What Goes Into a Logo That Works for Your Business
Author:
Taylour Maggart, Art Director
CaPABILITY:
Creative Services
By the time a client sees their new logo, most of the heavy lifting has already been done. Behind that image file are a long list of questions, a close look at their competitors, pages of sketches that never left my sketchbook, and a black-and-white round that tests the structure. Owners rarely see those steps, but they’re the key to a successful logo design.
A logo that works for your business tells customers what matters about you, fits your industry, stands apart from your competitors, and holds up anywhere it appears. Here’s how I get there at Holland Adhaus, and why each step of our process is set up the way it is.
It Starts With the Right Adjectives
My first conversations with a client are about soaking up as much as I can. I want to know how they see themselves and how they want their audience to see them. Most of all, I want the adjectives. Do they want to be known for reliability, trustworthiness, strength, longevity, expertise, efficiency, or speed? Those words become my brief. They guide every choice I make on typography, iconography, layout, and color.
Each of those choices has one job: supporting what we want people to see first. That brief keeps a logo from looking nice while saying nothing about the business behind it.
Standing Out in a Crowded Category
Next, I study my client’s direct competitors. If they all share a color palette, I steer my client away from it. A little overlap in type weight or color is fine. What I’m after is a look that fits the industry and still belongs to my client alone. Who the target audience is drives a lot of the color and typography decisions.
The idea is to be sticky. When a customer needs that product or service, we want our client to be the company that comes to mind.
Sketching Is a Brain Dump
My first sketches are a brain dump. With a pencil and paper, I try every way I can think of to stylize a word or an icon. The idea I walked in with often doesn’t make the final cut once we start digitizing.
That’s the point. Working through all those versions takes your creativity on a journey toward the strongest fit. Sketching is how I make my mistakes early and get to the good stuff faster. When a client sees options, each one has already beaten out plenty of other attempts.
Why the First Round Is Black and White
Clients see our opening round of logo options in black and white only. At that stage, they’re choosing structure: which typography works best and which style of icon or mark makes the most sense. Color added too early can muddy that decision.
Here’s an example. Picture two identical logos in navy and crimson red, one with silver as the third color and one with tan.
The silver logo comes across as modern and forward-thinking. The tan one suggests steadiness, like a company that has been around for decades and earned its customers’ trust. The shapes match exactly. The two still read as different companies.
Color makes a big impact. That’s why it comes in once we’ve narrowed down a black-and-white direction.
Color Sets the Emotional Tone
Once a direction is picked, color psychology guides the palette. People process visually. Color tells them whether a brand feels energetic, calm, playful, sophisticated, or dependable.
An owner’s favorite color matters less than what a color communicates. So I go back to those initial conversations and the adjectives we landed on. The palette has to tell the target audience what the owner wants them to understand about the business.
Every Industry Has Its Own Visual Language
Brands within an industry share some visual habits, for good reason. Imagine a manufacturer or a foundation repair company with a dainty calligraphy script. It would feel jarring to its customers, maybe even off-putting.
Where strength and expertise matter, you’ll see thicker fonts and angular, grid-like designs. Colors run bold, with dark navy, red, and green showing up often. A strong, heavy logo tells the customer this company is pulled together and knows what it’s doing.
Healthcare runs the other way. Those brands need to show sensitivity to wellbeing. That calls for rounded corners and softer colors that are calming but still credible, often blues, light greens, and lavender or purple.
For an owner, what looks good depends on what your customers expect from your industry. Your logo should meet that expectation and still be unmistakably yours.
Design for the Pen First
The hardest medium to design for is a pen. If a logo is still legible on something that small, it can size up to a truck wrap or an embroidered polo.
That’s also why business still needs more than one logo. A complete logo set includes vertical, horizontal, text-only, and icon-only versions, plus the full logo with and without a tagline. Think of it as a library with an option for any situation.
Because the logo has to work everywhere, I start thinking about each medium at the sketching stage and keep at it through digitizing. I also show pieces of the full set during the black-and-white round. That gives the client a preview of what their finished library could include. Planning the set from the start spares an owner a logo that looks great on a sign and turns illegible on a pen.
Logo Redesign Without Losing What Customers Recognize
Owners get attached to their logos. So do their customers, who have spent years seeing it on trucks, uniforms, and invoices. When I’m rebranding a business, that recognition is equity worth protecting.
In a redesign, I carry as much of that equity forward as I can. Sometimes that happens through color. Other times it comes through a similar or identical typeface.
Unless a client asks to move away from the old look entirely, I treat that history as something to celebrate. I bring it up to date so loyal customers still recognize the brand while the refreshed design reaches a new generation.
Let’s Start With What You Want People to See First
The Holland Adhaus creative design team in Cincinnati handles brand identity design for B2B, manufacturing, home services, healthcare, and professional services companies. Our logo sets are made to work on a pen and a truck wrap alike.
Starting fresh or updating a logo your customers already know? Connect with us or call 513.744.3000.
