1. It doesn’t represent your brand
For example, you decided to use a picture of a Unicorn, because they are your absolute fav!!! But it has nothing to do with your brand, and you haven’t thought of any creative ways to make it work. Your logo should consist of a symbol, type, and color, all of which should communicate something to your audience. As your logo is a powerful tool in your overall brand marketing, it’s important to take the time and make the investment to ensure it sends an accurate message to your audience and in turn, your audience, can clearly translate and resonate with that message.
2. You bought your logo for $5-25 or bought a stock logo
Your logo is the primary representation of your brand; it has the power to create recognition and influence your audience. Your logo ignites the trust and loyalty you seek to obtain from your clients. It’s the core element of your brand and reflects how much value you put into presenting yourself and your business. A $5 logo (some designers refer to these are pre-designed logos) or a stock logo you selected in a “logo market” is not thoughtfully designed to present your unique brand in an original, impactful, and effective way.
3. You entered a contest and won a FREE logo design
There is a slim chance that this free design is original, also most “FREEBIE DESIGNS” lack the investment of time needed to create imagery that accurately represents your brand.
4. You use multiple colors in one logo
Most of the time, depending on your industry, it is recommended to use no more than 2-3 colors. Color has meaning and if your goal is to present a strong, clear, and consistent brand, make it simple enough for people to understand and remember it.
5. You show your logo in a variety of colors and formats in your marketing material (Pretty much just doing whatever works for the piece you're putting it on)
Using various forms or versions of your logo can be detrimental to building your brand, especially when you are just starting out. It confuses your audience and disrupts the consistency of building a trustworthy brand. Having a brand style guide is extremely helpful when determining the best ways to use your logo, to learn more about brand style guides check out this post.
6. Your logo says too much or lacks structure Structure and balance is an essential element of designing a logo. Sometimes we are so focused on squeezing in as much as possible about our business that we go overboard with the different values we want our logos to reflect. By including too much messaging in your logo, you can easily confuse your customers and increase printing costs (for t-shirts, embroidery, etc.).
7. You don’t have a brand Your brand identity goes beyond your logo. It is how customers recognize and experience your business. It’s reflected in your customer service style, your staff, business cards, and website. Most importantly, your brand is the central premise of your advertising and marketing. If you cannot clearly identify your brand personality as a whole, you need to take some time to Discover Your Brand before determining what your logo should portray. 8. The logo is too busy or complex, so folks just don’t get it Apart from accurately representing your brand, your logo should make sense to others. Here are some samples of logos that too complicated and don’t represent what your business does. Using graphics that a totally disconnected from what your company is all about results in a disconnected customer that is not comfortable with investing in your business. Think of it this way, the easier you make it for people to understand and see the value in what you offer, the easier it is for the client to say YES.
Sidenote: Though your logo should reflect what you do, don’t be too literal, you should still incorporate creative elements that will make your logo unique and capture your audience’s eye sparking their desire to learn more.
9. You used a stylish font such as Papyrus or Comic San Often, very stylish fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus can become over kill when used too much. It’s a good practice to avoid fonts that are too trendy for several reasons, but I will touch on two:
A. Fonts that are overused may be commonly identified with other brands. When thinking of a logo, you want to create an image that is not only memorable but also unique to your business
B: Stylish fonts often feature tons of twirls and curves, which may not be legible to everyone. If folks can’t read it, they may not buy it.
10. You Made it Yourself
So you found an online logo maker or played around with some concepts and decided to put it to good use, after all, your friends and family think you did a great job! Though you may have pulled off creating an impressive logo, keep in mind, a professional design will give you professional results. When you invest in quality (meaning expertise and experience), your brand reflects quality. If your goal is to position your products or services at high price points, your target audience is expecting to work with a high-end business that only offers the best in luxury and elite services, how you present yourself needs to present that impression. Also, by making your logo a DIY project, you’re probably doing yourself a disservice. Though you may have tons of great ideas, designers can see things you can’t. They are capable of creating designs that you wouldn’t be able to envision because they have developed a trained eye for designing creative content.
So if you’ve made any of these mistakes, IT’s OK! Now you’ve learned some tips on how to improve. It’s a learning process for us all. If you have other questions or could use some help with creating the best logo, feel free to send me a message 😊
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