How to make your first logo

Hello, this is Jules and welcome to the Pool Party. Today we are continuing our series on branding, effective branding, and I did a whole episode on effective branding, what it is, the components of an effective brand, and creating brand values. This episode is going to be on logo.

Creating a logo, what a logo is, what it is not, things that often people confuse a logo for. And then we're going to talk about easy ways to create a logo what I think your logo should be just based upon Things that actually make branding simple and easy in the long run and what i'm considering here is the longevity ease of use when you work with designers and so this has a lot more to do with practicality than it does with the artistic factors that I think a lot of people consider when they create a logo.

And so I'm going to simplify this for you and there is going to be some tough love here because that is what I value. I value brutal honesty and I see people overcomplicate their branding too many times and my hope is that With this series is to take you out of indecision, make some choices, make them in a series of steps in order to get your branding done, and most importantly, put yourself out there to be more consistent and actually shoot your shots instead of puttering your 📍 fingers.

Okay, so let's dive in. Creating a logo. What is a logo? So logo is a mark or a name that your brand or business is. Is recognized for and as I write this podcast i'm talking to diy artists entrepreneurs Anyone who might be trying to make a brand chances are you're probably bootstrapping and doing this yourself So if you need help in creating your name, go ahead and listen to that episode There are a variety of ways to choose a name, but there are also practical things to consider.

So a logo is usually a visual representation of what your name is and who you are, and we're going to keep this simple. I'll tell you what a logo is not a lot of times I hear people confuse a logo with artwork, glyphs, and icons. A logo should not be complex artwork. It is not a glyph. A glyph usually accompanies a logo, and a glyph is a small piece of artwork that represents your brand.

And it is also not an icon. Sometimes icons accompany logos, but those are usually just as imagery. And then I'll go ahead and get into each of these artwork glyphs and icons with an example, but let's talk about artwork. When you see album artwork, for example, podcast artwork, like my podcast album, cover, that is not a logo.

That is artwork. It is comprised of key art and the reason why that is not a logo is because a logo needs to be simple. A logo usually is something that you could create a stamp out of, for example, and then you could stamp that thing everywhere and people would know that is your logo. One of the reasons why it's not artwork is usually a lot more complex.

Artwork is not easy to replicate, therefore you do not want that as your logo. Next up, we're talking about glyphs. So glyphs are imagery that usually accompany logos, and glyphs need to be quite simple. Let's use a easy example. So Gucci. Gucci is a brand, they have a logo but Gucci also has a glyph, which you'll often see, which is the double G's that are facing each other.

That is the glyph. And that glyph works, it's recognizable, but Gucci is also a luxury Excuse me, it's a a legacy brand. Gucci is a legacy brand, and they have that working for them. So that double G that's facing each other is iconic and recognizable.

But continuing on, icons. Icons are not your logo. So Gucci might have a lot of different icons. Let's say if you go on their website, they might have an icon for shirts, hats, scarves, but none of those components separate by themselves are the logo. Basically, none of those icons would mean anything if they were not put next to the stamp Gucci, which spells out G U C C I.

And this is important to distinguish because what your logo should be is something that represents your brand. It should be the name, and we'll talk about that a little bit more. So let's talk about a logo package. I think one of the reasons why people oftentimes confuse all these different pieces, artwork, glyphs, and icons, as part of the lo as the logo itself, is because they can make up a logo package.

But in reality, you don't really need any one of these things, artwork, glyphs, or icons, if your logo is not solidified. A glyph can oftentimes Be shown next to the name. So that's that double G again, next to the Gucci, that would be your glyph. And there can be varieties of your logo based on the size and where the logo is used.

Let's use the Gucci legacy brand again. So Gucci as legacy brands existed before the internet, but these days their clothing is on print runway. There are digital fashion shows. Websites that include the Gucci logo and all these varieties of places where you'll see the logo They appear in different sizes You wouldn't use the same logo for different types of publications because it doesn't always make sense to So they have an in house designer and probably contractors that work on different sizes of the logo.

Maybe the logo is even in motion and doing something different if they're trying to promote for New York Fashion Week, but it doesn't always have to be that way.

These are all stories that evolve over time based upon different uses. If you are a new artist, designer company, you don't need all these different varieties, so don't get too ahead of yourself. Don't overcomplicate. Alright, and then this is a little tough love because while there could be a ton of varieties for your logo, if you're just starting out, don't create crap ton of varieties.

Overcomplicating is another way of you not actually doing anything, and we want to avoid that. So indecision will kill you, and prevent death, just choose something simple. Now onto this next section, what I think your logo should be. As a designer, and I'm talking to you as someone who has worked with brands, both digital and print, I believe your logo should just be your name.

And I believe that you should start out in just black and white. Now, we talked a lot about finding your name. Ideally, now, your name is simple enough To where you could just write it in whatever preferred font you have, and then that should serve as your logo.

The reason why I think that just your name written out in your preferred font, a part of your brand packaging font should be your logo is because it's simple. It's easy enough to just send the font files to the designer. You can write it out and then that's your logo Logo needs to be simple because while you can make your artwork complicated let's say that you made a really awesome poster for gucci And it had all these trees in the background and lions jumping out You could stamp Gucci right in the corner, and you would be able to easily read that logo, just because it's spelled out.

There wouldn't be any confusion of what the brand represents, you could just read it. And I think this is why sometimes people get confused, because they oftentimes experience branding as all these different parts coming together, but each individual component serves a specific purpose, and has rules and limits.

Logos, should be simple. They need to be written out. You should be able to type a logo and any accompanying artwork or glyphs or icons can be different. But again, that is a separate design mission with different parameters. And the logo is going to be a part of your branding package.

So ideally you choose your fonts before you type out your logo so then you can play with it. And when I talk about colors, Just start out by writing your logo in black and white. Up next I will go ahead and give you a little bit of a bonus. But I think there are different ways to play around with your logo.

And if you listen to the branding episode, you'll know that I told you to only choose one to two fonts. So you shouldn't have too much wiggle room in writing out your logo name. And then you can play around with the spacing of that. that font. Even if you were to type it out in that same font it would still look similar and then that would help you maintain recognizability. And again, this is one of the reasons why we want to keep things simple because when you start to overcomplicate it makes it hard for designers to Your logo to work with your brand and then also it takes more time to make a branding asset for you that represents who you are and ultimately what that does is just All those little extra pieces of time that add to making you recognizable slows down your ability to move fast So that is a really quick discussion on logo today, but it's because logos need to be simple I see people over complicating logos all the time

a logo should just represent your brand, and I believe that it should just be the name of your brand or your company written out in your selected font. A logo is not artwork, it is not a glyph, it is not icon, it is not album art. A logo may be included on your album art, but it is not any one of these things by themselves.

And again, I think a logo, we didn't discuss this yet, I think a logo, you should stick with it and it should be simple enough to where you could use it for years without needing to change it. A lot of these design decisions that I've talked about already should be simple enough to where you don't need to change it too much.

You can change your artwork, you can change your glyphs, your icons, lots of different things. But ideally, you don't change your branding too much because then If you're changing these foundational bones of your visual representation, it becomes confusing and messy over time. So these are my thoughts on Logo, and if you like this series, go ahead and give this episode a thumbs up.

Rate this podcast five stars , this has been The Pool Party by Jules. Thank you, and have a great day.