At UWP, we’re well-versed in the art of logo design for businesses.
We’re often asked to create new logos for our clients, either to breathe a bit of life into their branding or to better reflect the image they want to put across.
A logo acts like the face of your business. The best logos are often very simple and always instantly recognisable. Think about the Nike “swoosh” or the Facebook “F” for example.
You might think you could have knocked them up in your bedroom in five minutes while you were waiting for Homes Under The Hammer to come on but that’s a long shot.
It’s more than likely there was a long, complex and very deliberate design process behind them.
We know from experience that logo design for businesses is a process of evolution. Most logos will go through multiple iterations before reaching the final design.
Here are three we recently designed for clients:
The clients were really pleased with the results – but it took us a while to get there! Here’s how we reached the finish line…
Case study one – Howlader & Co
Howlader & Co are an established and successful accountancy firm in London. They came to us looking to refresh their branding and give their logo a contemporary edge. This was their old logo:
First of all, we generally produce a large number of rough and ready options – with a view to focusing on one that we will smoothen out further down the line.
The aim is not to produce something that looks ready – or even close to it. The aim is to give the client an idea about the general direction we might go in before making any of them fit for purpose.
We produced a number of rough or sketchy options, including the following. As you can see, we chose a more contemporary-looking typeface and experimented with an icon to accompany the text:
The client liked the sleek typeface, but thought the icon made it too busy and wanted us to experiment with different colour schemes. We agreed.
It’s also important to them that they are chartered accountants and tax advisors so they wanted this made clear in the logo.
This was one of our next versions – which we provided in a variety of colours:
The client liked its elegance and simplicity but didn’t think any of the colour schemes we showed them looked authoritative enough. We thought that was a fair comment.
For this next version, we played around a bit more. We replaced the ampersand with plus and minus symbols as a nod to the client’s accountancy business and we were left with this:
Close but no cigar! The client liked the look of the ‘plus and minus’ design, but were reluctant to throw away the ampersand – also wanting to play around with other options for a secondary colour. Finally we hit on this:
We hope the final design looks sleek, bold and contemporary – that’s what they were looking for.
Case study two – Top Five Percent
Recruitment firm Top Five Percent are a young and vibrant company and they wanted a logo to reflect this. They wanted us to use their branding colours of blue and black / grey but aside from that we were starting from scratch.
Again, we provided a large number of rough and ready options – playing around with the typeface, colour scheme and other elements. Here were two of the options:
The client was happy enough with the general direction of the above two but wanted to play around with other colour schemes and try a slightly less funky outline. Hence:
The client liked the slightly less funky shape but wanted slight amendments to the proportions and the boldness of the typeface and this is what we ended up with – you be the judge:
Case study three – Hudson Weir
Hudson Weir are a brand new company, so we were tasked with creating a logo completely from scratch.
The client wanted something sophisticated and corporate, but also fairly friendly-looking. We tried out multiple designs and finally hit on this:
We won’t bore you with the gory details for a third time but – as always – we considered the psychology of colour.
Blue is often associated with trust and dependability, and a whopping 42% of people name it as their favourite colour – so it’s no wonder it’s a popular choice in logo design for businesses.
We tried a variety of typefaces before settling on this one. The client thought this one struck the right balance between formality and friendliness, with the lack of capitalisation making it look less stern.
The graphic accompanying the text – a nod to the H and W initials in the company name – can be used as a standalone icon, giving the client multiple options for using the logo in their branding.
All three logos are also far wider than they are tall, which makes them compatible across various forms of marketing like email sign-offs, business cards and letterheads.
Logo design for businesses – a summary
A well-designed logo is an essential part of any business’ branding strategy. The right logo can help create a lasting relationship between your firm and audience.
But hitting on the perfect logo takes time and effort – and a large number of iterations will almost certainly bite the dust before you settle on one that’s just right for you.
It’s important to give thought to your target audience, the message you want to put across and how it will come across in a variety of contexts – it’s not just for your website.
If you’d like any help with a logo design for your business, give us a call today. We’d be only too happy to help.