How to Create an Effective Logo Design?

A logo is the identity of a company. It inspires trust, loyalty, reliability and superiority. The primary objective of a logo is to communicate the company's intended message. For this reason, it should be unique, appropriate, realistic and explicit in form. Moreover, it should be effective in any size and color. A logo is said to be great when it successfully executes a remarkable concept.
Before you set out to design a logo, it is essential to note down your ideas, thoughts and requirements. Thereafter, on the basis of the type of the industry your company belongs to, and its history, objectives, and competitors, conduct a study to ascertain the latest trends and styles of logos. This extensive thought-process will help you conceptualize the logo design.
A good logo is simple, versatile, appropriate, memorable and timeless. Simplicity makes the design easily recognizable and memorable. For instance, the logos of the companies like Nike, McDonald or IBM. They are simple, yet distinct and unforgettable. Versatility, on the other hand, ensures that the logo works well across a wide variety of media and applications, irrespective of its size or color. Finally, the logo design should be appropriate. For example, in a logo for a law firm, child-like fonts and color scheme won't work. When all these features are present in a logo, it automatically becomes timeless.
Here are a few more things that you should keep in mind while designing the logo of your company.
o It's good to be aware to the current trends. However, be very careful while implementing them in the design of your logo. Trends are usually ephemeral, but your logo has to be timeless. So, take adequate care.
o While designing your logo, avoid using raster graphics software. It is unusually difficult to edit and scale raster graphics.
o Do not use stock vector graphics because your logo would neither be unique nor be original. Stock vector graphics typically consist of familiar images like silhouettes and globes. Hence, the probability of duplication is quite high.
o Avoid creating a complex logo design because the more features a logo has the more information the viewer would have to process. As the result, the logo would no longer remain memorable.
o Countless colors and fonts tend to ruin the design of the logo. Too many colors increase the printing costs, while innumerable fonts make the logo hard to recognize and memorize. The black and white image of the logo should look as good as the colored image. Furthermore, don't use more than two fonts in your logo.
o Last, but not the least, do not copy. A logo represents a company, and every company is distinct. By copying logo design, you steal away that uniqueness.