing process and RGB for digital display on screen or website.
7. Don’t use strokes for logo outline
Making outline for a logo using strokes is indeed a quick and practical way. But when the logo is stretched or reduced in size, the lines will be distorted when it’s not ‘scale with image’ (eventhough CorelDraw has this feature). Uncontrolled lines will turn into large lines when an object is reducedand vice versa, and this will be very ugly and unattractive. Using path line to make outlines will make an image more stable for various logo use. In Adobe Illustrator, ‘Offset Path’ can be used just like ‘Contour’ effect in CorelDraw.
8. Don’t forget to convert font
When a logo file is final and ready to sent to the client or to be transferred to other computer, don’t forget to convert font into basic lines or curves. This is done to prevent compatibility problems.
9. Do not let vector lines/shapes open
Don’t forget to group open ended lines and make it into actual shape. Adobe Illustrator allows filling colors into an open curves (CorelDraw also has ‘Fill open curves’ option eventhough it’s not in Default). An open curve will look good on screen but not on print mediums.