Creating a logo for your website

Every website, regardless of its size, can benefit from having a logo. Logos are a great way to build brand recognition for your site and enhance its professional appearance. In this article, you'll learn important key elements that make a logo successful.

If you have the necessary experience, creating a logo yourself can be the most cost effective option. If you prefer having a logo designed for you, there are professional logo design services that can help. Regardless of whether you decide to design the logo yourself or have someone do the work for you, the guide below will give you valuable knowledge that you can use to assess the suitability and potential effectiveness of a logo you are considering using.

Colour schemes

If your logo uses multiple colours, design it to also be suitable as a monochrome (single colour) version. You will be likely to encounter situations where you will not be able to use full-colour versions of your logo. Also create versions of your logo that are suitable for display against both a dark and light background.

Versatility

Colours look different on a computer screen compared to when printed or displayed on television. Logos should be easily adaptable to various forms of media, since you will never know what opportunities will arise for you in the future. If you do not plan in advance for your logo to be used in a variety of situations, redesigning it in the future can be a costly and time consuming exercise.

Dimensions

Designing your logo so that it fits into the shape of a square or horizontally-oriented rectangle means that it can be easily used for most applications such as on your website, stationery, business cards, signs, vehicle printing, sponsorship and marketing material. It is more difficult to use vertically-oriented logos, particularly on websites since there is more horizontal screen space available than vertical screen space. In addition, if your logo is displayed together with other logos (for example, if you co-sponsor an event), vertically oriented logos will often appear smaller since they will be resized so as to fit with the more numerous surrounding horizontally-oriented logos.

Scalability and resolutions

Have a large size, high resolution version of your logo available on file, not just a small version for your website. It is easy to down-size your logo from a large version, but it is a difficult and time-consuming process that requires a lot of skill to resize a small logo to a large size without it degrading in quality.

Simplicity

Successful logos often have a simple, yet unique and easily recognisable design. If you look at logos from large, well-known brands, you'll soon notice that most have this feature in common. By using a simple design, your logo is more likely to be effective for many years into the future.

Over the years, you will be allocating large amounts of money, time and effort promoting and building your website (and if applicable, your business') brand. Your logo will play a significant role. The logo you choose is likely to stay with your brand for its entire life, and will be recognised by visitors to your site and your customers. Changing a logo in the future can be a risky exercise.

If you do decide to change your logo in the future, for a good introduction about changing a visual element of your brand, read the article 'Avoiding confusion when modifying websites: the just-noticeable difference principle'.

Intellectual property considerations

It is a good idea to have your logo checked by a lawyer to ensure it does not infringe anyone else's trademark. It is also beneficial to have you logo registered as a trademark, which helps to protect it from being used by others without your permission.

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