7 Redesign Tips to Make Your Logo Better Than Ever
Consumers recognize a brand by its logo. So when logos change, there’s always some confusion for the audience. Some people will quickly come to love the new logo, especially if it’s better than the old version. Others may need some time to come around. The good news is, there are ways to help people adjust to an updated logo. The most important thing you can do is to make the new logo a true improvement on the old one. It should be reflective of the brand’s personality and more effective at communicating that personality with the audience. Sounds like a pretty tall order, right? Not to worry. Our friends at Company Folders have put together these seven tips to make sure your new logo is better than ever.
#1: Isolate your old logo’s best qualities
Before you totally scrap your old logo design, stop! There has to be some reason it was effective and popular with your customers. If you learn what people liked about it, you can bring those qualities to your new design and make the transition smoother for everyone.
#2: Look to your brand’s past for ideas
Even if your brand doesn’t have a crazy long history like some companies, it does have a past. You may be able to breathe new life into its older logo designs. This will reassure customers that your brand is still its same old self—just a more creative version.
#3: Strive for simplicity
Look at your current logo and think, “What could I remove from this without losing the message?” You might be able to remove quite a bit and just create a more streamlined design that will be easier for customers to recognize in the long run.
#4: Focus on the colors that matter most
Too often, color becomes a crutch to make details stand out. If this sounds familiar, you may want to rethink your strategy. Simpler color branding actually makes your logo—and thus your company—more recognizable. Think about which colors are most important to your design, and only bring those colors to the new logo.
#5: Embrace new trends, but hold onto classic traditions
There’s a fine line between being trendy and throwing your heritage out the window. But it’s also possible to go to the other extreme, staying stuck in the past while the world moves on without you. Identify which parts of your logo speak to your brand’s history, then touch them up with a little modernity here and there.
#6: Optimize readability
This is a surprisingly simple way to redesign a logo—and absolutely crucial if you have a wordmark or lettermark logo. You can update a text-based logo without replacing the whole font. For instance, Mail Chimp kept its friendly script logo; it just made the letters lighter and more distinct.
#7: Use hidden meanings to add interest
One of the fun things about redesigning a logo is that you can make it appealing to new prospects while letting your loyal customers have an inside joke. Playing with negative space lets you create multiple meanings in your logo, so you can send more than one branded message without overloading the design.
Conclusion
A redesigned logo is a pretty major shift for your target audience. That’s why these seven tips are so crucial to making your new logo a success—they’ll help your customers through the transition and lead to a logo that represents the best of your brand.
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