A good logo as your signature should be simple, professional and informative. You can effortlessly implement this on your signature without making it look dull and boring. Presented below are some of the ways to use to make your email signature cool with a logo.

Don’t include too much information

One of the most common mistakes people make with their email signature is to thing that they are mini autobiography. They end up jamming them with lots of unnecessary information and links which ultimately make them look dull and boring. When you create your signature with a logo, there is no need to include too much information.

The essence of the logo is to market your brand, and if people can take note of it, they will definitely head over to your website where they will find the rest of the information you are tempted to include in the sign. Therefore, try and keep the signature clean and to the point by not cramming it with the logo in addition with lots of other information.

Consider the color of your logo

As noted earlier, the signature will be the last thing the reader will see after reading the email. When you use a logo as the signature, it is important to consider the dominant color of your design. There are instances when the color may appear a little dull when used in the signature and in such cases, it is advisable that you tweak the colors and probably use some bright pallets to attract the reader’s attention to the logo. Obviously, when the color of the logo doesn’t contrast that of the email, then decipherability will be hampered and the logo will not be as effective as it would have been.

Use just the right size

For proper organization and better display of the logo on the signature, the size ought to be just the right one. A large logo size will not just be boring and annoying to the reader, but it may also affect the rendition of your email and make the structure and the organization disjointed. Additionally, if the signature takes more space than the actual content of the email, you may appear as imposing your brand to the recipients and it may make them change your perception about you.

Use smaller font pallets

Too many fonts are not a disaster for your logo alone, but also for your signature. Ideally, it is advisable not to use a lot of fonts in your logo and if this is the case, you will have to do some tweaking when using the logo in your email signature. This is a nice way to keep the logo simple and clear as the name and thus making it more effective in your branding efforts.

Let the logo be in the right format for small screens as well

It goes without saying that the logo should be able to render properly in computer screens before you use in the signature. Some businesses not fond of using communications may just pick any logo format and use it as the signature. You need to ensure that the logo is in a format which can be rendered across multiple devices, and especially on small screens, without its quality being affected. This is very important given that the number of people accessing emails via mobile device keeps on increasing and if the image in the signature can’ be displayed well on mobile devices, it may be a blow to your marketing and branding efforts.

Full width email signs

For most people using emails in their signatures, they follow the conventional format of position the signature at the bottom left section at the end of the email. Whereas this is the position which has been in use since time immemorial, sometimes a little creativity is needed to stand out from the crowd. For instance, you can modify the logo size to have an extended width to make it larger and more conspicuous.

In this way, it will draw in a lot of attention from the reader, besides making the email appear aesthetically appealing. However, you should consider this approach only if the logo can adopt a landscape layout without compromising its quality and overall visual appeal.

For better results with the logo as the email signature, there are other common mistakes that people fall for when designing their email signatures. For instance, there is no need for you to put all your phone numbers and email addresses on the signature. Watch out for such mistakes and you will never get it wrong with your email signatures.

Learn more about building a logo for a beauty company here!

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A LinkedIn logo therefore, demands serous considerations and should not be designed with the concepts or the mentalities adopted when creating the other types of logos. If you are interested in creating a killer LinkedIn logo to separate your practice or profession from the millions that are already flocked in the site, the following is how you ought to do it right-:

Being unique is not an option

For stellar LinkedIn logo results, being unique is not an option, but rather the only option. There are millions of people and businesses in LinkedIn, all keen on establishing connections with either likeminded individuals, businesses or the right target audiences. By its very nature therefore, the only way to stand out from the crowd and be noticed by potential partners is to have a unique logo to distinguish your LinkedIn business or personal page from the rest. It is important to take your time and do adequate research so that when you finally decide to create the logo, you will be certain it is absolutely unique and there are no chances of finding similar ones in LinkedIn or anywhere else in the internet.

Understand your brand

For the most part of it, LinkedIn is all about branding and networking. You are either branding your business or yourself with the nature of products or services you provide. Unless you have a good comprehension of what your brand is all about, creating an effective LinkedIn logo may forever be a mirage. Once you have known the brand, it becomes a breeze to play around with other design elements such as symbols, fonts, colors amongst others in the creation of the logo. Therefore, be sure to know what your brand is and what it stands so that you create relevant logo that will vibrate well with your potential networks within the social media website.

Use the Psychology of color to your advantage

Color in LinkedIn logo design is not just to appeal to the eyes and make people marvel at your profile or business page. Wrong use of color in a professional social media site like LinkedIn can bring nuisance to your message and instead of attracting potential networks, they will be running away.

For you to get it right with the appropriate colors for your logo, a good understanding of the color psychology is important. This is nothing but simply how the mind perceives different colors and the kind of meaning it attaches to them. Essentially, the choice of color should be dictated by the kind of emotional responses you want to evoke or convey to those who will be seeing the logo. Below is a quick breakdown of the color psychology so that that you know which colors to choose and for what purposes-:

• Yellow – inventive, sunny, optimism
• Purple – royalty, wise, evocative, spiritual
• Green – growth, instructional, organic
• White – clean, pure, simple
• Brown – historical, rural, steady
• Red – sexy, energetic, bold
• Blue – professional, tranquil, trustworthy, medical
• Black – credible, powerful

Simple and Flexible

While branding in LinkedIn, it pays to maintain simplicity and flexibility just as you would do when creating a logo for any other offline business. Your LinkedIn logo should have the simplicity to make it memorable in the minds of as many people as possible, and it also imperative for it to be flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs of your profession or business.

The last thing you want is to have a logo that will look outdated and annoyingly deprecated after using it for just a couple of months. To gauge the level of simplicity desired for your LinkedIn logo, browse some of the top performing professionals or businesses in your industry and see what they are doing right with their logos.

Consider using the services of professional designers

With the advent of the internet and a superfluity of free online logo design tools, temptation to create your LinkedIn logo without professional input might be endearing. If you are a professional graphics designer, then such an attempt may be allowed. But if your profession is something else and you are in LinkedIn to make networks and get business, then it is highly recommended you hire professional logo designers to create the logo for you.

Professional designers have the skills and the experience needed to transform your inspiration into a design and create a functional logo that will meet your branding needs in LinkedIn. Additionally, they are well aware of the current trends and the best approaches guaranteed to give you great results in your specific niche.

Learn how to make a youtube logo here!

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Consequently, designers working on designs to show on the internet are now compelled to adapt their designs for proper rendition on the mobile devices. If you are a designer working on graphics for display on mobile devices, here are a few tips to get you going on the right path.

Resolutions and screen size

The various mobile devices for which you are adapting your designs have different screen sizes and resolutions. It implies that you can’t create graphics with the same resolution and expect it to render well across all the devices. This will make the design not to appear in the right manner if it is displayed on devices that are not compatible with the resolutions you had designed it for. Therefore, check the display screens as well as the pixel densities and make designs that will render without any resolution problems on the mobile devices.

Flexible designs

Most of the mobile devices, except for those manufactured by Blackberry will have a G-Sensor. A G-Sensor is a technology fitted in the mobile devices to understand the orientation of the devices and display information in the right format. It is the technology for determining whether the device is held vertically or horizontally so that it adjusts the devices’ display to reflect the same, either landscape display or portrait display.

As much as the mobile devices have the G-Sensors, designers working on graphics meant to mobile display should not rely on it but use appropriate designs skills that will lead to this flexibility. In graphics design, as well as web design, this calls for a fluid layout so which will allow the content to be tilted or stretched to offer a good viewing experience.

Color

The color is another important consideration to have in mind if you are designing graphics for display on mobile devices. Depending on the manufacturer, mobile devices will have different levels of color support. For example, Blackberry and HTC support up to 65K colors while iPhone, Nokia, and Samsung support up to 16 million colors. With color, however, the devices will adjust accordingly, with those having higher displaying better quality.

Image Formats

PNG is the most preferred image format when designing graphics for display on mobile devices. It supports up to 254 partial transparency pixel levels, and this gives you the versatility you need to take advantage of alpha transparency. PNG image format has greater color depths, and such images will still perform well in instances of variable transparencies. Other image formats like GIF are pretty limiting and will always result in loss of transparency leading to poor image rendition on the mobile devices.

Limit the use of text

When working on projects for mobile displays, you should not cram them with a lot of text. This is because it is not easy to read text from such devices and besides, images or pictures work best for mobile devices. Therefore, try to adopt your design in such a manner that you will make the most use of images and only use text when it is necessary. This won’t just work for the mobile display but also, it will enable you to have a quality output.

Test on actual mobile device

While you adopt these tips for creating graphics for display on mobile devices, you must remember to test the design on the actual devices before you can wrap up the design. As a matter of fact, you need to test it in different mobile devices so that you get a feel on how the final design will render. In this manner, you will be in a good position to make adjustments and changes that will give you a satisfactory output across most of the devices. Without testing, however, your design may only show in one website and fail to render properly in the rest, and you shall have failed as a designer.

Consider Using Google Design Standards

Google has laid out a set of standard for graphic designers and webmasters are working on a project meant to display on smart phones and other mobile devices. With these standards, you will get all the information needed to come up with responsive designs that will work just fine on any mobile device. It is also a great resource to learn about new technologies relevant to mobile designs.

These tips should help you going along with your designs meant for mobile displays. You should, however, be on the lookout for more and new tips since this is a fast paced industry.

Learn how to price your work as a designer here!

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Logos don’t have to be designed in multiple colors in order to look great. The effectiveness of a logo is not dictated upon by the number of colors used but rather the logo’s ability to attract the attention of the potential clients and help the business or company in branding. A closer look into some of the most famous logos in the world will reveal that they have just but a few colors with the majority of them having one or two colors only.

However, this is not to deny the use of multiple colors in logo design. If they can be used effectively without distorting the logo, then there is no problem in using as many colors as you dim fit for one design. With that said, here are beautiful logos with just two colors to illustrate how a few colors in a logo design can be powerful:

The FedEx Logo

The first logo we look at with two colors is the FedEx logo. This is one of the renowned logistics companies offering the shipment of goods from one country to another. The two colors of the logo are purple and orange. These signify the dignity and the royalty with which the company conducts its services.

Other than having two logos, the FedEx logo has been cited in numerous places as being intelligently designed using negative space to introduce a hidden meaning to the logo. If you look keenly, you will notice an arrow between the “E” and “X”. According to the company, the hidden arrow in the logo suggests that the company is a forward moving one, and it has all its focus on the future.

The Shell Logo

Shell Corporation is one of the energy giants in the present times. The history of the logo dates back to over a century ago when the founders used to ship petroleum to India then come back with seashells to sell in Europe. This is where the inspiration for the logo came and it has never deviated too much from its original design, even though it has undergone a number of modifications. The only two colors of this logo are yellow and red and it is among the two color logos you will ever come across.

The CNN Logo

The CNN logo is another two color logo you will admire looking at each and every time. CNN is a leading cable network with presence all over the globe. The logo is designed in a manner that its shape reflects on the stability, power and reliability of the new network. The logo uses only two colors: white and red. The red color of the logo represents the valued image of the network as well as the omnipresence and the entrepreneurship of the company as well as its services.

The Amazon Logo

The Amazon logo is another two color logo that has been responsible for the branding and the immense success of the online retail giant. The logo is a simple typeface one with two predominant colors of yellow and black against a white background. Other than using only two colors, the logo has a certain hidden meaning that displays the design acuity that was expended in creating the logo.

It has an arrow starting at the first letter A and terminating at letter Z. This is an indication that the store has everything from A to Z which you mind. Additionally, the shape of the arrow represents a smile to indicate the good customers care service that has become synonymous to the online retail giant.

The Baskin Robins Logo

This is yet another two color logo with amazing hidden meaning. The logo is a simple B and R with the name of the company beneath it and all done in purple and blue colors against a white background. Baskin Robins is a leading ice cream franchise in the United States offering a total of 31 flavors and this forms the hidden meaning in the logo. Part of the B and part of the R has been used to indicate the number “31”, total flavors of ice cream offered by the franchise.

Hope for African Children Initiative Logo

Hope for African Children Initiative has a mission to support African communities. Its logo displays a magnificent use of negative space with only two colors of orange and gold. The white space used in the logo is the map of Africa, and it used to form the image of a child looking up to a mother. It is a wonderful two color logo filled with a lot of emotions of love and peace.

The Chevron Logo

This is an American multinational energy corporation considered as one of the six major oil companies in the world. The present logo has only two colors of blue and red, and it’s without a doubt one of the two color logos you will ever see in the present times.

Check out these essentials for logo design!

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It is common for most businesses in the pet industry to have a logo for pet business as the face of their business. The logo is the first thing that people see and is what they will use to remember the business. When creating a log for a pet store, many businesses spend a lot of time and resources to ensure that they end up with the perfect pet logo.

Effective pet logos should show the potential clients what the business offers in just a single glance. To make this kind of a logo, there are a number of considerations which must be taken by the designers. They are as follows-:

Easily recognizable

When it comes to creating an effective pet logo, simplicity is very important. The logo should be designed in such a manner that a customer will be able to recognize it anywhere, be it online or in printed materials. Since such a pet logo will be easily recognizable, it will also be easy for the customers to remember most of the time, increasing their likelihood of purchasing from your store compared to other pet stores around.

Additionally, most of the great logos in the world will reveal to you that they are very simplistic in design, yet have done marvelous jobs at promoting and enhancing the brand of their companies. Take, for instance, Apple, McDonald’s, Baskin Robins, Google, CNN, etc. They all have simple, but effective logos.

Make it Unique

For the pet logo to be recognizable and memorable to your current clients and the potential clients, it has to be unique to stand out from the rest. It is imperative to remember that people have a short span of attention and by presenting them with a unique logo, they are likely to give it more attention compared to other business with generic logos that doesn’t inspire any uniqueness. A good pet logo should have the ability to create an instant and memorable image in the minds of your potential clients and pass over the central marketing message in an instant.

Consider the scale of the logo

In the present times, logos are not just for use on the pet business website alone. The pet logo is likely to be used in printed ads, business cards, small signs, and stationery amongst other branding items. When considering a logo for a pet business, therefore, it should be scaled appropriately so that it will render perfectly in all the places that it needs to be displayed. Essentially, the logo should look good on digital formats as well as on printed media without any distortion or losing dimensions.

Pet logos look best in monochrome colors

Colors say a lot about the pet business and the choice of colors used in the pet logo should be done with very careful considerations. For instance, if you are dealing with pet grooming, pet foods, or a pet sitting business, then the color white on the logo would be an ideal one since it signifies cleanliness. The other potentials colors you can use for a pet logo design include the following-:

• Black and Grey – Shows elegance and authority. Ideal for pet rescue and animal care businesses.
• Red – in the pet industry, this is the color of action. It can be a good choice for a pet logo if the business deals with pet walking and pet foods to give an indication of vitality and energy of the products or services offered.
• Purple – always the color of royalty and will work well if the business deals with luxury pet products and services.
• Blue – blue shows trust and confidence, and it is ideal for a pet logo groomers, sitters and generally the care business.
• Green – indicates environmental friendliness and ideal for natural pet products.
• Brown – being the color of age and wisdom, it would be ideal if used on a pet logo for a pet business dealing in caring for the aged animals.
• Orange – shows creativity and recommended for a pet business selling innovative products or pet toys.

It is true that the choice of color will help in portraying the business’ personality and strong selling points, it is also crucial to remember that the pet logo looks fine in black and white. This is because there are certain occasions when you may need to use ads which might not be available in color but only in black and white. Additionally, there are times when printing in color would be unnecessarily expensive, and you will have to revert to black and white.

Other design elements

Other than color, there are other design elements of the logo which will speak volume about your pet business. For instance, the typography, the images and the shapes used are of paramount importance and should be used with a lot of intelligence to create a simple, unique and powerful pet logos.

Check out how to create logos for schools here!

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The world of design moves very fast. Whether it is the font or color trends, the evolution takes place so fast that a good number of designers are unable to cope up with the speed. It is very possible that what worked a few years ago may already be obsolete in the world of graphics design. However, if you stick your design to the core principles, you won’t have to worry about the luster of your design fading away once the fad is gone.

In this article, we take a look at the logo design color trends and what every designer need to watch out for as far as the use of colors in logo design is concerned. This is so that you know what is happening in the world of colors, lest you risk coming up with designs that won’t be responsive hence won’t have a greater impact on your target audience.

Adoption of monochromatic color schemes

Lots of logo designers are adopting minimalist logo design style. This style of logo design is very much compatible with monochromatic color schemes. Hence, since the flat design is a hot trend on the rise, the use of monochromatic colors scheme is also a logo design color trend you need to watch out for in 2016. One of the beauties of using monochromatic color schemes in logo design is the fact that they are very vibrant, and they come with little distractions which in turn give designers the flexibility to make bold statements and also experiment with various color choices.

Contrasting with dull shades

Even for aesthetic purposes alone, extreme contrasting in logo designs prevents the design from being stale, and this is a great concern for minimalist designers. As one of the logo design color trends, contrasting logo designs with dull shades provides decisive visual patterns that are not just great for the overall beauty of the design but also ideal for improving the readability of the design.

As a result, a designer can use such contrasting to make the marketing message in the logo clear and appealing to the target audience thus making it more effective for branding purposes. However, before you delve into your color palettes and start playing around with them, you must understand the graphics design color theory so that you use the colors and contrast them in the right and professional manner.

Bright Colors and Texture

In most of the logo designs, you can easily recognize texture when used on a normal background but only under the right conditions. But texture can also be combined with bright colors to give exquisite results in logo design. Presently, the use of bright colors and textures seems to have caught the attention of many designers and has now become one of the most pronounced logo design color trends in 2016.

One thing you will appreciate about using bright colors and textures in logo design is their ability to give a unique aesthetic appeal to the design without necessarily appearing to be overly skeuomorphic.

Highlighting text with colors

Another logo design color trend that most designers are already adopting is using colors to highlight text in their designs. One of the aims of creating a logo is to make it attract the attention of the target audience. This can be achieved easily with the use of bright colors to highlight the text in the logo.

Naturally, bright colors are attention grabbing and using them especially on logos with dull backgrounds will transform such logos and make them visually appealing while at the same time having the ability to get the much needed attention. But as usual, before you try highlighting the text in your logo with bright colors, you must be aware of the graphics color design theory to avoid doing this in the wrong manner.

Two Color Logo Designs

In addition to the adoption of monochromatic color schemes, there is an increased adoption of two color logo designs. This is another logo design color trend that many designers have placed on their radar and are keen on its evolvement. One admirable thing about using only two colors in logo design is the ease with which you can adapt to various designs styles and concepts.

For instance, two colors work very well with negative space and will also give stellar results when used with white space designs. This is not to mention the fact that with only two, you can create a great contrast in any design, and this is very instrumental for the legibility of the logo as well as its ability to grab attention.

As you consider the logo design color trends of 2016, it is imperative to have in mind that some of these logo design color trends are just fads which might not live to stand the taste of time. Therefore, always be sure that you design is grounded on the proper design principles.

Learn where Google got its logo here!

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In only a few years, Google has managed to achieve a lot in branding, something that would normally take other companies decades of work with millions of dollars worth of resources. Their colorful logo is now a staple of the online experience that’s enjoyed by millions across the globe. But behind the beautiful logo that’s now the trademark and benchmark for online search experience, there is a rich history. It has undergone lots of transformations though the concept has never moved away from the typeface logo we see today. Here is a brief explanation detailing how Google came to have their current logo.

The story begins in 1996 at Stanford University where one of the co-founders, Larry Page was fledgling a research project code-names “Back Rub”. The project was later renamed Google, following a misspelled version of the word Googol. The idea was to demonstrate that Google had far much processing powers than any other search engine during that time.

The first Google Logo was designed by Sergey Brin, a co-founder in 1998 using the Gimp Software. This marked the beginning of the several iterations that were to follow under the supervision of Ruth Kendar, a professional designer hired by Google to oversee the development of a logo that would connect with their audiences and also match their marketing needs.

By 1999, Google’s success was already dwarfing the competition, and the Google logo was becoming more and more popular. It was at this point that the company brought in Ruth Kendar, a professional designer to continue with evolving the brand. Back then, Kendar had no idea how big the company would be, but she was happy to take up on the task and continue with the evolution of the brand.

Kendar’s first attempt at redesigning the Google logo was done with the Adobe Garamond as the typeface. Kendar’s idea with this first attempt was not to meddle up with the text since it would have interfered with the eligibility of the logo. She simply added her whimsy using two-dimensional O’s and primary colors. She then used a small pattern to join the Os together as a symbol of infinite connection. This design was liked by Brin and Page.

The second attempt by Kendar on the Google Logo saw her focus her attention mainly on the Os in the middle of Google. She introduced a further hint on the infinite pattern as well as a target to symbolize the search engine’s accuracy in helping people find what they are looking for on the internet. Her reason for doing was that the founders wanted to pass a message to the competing search engines that Google was a reliable search provider, and most importantly, it had an algorithmic complexity but an easy to use application.

The next redesign of the Google logo saw a modification of the layout and the typeface. The designer decided to use overlapping circles and ITC Leawood and joined them with a cross hair to show that the business was intertwined and had a global presence. But Kendar thought that her new design was more like an Olympics logo and not that of a leading search engine. This made her thinking on how to change the logo to remain within the context of the business.

In the later version, Kendar came across Catull, the typeface that is now synonymous to the Google logo. This typeface gave the logo more corporate looks while at the same time appearing to be slightly playful in the sizing of the letters. Though this was a step towards the right the direction, the overall design appeared to be busy, and it was difficult to mark out the final meaning from the Google logo.

With the feedback from the previous design, which featured a magnifying glass and a crosshair Kendar simplified the redesign, eliminating the crosshair but keeping the magnifying glass and adding on it a smile – to reflect on the great user experience of the now world’s largest search engine.

Slowly, Kendar realized that she was on her way back to her very initial iteration, and once again reverted to the Leawood font. She introduced a touch of dimension as well as some shading to the top of the Google logo. The reason for this was to make the Google logo appear to be floating on top of the white layout. At this point, Kendar was advised to try more simplified approaches that will make the Google logo simpler while retaining its corporate look.

Finally, Kendar got the design right after playing around with the colors and never deviating from the typeface. She ended up using primary colors, but rather than having the colors go in order, she used a secondary color on L, to illustrate the idea that Google doesn’t have to follow the rules at all times. That is the current logo you see each time you use the giant search engine.

The Google logo has stood the test of time and is now an iconic mark that has helped the company realize the immense success they have had in the past few years.
Learn how to design a basic logo here!

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Branding is something taken seriously with most of the big supermarket chains. With a good brand, a supermarket can attract the attention of the consumers and compel them to purchase from their stores. One way of achieving this is by having a professional logo, designed to pass the brand message effectively to the consumers. You will notice that most of the top performing supermarket brand logos are simple in design, easy to remember, and one can understand the meaning of the message they are conveying. Here is a list of the top six supermarket chain logos that are currently loved by most of the consumers:

Amazon

The Amazon logo is not just one of the top supermarket chain logos but also one of the best retail chain logos you will ever come across. The logo is created in a simple manner to represent the main marketing message of the e-commerce giant. It has a yellow arrow, pointing from A to Z to signify that they are selling everything you may need. Again, the arrow is drawn in a manner to represent a smile, showing the potential customers that will get good customer care experience that will make them happy and smile.

The good news about this logo is that it doesn’t have any hype or false promises since the store provides everything under the sun that a retail shop can have, and they also offer superior customer care experience. This is why the Amazon logo is a top supermarket chain logo in the present times.

Target

Target is one of the top retail stores in the United States, and it has become more of a household name in the country. Perhaps the immense success that that store has had over the years can be attributed to the simple, yet powerful bull’s eye logo it uses. The logo features a small circle at the center of a target, surrounded by peppermint flavored candy.

Though the logo has undergone some modifications since the retail store started its operations, the current one features a simplistic design in a red color to express passion and optimism that the store has. It has everything needed for a good logo: It is simple, unique, and memorable with powerful colors and thus it easily qualifies for our list of top supermarket chain logos.

Wal-Mart

The Wal-Mart is another supermarket chain logo that can’t miss in this list. Wal-Mart began its operations way back in 1962, and the logo has gone some modifications that conveyed different messages from the retail giant back then. The current logo features an asterisk or a flower whose meaning symbolizes the friendliness and superior quality of the brand.

The bright yellow color used in the logo also symbolizes that the store is environmentally friendly, and it also adds a lot of charm to the Wal-Mart logo. The simplistic design of the logo has done a lot of wonders in bringing more people to the store hence contributing to the success of the retail giant. This logo will always be one of the best supermarket chain logos of all times.

Etsy

Etsy is another retail giant whose logo is considered as one of the top supermarket chain logos in the United States. It is the true definition of simplicity when it comes to graphics and logo design. Its choice of a yellow color serves to remind people of the nature of the business because yellow is mostly associated with bingeing and making a purchase on impulse. Nonetheless, it is a simple yet beautiful logo that is easily memorable to most people.

Kroger

The Kroger logo has elicited a lot of heated debates on its suitability for a corporate organization as well as a retail supermarket chain. But despite all the noise, the logo has done significant work in establishing the supermarket brand amongst Americans, and it is one of the most loved supermarket chain logos in the country.

One of the unique features of this logo is how the design used in writing the letter K and G. They are so unique and consumers will never confuse the logo with any other, and this is one of the features that distinguish good logos from the amateurish ones.

Giant

Giant’s logo is simply magnificent and one of the most loved supermarket chain logos in the United States. The logo is a perfect display of how to use color, symbols, typography and space in designing a simple and concise logo. The logo is a depiction of a large yellow bowl with slices of apples in it.

The choice of colors is also appropriate, with purple signifying the prestige in the brand, yellow showing passion, and impulse to make a purchase, red indicating the intensity while green signifies the types of products that the retail sells to consumers.

Check out the top Olympic logos here!

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The choice of a color is a crucial factor in every graphics design project. Color has a different meaning, and their use is warranted on varying occasions. A thorough understanding of the graphic design color theory is thus necessary for every designer who aspires to learn the right use of colors to improve the quality and effectiveness of their designs.

Whereas the topic of graphics design color theory is wide and extensive and sometimes can be very subjective, here are the important things you need to know about colors, how to make the right choices and how to bring them together in design.

The visual effects of colors in your design

Graphic design color theory lays a lot of emphasis on the visual effects of the colors you choose to use. According to the theory, if you use colors that don’t blend well together, or you choose too many of them, or maybe you decide not to use enough colors, then your design is likely to drive people away and miss an opportunity to pass your message. It is ideal to settle on a scheme in the beginning and stick to it till the end of the project.

Some of the major applications of color according to the graphic design theory is to attract attention, convey specific messages, group related elements together, and enhance the general visual appeal of the design. You can use a small dose of a contrasting color to draw attention to particular elements in your design.

You can also use colors intelligently to create or set the mood for the design. For instance, according to the graphic design color theory, mixing warm and cool colors can be used effectively to create depth in any design. Darker colors on other hand are suitable for creating balance on the visual weight of the design.

While trying to create various visual impacts with colors, it is important to take note that you don’t use too many colors just as you normally avoid using too many fonts in your design. Ideally, you need just enough number of colors to give a good contrast but not too much to make the design lack similarity.

Choosing the right color scheme

The graphics design color theory dwells heavily on how designers can choose the right color schemes that will allow them to come up with great designs. One important consideration to have in mind is first to understand the meaning of that color. As a rule of thumb, you need to begin with the dominant color, and this can be obtained from the logo or other marketing materials like brochures.

The other way to settle on the dominant color is to think about the words you are likely to use when describing the company or the business. It mainly points to the emotional response you want elicited on the people who will be seeing the design. For instance, McDonald’s used yellow and red because these colors are known to increase appetite and make people impulsive. It played well with their business of selling food. IBM on other hand used blue since it wanted to make people associate their products with trust and stability.

Here are a few color schemes and their meanings that you can always incorporate in your designs:

Monochromatic color schemes

Monochromatic schemes are effective when you need to establish an overall mood of the design because they are clean and elegant. As per the graphics design color theory, these schemes have a way of producing a soothing effect, and they are also easy and gentle on the eyes.

Complimentary color schemes

Complimentary color schemes are created when warm colors are used against cool colors. Graphic design color theory suggests that these colors should be used when you need to create an intrinsically high level of contrast and to achieve a dramatic look at the same time. These colors are vibrant, extremely eye-catching they work together to intensify each other.

Analogous color schemes

According to graphic design color theory, analogous schemes are almost similar to monochromatic schemes, only that they provide a lot of nuances since they are drawn from a wide band on the color wheel. The analogous schemes are preferred when you need a second and a third color to support the dominant color.

Triadic color schemes

Graphic design color theory suggests that the triadic color scheme offers a strong visual contrast without compromising the harmony and richness of the color. They are not just like the normal complimentary color, but they add vibrancy especially when used with unsaturated colors. One of these colors can be used as the dominant color while the other two are used as accents.

Even though graphic design color theory provides a lot, consistent practice is important to develop the competency and confidence to use colors in the right manner.  Don’t shoot yourself in the leg if you fail to get it right the first time. Keep on trying and know that it is a skill that you can learn and master with time.

Check out this article on color as well!

The post What You Absolutely Need to Know About Colors appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

An organization’s logo offers the world an insight of who you are and what you do. It is what people use to remember your organization whenever they see it. As such, therefore, it should not just help in branding the organization, but also give a story and tell the world something more about the company without necessarily using words. A logo should, therefore, offer a clear and compelling story that will stick in the minds of your target audience for as long as possible. It is, however, regrettable that many organizations don’t understand how to tell a story with a logo.

In most of the cases, many organizations tend to do too much with their logo until they end up missing the core point entirely. Sometimes they use dull, regular and annoying visual images that have no relevance whatsoever to the group they are targeting. Many are the times when you have seen logos with people holding hands, forming a circle or simply a logo comprising of planet earth alone with no other thing.

This is not to allude that such logos are meaningless, but they are never effective in telling the story of the concerned company or organization. It is true that such logos may gain immense popularity due to the activities of that organization as well as their marketing efforts, but if you can’t tell a story with a logo, you will be missing more on the potential benefits you would have reaped from it.

Presented here are a few insights on how you can tell a story with a logo. It boils down to considering certain fundamental aspects of logo design that aimed at communicating directly to the target audience. Use these tip so that you create meaningful logos that will always tell a story to your audiences-:

Has to be unique

If you have the logo portraying the same concept and quality like every other logo around, you will not be able to tell a story with a logo. It is imperative that you be unique and stand out from the crowd so that people can notice your logo from the thousands that are also screaming for their attention. One way of being unique is to consider your industry and pick on the particular things that make you different from the others. Use such things to get inspirations that you can then incorporate in your logo to tell a story.

Use a designer who understands your core value

The other element to consider on how to tell a story with a logo is to use the services of a professional designer with the ability to understand the core values of your organization. It is easy to pick up any designer you meet, or probably the cheap ones, but you will never get the most out of their work if they don’t understand what you and your organization stands for. Remember that a logo can be aesthetically appealing, but if it lacks the ability to tell a story to make the audience relate to your business, then it will be just like another business emblem gracing the branding and marketing materials for the organization.

Use Shapes with meaning

Every design element in your logo should aim at passing a particular message to your audience. The use of shapes is thus a subtle way that most organization uses to tell a story with a logo. For instance, the following shapes will have various meanings as indicated below-:

• Lines – using vertical lines in design, such as pillars are an indication of strength, hence masculinity. Curved on the other hand shows femininity and can also be considered as calm and neutral.
• Squares and rectangles – indicates tradition and stability
• Triangles – these suggest power and science, hence their use in institution and hospital logos
• Circles – shows partnership, family, inclusivity, and endurance.

When these shapes are used correctly and in the right manner, you will be in position to effectively tell a story with a logo.

Color choice

The color choice is another element of design you can use to tell a story. Humans are emotive beings and colors are known to evoke different kinds of emotions in people. You can thus use colors in your logo to give an insight into the feelings you hold dear. For instance, you can use color to show energy, passion, aggression (red), productivity, friendliness, confidence (orange), wisdom, prestige, royalty (pink), security, earthiness (brown) amongst others.

Font Choice

There are different ways in which fonts can be used. The factors to consider when you want to use fonts to tell a story are the specific type of font chosen, the shape as well as the actual written message. Fonts can be used to pass different messages relating to aggression and masculinity, modernity, cleanliness, freshness, dependability and trustworthiness amongst others.

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