The competition in the technology industry is always a cutthroat one, and the companies realize that for them to stand out from the ground, branding is very important, and this begins with the design of the company logo. A beautiful logo won’t just make the company appear professional, but also will be memorable amongst the potential audiences and in so doing, the company has a chance to build a strong and a lasting brand in the minds of their customers. Whereas there are many tech companies with extremely gorgeous logos, some not already famous, below are the ones with the hottest logos currently.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a file storage company providing users with the ability to store and share files in the cloud. The company is relatively new, yet it has become immensely popular because it has negated the need for people to constantly walk with their memory sticks. Perhaps the other reason for the popularity of the company is its awesomely designed logo. It is simple, easily recognizable and a single glance at it will let you know immediately what the company deals in.

Storific

This is an app that allows its users to order food using their phones and they get notified with the food is ready for pickup. The logo features handwritten lettering on a bright blue background. It is beautiful, stylish and elegant, exuding a nice and warm personality.

Jelly

Jelly is a new tech company founded by Biz Stone, Twitter Co-founder. It is a platform where people can ask questions and get responses from other members and it is designed to be used by mobile devices, but allows for seamless integration with the social media websites. Just like Dropbox, Jelly’s logo is ultra clean, stylish and very simple. It depicts a shape of a white jelly fish against a light green background.

Snapchat

Snapchat is now one of the most popular social networks, and it uses a mascot as the logo. The logo is minimalist against a yellow background. The choice of the mascot is derived from the premises of the platform, in the sense that messages disappear immediately after they have been viewed. In this manner, it is like a ghost, since you won’t access the message again, and the choice of the logo has worked very well for the branding and overall success of the tech company.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a startup tech company which allows designers, artists, musicians and other professionals in the creative industry to have easy to build websites. Their logo features a beautifully elegant design, minimalist in nature and it can be easily recognized. The fact that the font is in white against a black background makes it conspicuous enough and it easily stands out from the rest.

Simple

Simple was created with a bold idea of replacing the high street bank. The design of the company logo is as simple as the company’s name – it is a beautiful design which will help you see as you spend your money. The logotype is all in uppercase, looking stern but professional.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a tech company that allows businesses and internet marketers to collect email addresses for purpose such as email marketing, and newsletter distribution. It is one of the top autoresponder companies you will ever come across in the present times. Their logo is a very simple logotype with the name with the name of the company written in a playful font against a white background. It is the perfect definition of minimalism in logo design.

Visual.ly

This is a startup tech company dedicated to creating different kinds of infographics to aid in presenting information in a more interesting way. Their logo features a sweetly designed logo mark which relates to its visual approach to data and it is well suited for the company.

GitHub

GitHub is a tech company that allows for code storage in the cloud and it’s a service that has grown immensely in terms of popularity. They have made it easier for programmers and developers in different parts of the world to share code with one another and also to work on projects together. GitHub’s logo is an interesting and a quirky one, perhaps to depict the personality of the company, which is now the most preferred for people working on open source projects. Their logo is half mascot and half cat and they have named it as “The Octocat”.

Hall

Hall is a communication app designed for businesses. It has various chat rooms that can only be accessed by the people who work for the respective companies. The Hall logo design is simple, clean and easy to recognize.

Check out why Uber’s head of design quit here!

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The other way of enhancing the branding is to have a powerful logo to act as a perpetual reminder to the current and potential clients about the business. In this piece, we highlight certain fundamental tips for barbershop logo design to set your shop apart from the rest and ensure you can you have a consistent stream of clients.

Adopt a simple and clean design

Simplicity and cleanliness are must-have features for any successful logo. They will make the logo look attractive and reflect on the barbershop in an uncluttered way. By being simple and clean, the logo should have balanced graphics, proper fonts, complimentary colors and a cleverly crafted tagline to pass across the main marketing message in a clear and concise manner. To know how to come up with such a logo, take time and brainstorm on the words that you think best describe your barbershop philosophy, services, values and generally what motivates you to give your best to your clients.

Let the logo reflect your barbershop style

One effective way of branding for any business is to target a niche audience. In the beauty or hair care industry, there is a plethora of styles offered by both the salons and barbershops. Identify your specific niche or style and incorporate some of its elements into the logo. For instance, is your style more hip-urban or do you cater for a specific type of clients such as black Americans? When you are able to reflect your style in the logo, it will make it easy for people to tell what they are likely to get when visiting your shop and you will also attract quality prospects because they already know what they want and they have an idea that they might get it from your barbershop.

Intelligent use of colors

There is no logo design which will ever be discussed without reference being made to the color psychology. This owes to the immense importance of color use in logo design. People react differently when they see colors and this call for the intelligent use of colors in your logo design. With regards to designing a logo for barbershop, the choice of color could be determined by a number of factors.

For instance, you may decide to use earth tones to reflect your hair care services or if you are an urban or trendy barber, then going with simple colors such as black and white would still work. Suppose you use organic hair care products and you would want to use this as a selling point, then you may use nature colors such as green, purple or orange.

The size and format of the logo

It is important to remember that the logo will be used in a myriad of places for marketing your barbershop. Probably, you are likely to use it in the social media, in your website, on posters inside and out of your shop and on stationery amongst others. Due to these, it is imperative to consider the size and the format of the logo. Because of the diverse nature of the intended use, the logo shouldn’t lose its quality when printed on small items like stationery or on large items such as banners and poster for the shop.

The symbols or objects

The symbols should be able to let anyone know that the logo is for a barbershop. In this regard, your choice of symbol should be related to the industry. Mostly, some people will prefer to use haircut styles or tools used such as scissors. While searching for the appropriate symbol to use for the logo, don’t be too generic or copy another person’s exact same style. Instead, use them for inspiration and add your tweaks to make it original and unique.

Consider using the services of a professional designer

It is true that you can use a plethora of the online tools and free logo generators to create a logo for your barbershop. However, these options have some inherent limitations which might work against you in the long run. For instance, you won’t have the flexibility to create an entirely unique logo and besides, other people in different parts of the world are using the same tools and same resources, hence there is no originality. The antidote to this is to use the services of professional logo designers who will create for you unique and original logo for your business. You may have to part with some money, but it is worth it for the long term branding of your business.

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Raster Graphics

Raster is the commonly used type of graphics. They comprise of tiny continuous of colored boxes known as dots or pixels. When creating images or graphics for print, Raster graphics are usually measured in dots per inch (dpi), but when the images are meant for use in the web then they are measured in pixel per inch (ppi). These measurements allow the designers to measure the amount of color information contained in a specific image. The most popular file formats for Raster graphics include jpg, png, tiff, gif, psd and bmp. In the creation of Raster graphics, there are lots of tools which can be used, with Adobe Photoshop being the preferred one by the majority.

Pros and cons of Raster images

One of the greatest advantages of Raster graphics is that they offer greater color detail because they are pixel based. With this, Raster images have a finite number of pixels. Therefore, should you attempt to enlarge the graphic; the computer will try to fill in the gaps of the missing pixels with the colors which it thinks matches the spaces. This interpolation of data is what will make the images appear blurry or pixilated, since the computer cannot guess correctly the exactly colors which ought to be in those spaces.

The second advantage of using Raster is the precise editing that they allow the editors to have. When working with Raster graphics, designers have more precise editing control over the details and the color information. It will interest you to know that all the individual pixels with the color information in Raster images can be edited one by one, therefore, if you are a perfectionist designer, then Raster images gives you the highest levels of customization possible. The editing possibilities are simply endless.

On the other hand, there are certain characteristic of Raster images that are not admirable at all. The first con of these graphics is that they are blurry or get pixilated when enlarged. This is because the images are made of a finite number of pixels and when they are enlarged, the computer tries to guess the right color that should be in the additional gaps. The image will thus appear blurry because the computer has no way of telling the right color which should be filled in the gaps.

The second con for Raster graphics lies on their size. They are large in nature and might sometimes compromise the processing powers of the computers, even for faster machines.

Vector Graphics

Unlike Raster graphics which are comprised of individual pixels, vector graphics uses math to draw shapes in form of dots, curves and lines and they are infinitely scalable. The graphics uses the original math equation to create consistent shapes irrespective of whether they are being scaled up or down. This is why vector graphics are preferred for logos and large scale printing. For creating graphics meant for the web, you are free to use vector or Raster graphics since it is possible to export vector images to popular Raster formats such as png, jpg, etc.

Pros and cons of vector graphics

As indicated earlier, one of the pros of vector graphics is that they can be scaled infinitely without them compromising the image quality in any way. With them, you don’t have to worry about missing pixels, since the original mathematic equation will be applied to the shape consistently at all times.

Secondly, vector images are relatively smaller thus easy to work with and will not affect the processing power of computers as is the case with large Raster files. And finally, unlike their Raster based counterparts, vector graphics are never flattened and this simply implies that the original shapes exist in different layers, giving you the power to modify each element individually.

One of the limitations of vectors is their unsuitability for complex images that might require exact coloring. This is owing to the mathematical nature of how data is remembered by vectors. Though it may be possible to create basic color gradients with vectors, it will not be possible to match the color details available in Raster images, where you can edit each individual pixel.

Learn more common file formats for graphic designers here!

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Unknown to many, you don’t have to be a design geek to create a stunning logo which will drive your YouTube channel to success. All you have to do is follow certain conventions and also use trips and tricks which have been proven time and again to deliver quality logos. Presented below are a few factors worth taking into account if you want to create a magnificent YouTube logo for your channel-:

Begin by knowing what your message is

Your YouTube logo will be the brand identity for your channel for people who will be browsing YT videos. It should be designed in such a manner that people will be able to tell easily what your channel is all about. This makes it important to determine exactly the type of message you would like to share with your followers and viewers in the channel. Out of the message, it will be easy for you to decide on the other aspects of the logo such as the symbols, fonts, and colors amongst other design features.

Browse other YouTube channels

Once you have known what your congruent marketing message is, the next step is to browse other YouTube channels for more inspirations. By browsing the channels, it doesn’t imply that you lack in originality or you want to copy other people’s logo, but it is designed to give you an idea of what the top guys are doing right as far as YouTube logo design is concerned. Of great concern to you should be the leading channels in your niche, which also happens to be your greatest competitors. Have a look at their logos and pick a few cues you could use to make your logo even better than theirs.

Make a clean and functional logo

At this point, you already have an idea of the kind of message you would like to pass across to your channel visitors and you have also browsed the top channels in your niche and you now know what kind of logos are pulling the crowds in your niche. The next step is now the actual design of the logo. You have the option of doing the design on your own, which will give you lots of flexibility to translate your idea into the design.

But if you don’t have the design skills, you can outsource the creation to graphics designer, whom you will share with your inspiration so that they can transfer it to the design. Whichever option chosen, the logo must remain clean and functional since this is one of the characteristics of top performing logos in the world.

Depending on your research and the suitability of your channel, you can create the following logo types for your YouTube channel-:

Symbol or Icon logos – with this kind of a logo, a symbol or an icon is used in the design of the logo. It doesn’t include any letter like the channel name. The beauty of such logos is that they are very simple, yet powerful and remains memorable in the minds of potential clients for a very long time. Think about Apple logo for instance.

Word or Letter Mark Logos – with these logo types, letters or words are used as the primary essence of the logo. Google logo is an example of a word or letter mark logo.

Combination mark logos – with these, you use a combination of words, letters and symbols in creating your YouTube logo.

Get the colors right

The colors used in your YT channel logo are very important since colors have a way of passing different message or emotions to those who view the logo. Choose colors appropriately depending on the feelings or the emotional responses you intend to invoke from your channel visitors.

Choose the right logo sizes

YouTube recommends that your channel logo should render at 98 x 98px and you are recommended to upload sizes of about 800px x 800px. On the size still, remember that you are likely to use the logo in other social sharing sites, hence it should be versatile size that will cut across all your potential marketing platforms.

Make the logo memorable

Finally, a successful logo is one which is easily memorable. Your views should be in a position to recognize the logo easily even if they see it somewhere out of YouTube. In this manner, it becomes easier for them to remember your channel and this is very powerful for branding and marketing the channel.

Learn how to build a successful social media strategy here!

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Modern logo design is one of the styles that many designers are keen on adopting in the present times. It is a slight shift in a design aimed at making logos adapt to the demands of modern design, without necessarily following any particular trend and while maintaining their effectiveness. Being a new approach, however, the concept of modernism is still not clear to many logo designers, especially the newbie who are just starting to get their hands wet with graphic design.

Whether or not you decide to use the modernism approach in logo design, you must ensure that the design maintains all the factors of an effective logo which includes everlastingness, flexibility, memorable and simplicity. If, however, you are sharp on being an expert in creating a contemporary logo, here are some killer tips to help you go along.

Think Future

When designing a modern logo, you should focus on the everlastingness of the design. As much as you are designing a logo to be used in the present times, you need to think about the future and consider all the practical ways in which the client is likely to use the logo. You should ask yourself if the logo will have the flexibility to be used in newsprint, online, large formats or enhanced on cloths.

Also, check if the logo will be changeable enough to be displayed on various devices such as mobile phones and tablets. Adopting such an angle in your thinking will give you the ability to create a logo that won’t only suit the needs of the business in the present times but also make room for future changes depending on the needs of the client.

Balance between contemporary logo fonts and historic logo fonts

One great aspect that determines the overall success of a contemporary logo is the choice of fonts. For the best results, it is highly recommended that you balance between contemporary and historic fonts. These fonts don’t appear playful and fancy as some of the modern fonts. They illustrate the authentic meaning of design when the industry was still in its infancy stages. They are also associated with exclusivity and nobility hence making it possible for them to be used in a more modern way.

For instance, you can try manipulating the scale and the spacing of the characters and see the various effects it has depended on the particular fonts you chose. Additionally, you can overlay the traditional fonts with some rational modern shapes when designing a modern logo so that you strike a balance between the old and the new.

Integrate traditional symbols

The other killer tip for creating a contemporary logo is the intelligent use of traditional symbols. An ingenious way of doing so would be to try and connect the design to a company that existed a long time ago. In this manner, you will create a sense of historical perspective in the modernism logo as well as a deeper level of symbolism which will make the logo not just unique but also memorable.

For you to achieve this, however, it will be imperative that you take adequate time for thorough research on the ancient symbols. The aim here is not to be a copycat but to achieve a deeper level of symbolism in the design of the modern logo.

Simplicity in the design

With every design project you work on, whether or not its a contemporary logo, simplicity will always prevail. Complicated logo designs are not just difficult to execute, but also, they never help the businesses in their branding needs. While creating a modern logo, therefore, you must strive to achieve simplicity by using fewer elements in the design. A common trend being adopted by designers working on these kinds of logos is to use a lot of negative space to improve legibility and also to help in directing the viewer’s eyes to the core elements of the design.

With contemporary logo design, there is always a tendency image-based, full-color graphics. You should, however, be very careful when working with such kinds of graphic for these logos. This is because in addition to driving up your printing costs, they won’t translate well into single colors such as black and white and this will make the design lose its versatility. Always remember to keep the design as simple as possible and only include the items that you feel are necessary.

No monotony in modern logo design

A good logo should be timeless. Take a look at Nike, BMW, Apple, etc. and you will understand this fact. When designing a contemporary logo, you must avoid monotony at all costs. For instance, when the logo is placed on the website, it should be able to stand alone and act as a powerful identifier, rather than depend on the website for exposure.

This calls for the proper use of colors so that the logo will blend well with the colors of the website and remain appealing to the eyes of the viewers. Such coherence is necessary to stop the logo from appearing monotonous, which might, in turn, trigger negative emotions and make people shy away from the brand.

Use these tips consistently and you will soon become a pro in creating a modern logo.

Learn if you should crowdsource a logo here!

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There you are seated on your desk staring at the canvas and your client logo design is due on Monday.  You are definitely having the Logo Design Blues. –> But how do you get out of it?

The irony is that you are looking at a blank canvas and your mind is also blank!

You have zero clues as to what you are going to put in the space right in front of you to make the design process going.

If you have been designing for any length of time, then you are probably aware that having the Logo Design Blues and not being able to get ideas to move your designs forward.

For the new designers however, this is not some sort of a terminal disease hence you need not to go and jump to the ground from the tenth floor because you don’t know what to design.

As designers, sometimes we run out of inspiration and since it is like a fuel to our “design engine”, it needs to be replenished to keep us moving.

Here is exactly what you can do when you are stumped to overcome the blank page whenever you are trying to design a logo.

Read Everything You Can Find Around

When you get the Logo Design Blues, read as many materials as you can find.

Leave you design desk or studio and take a walk down to the library and look for magazines and books which you can get some design inspiration from.

Head over to the children section and look at the various illustrations on the book covers.

Be keen on the use of colors, fonts, and other design aspects so that you can try to give your creative mind something to talk about.

With all the information and the materials in the library, it will take just a few minutes before your creative mind kicks back and you start visualizing the kind of design you would like to implement.

Hop Online to Behance or Dribble

Hopping to creative sites, you can unearth immeasurable sources of design inspiration each time you feel that you are unable to come up with something.

The good thing about the internet is that you can get very specific information and inspiration for each and every design you are working on.

All you have to do is search for your inspiration ideas for the industry in which you want to design a logo on any of the creative sites, you will be presented with more information than you care to check each into details.

The internet is a quick way to get your mind thinking and hurling design ideas to you so that you don’t get stumped each and every time you need to work on a new design project.

Check Out Your Local Street Art!

The street is another awesome place to get design inspiration if you feel you are stumped.

Take a walk down your streets while observing the various arts made by the street artists in your area.

These could be in form of wall painting or graffiti, and though you may not have noticed them before, you will be amazed at how they become apparent and unfold before your eyes when you are in great need of design inspirations.

Some of the street artists are usually very skilled and out of their works, you can draw an inspiration or two.

Your City’s Architecture

While still taking a walk down the streets and looking at the street art for inspirations, why don’t you also start looking at the city architecture with particular reference to some of the prominent buildings?

You will discover that there is always some design inspiration that had led the city architects to come up with the various city buildings.

This is a great way to relieve the Logo Design Blues!  It’s simply relaxing and enjoyable.  Take a cool picture with your iPhone or android and post it!

Try and give the various building design meanings and out of this, you are likely to understand the inspiration behind the structures, and this might as well be your source of inspiration when you get stumped.

Look at Your Past Logos

If you have been designing logos for any length of time and you feel the logo design blues, take out your past works and start looking at them while thinking about what might have inspired you to come up with the designs.

This won’t just refresh your creative memory but also it can make you get new inspirations from your past works.

Do Away With the Fatigue

Not everyone who has the logo design blues usually lack the ability to come up with something creative.

Sometimes it is because the mind is tired and is refusing to be creative.

Perhaps you have been working for a long time without taking a considerable rest, and now your mind could be reminding you that it would be an appropriate to take that rest.

Perhaps all you need to regain your creativity is doing some exercises and freshen up your mind, body and soul and you will find yourself overcoming the blank canvas.

Check out these design trends for 2016 for more inspiration!

The post Logo Design Blues? appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

There are a number of big reasons why you should avoid overcomplicating a traditional logo design. Logos are designed to be simple and to follow basic rules. Adding too many touches or making a logo difficult to understand can only lead to issues when comes to representing your brand and for resonating with your target audience. An overcomplicated design can be bad for many different reasons and is something that every designer needs to avoid. Here are some of the top reasons why you should avoid overcomplicated any design:

Legibility:

With too many different typefaces for example or too much going on a logo this leads to a design that simply can’t be read or interpreted by anyone. Making sure that your design remains legible is extremely important. Without a logo that can be read quickly you could be missing out on a large number of followers and customers. Logos need to be designed in order to be seen a million times as well as read in just a few seconds. Over complicating designs with large text, too many typefaces or many different words that are uniquely shaped can be absolutely overwhelming. Rather than using this tactic spree for simplicity and simple readability. This is the best way to make sure that your message is received well.

Keep the length of lines short:

If you are writing any type of promotional content or forming a web design you need to make sure to keep all of your lines short and readable. Especially for landing pages and promotional content you need to make sure that the block text for any line only reaches around six words per line. This is comfortable for most people to read in a simple pass. Any of your print materials or print design should foll if ow this rule as blocks of a larger format will simply be ignored. If you really want to convey a message with your design you need to avoid all of the lines in your content and keep your design structured well and kept uniform.

Plan the order of messages:

When producing print material, a web design or even a logo design it’s very important to have a purposeful list of where to draw the customers eye. Making sure that the emphasis words are placed on top and actually planning at the order that you use for your text blocks and titles is extremely important to designing something that is simple. Really think about the way that you want to draw your readers eye and the type of information that you would like to present. If your design doesn’t follow any uniform pattern people are all going to read it and interpreted very differently. Rather than going with a design that is extremely complicated, always have a hierarchy and a planned order for your messages.

Work on your spacing:

Spacing in a logo design and spacing in all of the content on your webpages also extremely important. Dealing with spacing in text is an inevitability of design and without the appropriate word spacing between text and objects a page will just appear unprofessional. The easiest way to check your word spacing is to see if a lowercase “i” could fit between each of the word spaces in your logo or print text design. Also make sure that the alignment is correct for drawing the eye across text boxes. With many different text elements and graphic elements in a design you still need to focus on spacing. By introducing more and more of these objects into your design however it can make spacing an absolute nightmare.

Check a grid:

If you are designing anything in adobe indesign for example you can quickly check on a grid to see if all of the elements on your page are well aligned. Using this grid is one of the best ways that you can check the spacing between various text and image objects across the page. This invisible grid can be displayed in many different ways and help you to adjust everything from logos, to web design to print promotions. A grid is a great way to see if you have an overcomplicated design because it can help you to see if you have too many elements on page.

Stick to a palette:

Having a color palette and sticking to it is one of the biggest elements of preventing an overcomplicated design. With the help of a proper color palette you can stick to some color swatches through your entire logo designer webpage that will match up and be easy on the eyes. The big problem with using a number of different colors is that the content doesn’t appear uniform or easy to read.

Embrace space:

Many designers feel like they have to fill up white space in order to have a successful design. If almost every inch of white space gets filled up in the design process you can often end up with an overcomplicated design. Embrace blank space in your designs and use simplicity to share your message.

Learn how to find your target market here!

The post Why You Should Avoid Over-Complicating Any Design appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

It is the desire of every designer to come up with unique designs that will impact on their client or their business brands positively. But this kind of branding is not possible unless you know what it takes to come up with a winning brand. Even though knowledge and experience in graphic design are important for proper branding, they are not a requisite in coming up with killer brands.

It is true that it requires time, effort and dedication in developing proficiency in branding at a designer, but if you have a good understanding of the basis of branding for designers, you will take less time and get stellar results without struggling a lot. Here we take a look at the core components of what makes a good brand, and which every designer should be aware of if they want to create brands that will make heads turn whenever they are seen.

Never target everybody

The first item that features prominently in branding basics for designers is that no brand should be made to target everybody. A brand that targets everybody targets nobody. The way to come clean out of this and ensure that you are not aiming wide with your brand is first to identify your target audience.

This can only be achieved by conducting extensive market research and defining exactly who needs your products and services. It is out of this information that you will have a clear picture of who you will be selling to. Hence, you can craft an appropriate brand to captivate their attention. In essence, the brand should be the right fit for the targeted audience. This is by far the most important branding basics for designers you should never forget about.

Simplicity Reigns

It may be tempting to display your design prowess by coming up with very beautiful and extremely catchy designs. However, in the world of branding and design, the objective is to catch the attention of the target audience in the shortest time possible and probably make them take a desired course of action. Due to this, brands have resorted to using designs that are simple yet effective in captivating their target audiences.

This is known as the concept of “Less is more.” It is possible to create the most beautiful design in the industry, but remember, if the target audience admires the beauty of the design and fails to recognize the branding message or the brand promise, then you awesome brand design will go down the drains. Therefore, be as simple as possible in your branding while maintaining quality and high impact designs. Simplicity is thus one of the most important branding basics for designers.

Avoid Special Effects

Closely related to simplicity is the temptation to use special effects while branding. This is another core branding basics for designers. For a brand to be effective, it needs to be remembered by most, if not all, of the target audience. A sure way of achieving this is to avoid special effects in the branding materials. These include but are not limited to effects like drop shadows, gradients, and embellishments amongst other elements.

The danger of using such effects is that they risk compromising the effectiveness of the designs as the targeted audience might find them complex and may not decipher the meaning of the graphics. Even though the temptation to include such effects in your branding may be overpowering, you must resist all attempts to use them. Consider this as one of the branding basics for designers that you should never let go or think about forgetting.

Proper Use of Colors

Colors mean a lot with regards to branding basics for designers. Humans are visual beings with varied responses to different kinds of colors. As a designer who wants to come up with the best designs, proper use of color in your designs is imperative. It will be beneficial in a number of ways to learn about the graphics design color theory to understand the various emotions evoked by the different colors and also to understand the combination of color sheds you can use to get effective results from your branding efforts.

In the absence of these, you will be using colors blindly with no due consideration of the particular effects they will have on those who will see the brand. You shall have thus wasted time and effort in coming up with a blind brand. Therefore, treat the proper use of colors as one of the coveted branding basics for designers. You must just get it right or forget about having a winning design.

Uniqueness

Coming up with unique designs cannot miss when talking about branding basics for designers. Uniqueness is the only attribute that will set you apart from the rest. Of importance is the name and the symbols used in the brand. A unique name should be relevant to the target audience, and it should also be memorable. In addition to this, the name should be accompanied by an appropriate symbol that will help in conveying the central brand message.

Here is how to give any business brand instant personality. 

The post The Basics of Branding For Designers appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

One way of enhancing personal and professional networks is to be around like-minded individuals. Conferences and events offer magnificent opportunities for professional to get together and share on a number of issues affecting them in the industry. From such a event, professionals can find creative inspirations, learn about the recent happening in the industry, make new friends to expand their professional networks, meet mentors and also have an experience of the local hospitality provided by the host city.

If you are a designer, then you need to mark your calendar for some of the events that will be happening in the design world. These design events are extremely valuable and should never be missed by any serious designer. Though it might not be possible to attend all of them, you should strive to attend the maximum you can afford. Here they are-:

Design Indaba

All roads in the design world lead to Cape Town, South Africa, for the Design Indaba Event. This is an annual event held on every February between 17th and 19th. The event is characterized by the impressive international roster of experienced designers, speakers, and attendees from all corners of the world.

If you have ever wanted to meet design legends like Michael Bierut and others of his caliber, then you have every reason to attend this event. This is not to mention the African made products and projects that will be on display during the design event. It will also be a time to sample the humility and the hospitality of the African people.

Interaction 16

Interaction 16 is a four-day annual design event which takes place in Helsinki, Finland. This conference is known to feature the best of the best in design. Not only designers are expected to attend but also key industry players in the international design arena. It is usually expected to have over 100 speakers from industry leading organizations such as BBC, Uber, Frog Design, Huge, and MIT Lab. The event takes place at the iconic Finlandia Hall, designed by none other than the legendary architect Aalvar Alto.

Offset Design Conference

In the month of April, all designers pack their bags for a trip to yet another exciting design event in Dublin, Ireland. The Offset Design event is an inclusive design conference covering a wide variety of professions in the design world. These include animations, graphic designs, photography, film, fashion, arts and industrial design amongst others.

This event is taunted as one of the best design events in the world as it brings together all players including students. It is thus a fertile ground for the young professionals to get contacts and mentors to hold their hands as they embark on a journey in the design world.

99U Conferences

The 99U Conference is one of the numerous design events held in New York every year. It is principally a doer’s conferences, and it is scheduled for the first week of May. The presentations during this design event are characterized by tips and insights from some of the leading world designers and entrepreneurs.

It is also a good place to get motivated owing to the teetering speeches that are given by some of the speakers. Additionally, there is always time scheduled for attendees to have a word with their role models or coaches in the design world. This is an awesome design event, especially for the young professionals who are just starting to get their bearing in the design world.

TYPO Berlin

TYPO Berlin is another annual design event that has been gracing the event’s calendar for the last two decades. It is Europe’s biggest design event and just as the name suggests; it was formed purposely to discuss issues to do with typography in the design world.

However, not just typography is usually discussed in the event. It covers a broad range of design topic, including but not limited to graphics design, animation, film, fashion, branding and advertising. This awesome design event takes place in the month of May.

SEGD Conference

If you are a designer, and you happen to be in the Seattle in the month of June, make all attempts to be one of the attendees at the SEGD Conference. This is the conference to attend if you are curious about several design spaces. It features a broad range of topics ranging from how to create signage for towns to how museums are adopting technology to give visitors memorable experiences.

The event is attended by almost all the specialties in the design world including graphic designers, architects, fabricators, brand strategists, exhibition designers and other specialists interested in the design world

What Web Design Can Do

The What Web Design Can Do is also another design event that takes place in the month of June in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The event’s main focus is on the efficacy provided by design solutions in solving social problems.

Watch out for these events and make the necessary arrangements to attend as many as possible if you have the time and the resources.

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There is more to creating a company’s visual identity than just placing the name and some funny symbols then calling it a logo. The recent times have seen the demand for graphic designers go up since businesses have realized the immense need to have killer logo designs. A logo is a company’s first impression and will in most cases determine the future interaction between the customer and company.

It is out of the logo that the customer will develop a perception of the brand, make a purchase decision and have an overall attitude regarding the given products or services. If you are an aspiring designer, who wants to establish a stellar reputation of coming up with killer logo designs, then here are some tips to help in the long and tortuous but very rewarding journey:

You have to be unique and clever

If you want to come up with a killer logo design, you have no option but to be unique and ingenious in the design. It is the aspiration of the designer as well as the client to have a unique logo that will set apart the business from the competition and make it stand out in the crowd. As a designer, therefore, you must think out of the box and come up with unique designs that are likely not to have been used anywhere else.

Have a thorough understanding of the brand

You cannot come up with a killer logo design if you don’t have a thorough knowledge of the business and the brand. As a designer, you need to find out more about the company with the aim of understanding its values and principles, core strengths, the target audience, unique position in the market amongst others then incorporate all these in the design to come up with a killer logo.

Use the power of colors

The target audience for the logo is normal people just like you and me, and since humans are visual beings, our response to colors is very distinct. Therefore, when thinking about creating a killer logo design, you must use colors appropriately to capture the attention and the imagination of the audience as well as pass the main marketing message effectively.

The name or symbol

A logo essentially consists of two major components: the symbol and the business name. It has been proven every time and again that some of the best logo designs feature either one of the two elements. Before you begin to cram the design with all manner symbols and letters, think about using either the business name or the symbol for the logo. In this regards, consider top logos like Nike, Coca-cola, IBM, Apple, Yahoo, Google just to mention a few.

Be simple and flexible

Current trends in graphic designs suggest that killer logo designs are rather simple and flexible. You can think about using negative space or white space to introduce simplicity while at the same time making the logo look attractive and effective to the target audience. Good example of logos that thrives on simplicity and flexibility is the FedEx logo and Amazon logo.

Start with black and white for the design

The best way to enhance versatility and end up with a killer logo design is to avoid using colors at the beginning of the design. Starting with black and white on the other hand allows you to focus more on the shape, and the concept and you may add color later on once you are satisfied with the design.

Always have the target audience in mind

You won’t manage to create a killer logo design unless you know the target audience. You need to put yourself in the shoes of the target audience and ask yourself what they would like to see in a logo belonging to such a business. In this manner, you will be a good position to choose other design elements that will allow you to come up with killer logo designs.

Use the internet and online resources for inspiration

The internet is full of different logo designs and lots of resources available at your disposal in the creation of a killer logo design. This is not to imply that you imitate a great logo you have seen in the internet but rather use it to brainstorm and refine your ideas of coming up with the killer logo design.

Perfection comes with time

Finally, as you strive to develop the skills to come up with killer logo designs, you must have in mind that it takes time, and you may not get it right the first time. However, you must never quit but instead keep on practicing so that you can improve your designs with time. Always be sure to improve continuously your knowledge by every available resource at your disposal. Without a strong desire to learn how to create killer logo designs, you will be just like any average designer, and you will never know what it feels to be at the top of your game

Understand why every small business needs a logo here!

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