When people hear the word “brand”, they tend to think of major businesses like Apple, Nike, or Coca-Cola. But the reality is, branding and brand awareness is important for any organization, including nonprofits. Many organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, the Red Cross, and Good Will are widely recognized across the world, and proving just how impactful branding can be.

A great way to spread brand awareness for your nonprofit is by creating a high-quality logo. Not entirely sure how to do that? In this article, we’ll cover logo design tips for your nonprofit, so you can stand tall above the crowd and show the world how great your organization is.

What is a Logo?

A logo is a visual representation of your brand or nonprofit. It’s a symbol made up of text and images that help customers identify brands they like and use. Its purpose is to help people understand what you do, what you stand for, and what you value as a nonprofit.

Your nonprofit logo will usually consist of these three things: the logotype, the brandmark, and your tagline.

Logotype

The logotype is your nonprofit organization’s name. It’s the text-only treatment of your nonprofit, which you can then use as a way of identifying and branding your nonprofit.

Brandmark

The brand mark is the visual communicates the elements of your brand that can’t be expressed in words. It’s made of up things like color, design, and symbols. It can take a while for recognition and recall for a brandmark, but if you do it successfully, it can really help people remember your organization.

Tagline

The tagline is the catchphrase you pair with your logotype and brand mark. It’s where you can express the essence of your nonprofit in words, and it should stir a certain feeling in your intended audiences. It should tell a story, explain your nonprofit’s offering, but most importantly, it should be short and simple.

Here are the basic functions of an effective logo:

It Makes You Stand Out from the Competition

The most important function of a logo is that it gives your nonprofit a unique look that makes it different from other nonprofits. This element is very important, especially if your nonprofit offers services like another nonprofit or is easily confused. When it comes to logo design tips for your nonprofit, making your logo different and memorable is incredibly important.

It Identifies Key Information About Your Nonprofit

Your nonprofit logo should provide people with important info about your nonprofit, like the industry you exist in and the services you offer. It should also highlight your base audience and your brand values. So, when thinking about logo design tips for your nonprofit, think about how you can visually communicate this key information to people.

It Builds Brand Recognition

Your nonprofit logo needs to leave a visual impact on people, so that they’ll remember your organization and what you do long after they see it. Logos are great for creating strong visual associations with a business, and that association helps people keep your nonprofit in their mind.

Logo Design Tips for Your Nonprofit

Now that you know what a logo is, and how it can help your nonprofit, you can start working on your own! Here are some important logo design tips for your nonprofit.

1. Focus on the Unique Elements of Your Nonprofit

Even if your organization’s cause is broad, you should focus your energy on what makes it different from similar organizations. Try to come up with a short and specific description of that element, and then cut that description down to two words. By doing this, you can keep the most important ideas in mind when creating your logo.

These words should drive the visual elements of your logo, such as the images, color palettes, and typography.

2. Make it Memorable

The key to memorability is making a logo that is simple, unique, and easily recognizable. This means you should choose an easy-to-read font, use sharp colors, and have a clearly thought out design.

Before you make your logo, you should look at other logos of similar nonprofits, and develop a strategy for making it memorable. One way to test your memorability is to people your logo for fewer than 10 seconds and then see if they can re-draw it with relative accuracy. If they can’t, odds are your logo design isn’t memorable enough.

3. Use Color Effectively

Colors have a psychological habit of sparking emotions and associations in peoples’ brains, so your color palette should be tailored to the response you want to stir in people. When making your logo, think about the basic ideas and qualities of your nonprofit and cause, and reflect on what colors may speak to that best.

Here are some colors and what emotions and associations they spark in people:

• Blue: trustworthiness, tranquility, medical nature,
• Red: boldness, urgency, sexiness
• Yellow: optimism, youth, clarity, invention
• Green: nature, relaxation, growth
• Orange: energy, creativity, friendliness
• Purple: spirituality, wisdom, luxury
• Black: power, precision, sleekness
• Pink: femininity, tenderness, romance
• White: cleanliness, simplicity, purity

Borns Group, a nonprofit that provides fundraising solutions, uses blue and white in its logo. These colors communicate simplicity and trustworthiness, which are important in their field of work.

Regardless of the color you pick, you should always keep adaptability in mind. Your nonprofit logo should be able to be easily adapted to a variety of mediums, from business cards to billboards. You should also think what this logo would look like on t-shirts, how it would appear on black-and-white flyers, and how colors can affect printing costs.

4. Make It Adaptable

When making a logo for your nonprofit, you should always keep adaptability in mind. Your nonprofit logo should be able to be easily adapted to a variety of mediums, from business cards to billboards. If your logo has tiny print size or a lot of text, it’ll be difficult to read online, and if it’s overly complex or detailed, it won’t scale well if it’s enlarged.

5. Make It Lasting

The last thing you want is to make a logo that looks out of date after just a few years. You should aim for a classic design that will look good over time rather than chase after trends. You can make it long-lasting by working with a designer to create a logo that is simple and clean enough to age effectively.

6. Balance Design Elements

Whether you’re using illustration or typography, you need to make sure the design elements of your logo are balanced. If your logo is too cluttered, audiences will be turned off and be less likely to remember it. By balancing white space and giving all the design elements equal weight, you can make a design that is visually balanced and striking.

7.Embrace Key Logo Design Elements

While a nonprofit logo is a unique kind of logo, you should still follow best practices for general logos. Here are important design principles you should keep in mind:

• Simplicity
• Versatility
• Timelessness
• Memorability
• Originality
• Storytelling
  Scalability

By implementing these logo design tips for your nonprofit, you can make a truly standout logo for your organization.

Final Thoughts

Crafting the perfect logo isn’t easy, especially if you’re a nonprofit with limited time and resources. The great thing is that there are free logo design tools you can use to bring your dream logo to life!

Are you a nonprofit looking to create your first logo? Are we missing any logo design tips for your nonprofit? Let us know in the comments!

Many people think that personal branding is a sign of vanity. But the benefits that come along with it have made it more and more common. Now people of all professions are using personal marketing techniques to enhance their careers.

This is especially important for people working in the entertainment business. Not only is this industry extremely competitive, it also necessitates a unique identity.

A great way to set yourself apart and also reach your audience is with a personal logo. Designing a good one is crucial, as it can be utilized in many different mediums such as social media and video.

To help get started, we’ve put together 5 tips for a successful logo.

1. Know Exactly Who You’re Targeting

Knowing exactly who your audience is helps guide the design of your logo more than you think. Fortunately, because you’re an entertainer, you probably have a good idea who your target is.

Think about the personality of your audience. If they’re theater-goers and intellectuals, you wouldn’t create the same type of logo a magician would create.

Create a profile of your audience and list several qualities they have. Use this to form your initial ideas for your personal logo. Then you can get started.

2. Know Your Competition

It also helps to know what your competition is doing with their logos. This benefits you in a few different ways.

First, knowing what your competition is doing helps set the bar for quality. Strive to create a logo that reaches this bar and then takes it further.

It also helps you stand out. You don’t want your logo to look like someone else’s, so do your homework and find out what’s already out there.

3. Font and Color

Once you’ve defined your audience and looked at your competition, consider the font style and colors that suit you best.

Color is an important tool in marketing. It’s a good idea to learn about color psychology before making a decision.

For font styles, choose something that’s easy to read, yet interesting. With so many styles available, you should be able to easily find something that suits you. To check out an interesting font style, click here.

4. Be Informative and Concise

When creating a personal logo, it’s important you get across who you are and what you do. A person shouldn’t feel confused by what they’re looking at.

The hard part here is that you also want to be concise. You don’t want a person to have to read too much. Your logo should deliver its message quickly.

A good tactic is to come up with a tagline or motto. You can relate this to your specific craft so people understand what you do. Do not be scared to be funny or dramatic if it suits your personality.

5. Keep It Simple

A simple design is important with any logo. The last thing you want to do is overwhelm or distract someone in the wrong way.

Visually, your logo should pop, but it shouldn’t contain too many bright colors or design elements. If your logo is over the top, it may drive people away instead of pique their curiosity.

Bring Your Personal Logo to Life

These tips are meant to help get you started with your own logo, the right way. This is your personal brand, so it’s up to you bring a little bit of yourself into it. Now it’s time to have fun and express yourself the best way you know how

If you need additional help, we offer logo creation services and tutorials. Learn more today.

When it comes to being a lawyer, first impressions are important. You want clients, judges, and juries to instantly feel like you’re someone they can trust.

How do you convey that? First, by looking the part of a professional, put together attorney.

Something else that needs to make a great impression right away? Your law office logo. For potential clients, seeing your logo is often the first interaction they’ll have with your company.

A successful logo should project an image of professionalism and trustworthiness. How can you signal all of that in one little logo? There are some tips that every graphic artist follows when designing them.

Read on to learn more.

1. Define Your Audience and Brand

Don’t start thinking about the creative aspects of your designs just yet. First, you have to put some time into defining your audience and brand.

First, what kind of law office are you? Who are the clients you have now, and who are you hoping to attract?

Are you a criminal defense lawyer? The logo you design for that type of law might be different than if you were an entertainment lawyer.

The important thing is to not just design a logo because you like it. You have to think like your client and imagine what they would like.

You also have to think about your brand. What kind of image do you want to portray to people?

Do you want to give the impression that your law office is hip and unafraid to work on unique cases? That will look different from a logo from a more conservative law firm that sticks to real estate law.

2. Pick the Perfect Colors

Choosing the right color is one of the most important parts of designing a logo. Color is usually the first thing that jumps out at us when we look at something.

Research shows that when seeing a product, 90% of judgments during that first impression are made by the color alone.

This is true of how people judge logos. Colors automatically make people feel things. If you don’t choose the right color for your logo, people will judge your firm the wrong way.

Do you want clients to feel safe and taken care of? Then choosing an angry, bright shade of red probably won’t convey that to them.

Pleasant shades of green give the impression of peacefulness. Blue translates to strength and dependability. White is a calming color.

Leaning towards those types of positive colors will make your law office logo successful.

3. Strive to Be Unique

It’s great to get inspiration from the logos of companies you admire. Looking at a logo and seeing what you like about it can jump-start your creative process.

Even getting inspiration from bad logos can be a big help in designing. Assessing a logo and picking out what they did wrong will teach you what not to do.

But, make sure these other logos only serve as a jumping off point. It’s important that you make your law office logo as unique as possible.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or anything. But, steer clear of choosing fonts or color schemes that belong to famous brands. Even if they’re not from other law offices.

Just be sure to look at your logo as if you’re the potential client. Will they look at your logo that uses a certain shade of purple and orange and be reminded of FedEx?

That’s the last thing you want.

A successful logo should create brand recognition. When people look at your logo you don’t want them thinking about another company. You want them to only associate your company with that logo.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Edit

When trying to create a unique logo, you might be tempted to add lots of elements to your design. But, being one-of-a-kind doesn’t mean overdoing it.

Limit how many details you add. Ask if they’re really necessary for the design.

For one, if your design is too “busy” it’ll often come off as unprofessional. Think of some of the most famous brands you know. There’s usually not a whole lot going on in their logo.

Look at a simple piece of art like the Apple logo. Amazon uses text and an illustration of an arrow underneath the word. Many logos are just text in a memorable font and color.

The other problem with adding too many details is it makes your design less timeless. It’s often these little creative flourishes that end up making a logo look dated a few years in the future.

5. Create an Active Logo

Though your logo can’t physically move, the design should make it leap off the page. Your logo should jump out at potential clients and make them want to read more about you.

How can you create a logo that is active instead of passive? It should feel as if the design is in motion.

Graphics should feel like they’re doing something. The Jaguar car logo depicts the animal running so fast that it looks as if it’s in mid-air. It tells the story of the kind car it is: fast and agile.

Even logos that are just text can be active. The Coca-Cola logo uses a font that swirls. The ends of the letters curve upwards like carbonation bubbling up in a bottle of coke.

Stiff, motionless font gives the impression of a brand that’s stuffy and emotionless. When people seek legal counsel they want to feel optimistic and supported. Design a logo that feels warm and uplifting.

Do You Need a Law Office Logo?

You might think that because you aren’t an artist you won’t be able to design a logo yourself. It’s actually a lot easier than you think!

Check out our logo maker tutorial, then make a law office logo of your own.

Pepsi famously spent $1 million to create their latest logo, causing the design agency to produce a 27-page document to justify the cost.

On the flip side, Twitter bought their original logo from a stock image website for just $15.

What’s the lesson? You don’t need to spend a fortune on your security company logo. But you do need to make sure that it sticks with your audience.

You need your security company logo to communicate lots of things to your customers. You also want it to look like it cost a million bucks (whether it did or not).

Whether you’re sprucing up an old look or creating a brand new presence for a brand new company, you want to make a splash. Make sure you’re communicating the right things by checking off these five boxes.

1. Build Confidence

Most consumers know nothing about cybersecurity other than that they need it. When customers first look at your logo, they’re looking for reassurance. They need to be told that their credit card and personal information are going to be safe.

Customers need you to show confidence so that they can feel confident.

Use strong colors like red, blue or green. Let them know that you take their business seriously without saying much.

Using script fonts or anything that resembles something handwritten conveys a relaxed or amateurish feeling. You want to avoid this. Look at other logos for examples.

Avoid the kind of playfulness you see in multicolored logos like Google or more informal brands. Subtlety conveys confidence and this is the approach you should focus on.

Check out our tips on how to convey trust in your company logo.

2. Be Different

You should be spending time researching other companies in your field for inspiration. But you should also look outside your field for ideas on how to execute your security company logo.

Copying another brand with a more established authority shows a lack of confidence and a level of insecurity in your company.

See if you can stand out with just two colors or a few tones of one color. Ask friends, colleagues, and family members what they think. Tell them to be honest and make sure you’re open to the feedback they give.

The people around you are just as important an audience as anyone else. If they immediately tell you, “Your logo looks just like…”, take note of that. Find ways to avoid being a copycat.

3. Cutting-Edge and Modern

In the tech world, you need to show you’re on the cutting edge today and will be at that edge tomorrow and the next day. Digital trends change on a weekly basis, so you need to be ready for the next big change.

When you think of what’s cutting edge in cybersecurity, what do you think? Write down a list and add these to your list of characteristics you want to see in your logo.

Your cybersecurity logo will have to fit the general style of tech logos with modern fonts and design elements.

Look at the logo for SentelTech to see how subtlety can convey modern looks. They use different tones of blue that “secure” a central area while using font weights to separate and emphasize the word “Tech.”

While you have to be aware of trends, don’t rely on them too heavily. Trends will leave you behind as quickly as they appeared. Take trends into account, but remember that Windows managed to make trillions without changing their logo for 25 years.

4. Reliability

If there’s one thing your logo needs to tell customers, it’s that you’re never going to let them down. Like the many cybersecurity companies that have come before, you need to tell customers you won’t be unreliable when it comes to protecting their data.

In all honesty, you will have moments where you make mistakes. You will get customer complaints and negative reviews. You need to have a logo that tells customers that, despite any problems, you will stay steadfast and reliable.

Customers don’t give up the first time their favorite company makes a mistake. They’ll often give a company the benefit of the doubt if the customer service is strong and that company continues to project an aura of reliability.

Your security company logo needs to remind visitors of that.

You need to look unrelenting and loyal. You can take the approach of crafting a classic look. Find something that says, We’ve been here for a long time and we’ll still be here for a long time.

5. Toughness

The key component of cybersecurity is security. Using darker colors and muscular or metallic looks can convey the toughness that will attract your customers.

You don’t need to pick something as obvious as a lock or a bicep flexing behind your company name. But you should choose an image that can convey all that through the colors and font.

If your company aims to create an app, this will be all the more important. Lots of companies choose an animal like a stoic-looking eagle or dog. This image projects power and loyalty.

Some companies choose a shield to undergird the overall image of their logo. This is a way to remind your customers that security is your business and you take it seriously.

Take Your Time with Your Security Company Logo

With so many tropes and cliches out there in security logos, it can be hard to find something that says everything you want without coming across as too obvious.

Take some time crafting the logo you want. But also trust your gut. If something just looks right or wrong, sleep on it and see how you feel in the morning.

Still trying to figure out how you want your logo to look? Contact us for more tips on how to craft the best security company logo that fits your company.