It only takes a customer ten seconds to form a first impression of your brand’s logo. In that ten seconds, they’re taking in everything. And while there are a number of different elements that go into creating a recognizable logo, like color, for example, all of those elements boil down to one simple rule.

That rule is simplicity.

Whether you’re working with a designer or attempting to create your own logo, you might be tempted to jazz it up with fancy designs or a lot of colors. But, in terms of creating a recognizable, trustworthy logo, that would be a mistake.

Read on to learn more about simple logo design and why it’s important for your business and your brand.

Symbolism and Recognition

Think about the Olympic Rings icon. It’s one of the oldest and best-known examples of a graphic logo. It is instantly recognizable and impossible to be mistaken for something else.

It was created in 1912 and hasn’t changed much in the 100+ years it has been around. But even though it’s simple, it’s incredibly effective. When you look at it, you know what it stands for.

There’s a use for every element in the picture, but you don’t need to know what those uses are in order to understand and relate the picture to the Olympics. It isn’t a sports-related graphic, it’s not trying to tell you what happens during the games, but you know exactly what it means when you look at it.

This is an example of how a simple logo design can take your brand from something your customers might recognize to something that they understand completely the second they look at it.

Logo Design Basics

There are a number of qualities that all good logos have. One of those qualities, and arguably the most effective, is the simplicity and clarity of a logo.

A logo is a brand’s face. As a company builds awareness of their brand, customers begin to make connections between the logo and the brand. If a logo is complicated, it makes it much harder for customers to make that association.

It’s very easy for uniqueness to get mistaken as complicated. In fact, it’s actually pretty hard to make a unique, simple logo. It’s for that reason that a lot of people opt to create complex ones instead because they’re actually much easier to design in a unique way.

But when you consider logo designs of popular companies, like McDonalds, Target, and Apple, you see how highly simplistic logos can be immensely helpful in creating brand recognition.

Make a Lasting Impression

A simple logo is much easier to absorb and understand. They’re easy to recall later on as well. They’re often easy to associate with a positive experience because it triggers memory centers in the brain and doesn’t bog the brain down with sending an unclear message, or too many messages all at once.

Sending a Clear Message

The design of a busy logo will send a convoluted message. Your customers might connect your brand and your logo, sure. But you could be seriously damaging your brand design efforts. You want to keep your logo targeted and simple.

If you do that, the message you’re sending with your logo will be clear, concise, and much more likely to be taken at face value.

Easy Recall

It’s much easier to remember one sentence than it is to remember one paragraph. The less information you’re being asked to memorize, the better your recall will be.

A complicated logo is a lot like that long paragraph. It’s filled with information and makes it harder for the average customer to remember it exactly the way you want them to.

Word of Mouth

If your logo is simple enough to commit to memory, your customer will also be able to describe it to someone else. So when they’re trying to remember the name of your company, or where you’re located, they’ll be able to tell them what the logo looks like instead.

Easily Recognizable

When your logo is simple, you can even recognize it from the corner of your eye. A much more complicated one will take a while and will require a precise line of sight in order to fully understand.

When you’re designing a logo, you know the purpose is to bring your brand to a customer’s mind right away. The quicker and easier this process is, the better it is for your brand.

Quick Emotional Reactions

Think about one of the major brands we mentioned earlier, like McDonald’s. When you imagine that logo, all of the emotions you feel should come up to the surface immediately. This is exactly the reaction you want from your customer as well.

If a logo design is complicated, your customer’s brain will spend more time trying to put together the picture of what they’re seeing rather than what they’re feeling when they see it.

Versatility

A good logo is one that can be used in all environments.

You’ll want to put your logo everywhere. You’ll want it in print, on a t-shirt, on business cards, on the web, on ink stamps, on signs, on promotional gifts, and more. You’ll want to make sure it looks good in color and black and white. It should translate well when it’s large and when it’s small.

Simple designs are best for this purpose as well. When there’s less to see, less gets lost in translation.

Harder to Counterfeit

When your logo is full of colors and complicated design, it’s much easier for other brands to copy it. A simple change is enough to consider it fair game for them to use and steal your status and followers.

If you stick to a few colors and a simple design with minimal details, it’s much harder to fool an unsuspecting customer with a counterfeit.

How to Design a Simple Logo

Trying to create a simple, effective logo can be a lot harder than you’d expect. But when you sit down and try to come up with a strategy, you can actually understand your business better.

Think about the elements that relate to your business and simplify them. Keep it fresh, modern, and unique. You’ll surely have your own process for creating your logo, but when you keep simplicity in mind, you’ll create something effective.

Your unique taste should leave a mark and no matter what it looks like in the end, your goal is to create something that’s focused on your brand.

Keep it Simple

A simple logo design doesn’t mean a simple business. It has no sway in what your business model or message is. In fact, it actually passes along a message of awareness and understanding to your customer. You want that first ten seconds that your logo is making an impression on your customer to deliver the message that you know what they want and how to deliver it to them.

For more information on logo development, visit us today.