Posted by Jeremy L. Knauff | December 17th, 2009
These days, it seems like everyone with a computer and a pirated copy of Adobe Photoshop claims to be a logo designer. The sad truth is that software, no matter how powerful it may be, doesn’t make someone a logo designer any more than a copy of TurboTax makes someone an accountant. Just ask Timothy Geithner.
As more of these self-proclaimed logo designers have flooded the market over the last few years, more people have become confused about what they are paying for when they hire a logo designer. People see intricate 3D logos full of flourish and flair and think that’s what they need. They don’t realize that a busy, complex logo is less effective than a simple one.
Many business owners, considering the design of their business identity, forget that they need to put aside many of their personal design preferences and have their firm’s logo created for the target market of the business, rather than themselves. For an effective initiation of the branding efforts of their business, the logo should be unique, simple, memorable, translate to possible one-color needs and work well in all sizes. Software “bells and whistles”: often only muddle the ability of a logo to convey a clear message to the potential customer. Consider the simplicity of recognizable identities such as Nike, Apple, CBS, FedEx and the like when having a company logo produced. A trained and talented identity design professional will be able to distill all of your business’ needs and requirements down to a clean, concise, visually-inviting graphic representation – and the simplest solution may involve a complicated design process. The design of a logo is an investment in the future long-term brand recognition and success of a company.
Think about some of the logos that stick out in your mind. Are they complex and intricate or elegantly simple? Which category does your logo fit into? Here are a few examples of simple, yet effective logos:










December 18th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
We can not agree more. Logos should be simple, clean and easily identifiable. Of course, they are not always easy to design, especially for small businesses. My husband and I went through many different design concepts before coming up with ours. We, too, wrote about the importance of logos. This information can never be stated too many times.
[Reply]
December 28th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Hello, first I want to say great blog. I don’t always agree with your posts but it’s always a nice read.
[Reply]
December 29th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Keep up the good work!
[Reply]
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:26 pm
My brother would appreciate this blog post. We were just talking about this. hehe
[Reply]
January 4th, 2010 at 5:03 am
This is very useful informations.
Thank you
[Reply]
January 7th, 2010 at 2:44 am
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – subscribing to your feeds also, Thanks.
[Reply]
January 7th, 2010 at 5:04 am
As a Newbie, I am always searching for articles like this that can help me. Thank you
[Reply]
January 12th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Always pleasant to stumble across a new blog this good I’ll be back here for sure!
[Reply]
January 12th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
This is a great article. I am a college student majoring in Telecommunications, and so many of my peers try to go above and beyond in design by making things too complicated. I like to go to for clean, simple logos!
[Reply]
January 14th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Hi and many thanks for a well-written web site. I appreciate what you wrote.
[Reply]