A good graphic designer might make logo design look easy. A good graphic designer, however, knows that logo design is anything but. As marketing and branding techniques become more sophisticated and continue to evolve at lighting speed, modern logo design becomes an increasingly critical component of a successful brand. The contemporary marketing climate demands a microscopic level of detail to attention with regard to a logo. Back in May of 2014, Google made this logo change:
For as minuscule of a change as it was (the G and the L were moved over by one pixel) people noticed it. While most logo updates aren’t as subtle as Google’s was, the general rule of thumb is that a logo should be updated every 5-7 years to refresh its presence as the times and trends change. A logo update doesn’t need to be a reinvention of the wheel; you don’t need a complete overhaul to prevent your logo from looking stale and outdated.
The new scene of 21st-century graphic design calls for an unprecedented level of flexibility with regard to a logo. Today, a logo needs to look as good and as recognizable when it’s stretched to 14 by 48 feet (the dimensions of a billboard) or when it’s scrunched to 10 by 10 pixels. That’s the size of a favicon, or the logo that is displayed in a tab on a web browser. The logo needs to look just as recognizable in black and white as it does in color. It needs to work as an icon for an app. It needs to look good on business cards, shirts, pens, mugs, and anything in between.
Fulfilling the requirements of flexibility and detail orientation, all while trying to find a creative and artistic way to express your brand identity in such a manner that will stand out is exactly what makes modern logo design a tricky undertaking, best left to the pros. If you’re looking for some pros, well, we might just be able to help you find them.