Ten Mistakes For Logos/Brand Imagery

These are based off of real-life experience... I've protected the names of the innocent (for the most part), because they do not know the crimes they have committed against all of humanities' eyes. What's sad is that brand imagery can actually cost you a lot of money, as first impression counts.

10. When you sell something to 40-year old men, the logo theme should not be decided by the bosses' 13-year old daughter.

9. Do not use the word art feature in Microsoft Office - see example of large corporation that violates this rule.

8. The "Eurostyle" font and other of the 1995-98 ilk should of been allowed to die a peaceful death. It's not a good technology font (for good examples, see Verdana, VAG, Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, ITC Bauhaus (great Eurostyle alternative), and Neo Sans). In short, if you're an engineer boss, let the graphic design and marketing people do their job.

7. Which leads me to my next point - don't choose the brand imagery for your tastes, choose it for your customers'. What kind of colors/items/fonts do they associate with your line of work? Are your customers looking for strong and conservative? Young and fun? Your job is to please customers and get them to buy from you.

6. Be readable. Can you read it a good distance away, driving past it at 40 miles an hour? Choosing fonts and imagery that is too detailed or the letters blend together can make your logo useless.

5. It's okay to be cute - as long as it makes sense. If you find you need to explain the logo over and over, go back to the drawing board.

4. Old English fonts are for gangstas and hoodlums, not businesses. If you're a gangsta, hoodlum, or sell to them, fine. Exception: Your organization has been around since before 1920, and it's your original, custom art font/masthead (Detroit Tigers, New York Times, etc). In which case, you probably don't have a reason to be reading this save for entertainment.

3. Comic Sans = Amateur. Don't even think about it. Ever. Under any circumstances. Even for what it was designed for, there are better fonts.

2. Don't rip off your competition. You'll be a knock-off from the start, and people do pick up these things in the back of their mind. Inspiration from your competitors and others, however, is a good thing, and is the way great art is created.

1. Be mindful of the other ways your logo could be taken... you may think innocently, but others may not. This obviously someone in a dentist's chair when you think about it - but it's also obviously not the first thing that comes to mind.

I hope these tips help... questions or comments, leave'em, and I'll do my best to answer'em.