A logo should fully convey the thing it represents with a single, concise, instantly recognizable mark. As you can see from these popular examples, it doesn’t have to be a literal object. It simply needs to convey an emotion.
The colors you choose should be simple as well. Rarely would a logo need more than one or two colors. When you think of Coke, you think of the color red which conveys excitement. If the Coca-Cola logo contained lots of colors, you’d lose that connection. Businesses are like sports teams as we remember them by their team color(s). Starbucks is green, UPS is brown, etc. What color is your business when people picture it in their mind?
The goal of any logo is to arrive at the simplest solution possible, no matter what the industry is. This can be a challenge. Some extreme examples of this are BBC, who famously spent $1,800,000 on their simple block letters, and Pepsi who shelled out $1,000,000 for their red, white and blue circle. The more elements in a logo, the less memorable it is, so try to narrow it down to a single element. Give people something simple to focus on.
– John
