5 Expert Tips For Redesigning Your Logo in 2020

Whether you’re looking to reach out to a new customer base, rethink your brand values, or expand into international markets in the new year, you might be thinking about freshening up your logo. In this article we caught up with Andrew Dark the director and Co-Owner of Custom Planet. Here he shares his 5 Expert Tips For Redesigning Your Logo in 2020.

Completely rebranding can be a big effort and, in some cases, it’s not always necessary. For example, if you’ve introduced a new product line your logo might just need a bit of an update with bolder colours or a new font.

With so many elements to consider, creating a new logo is no easy feat. That’s why I’ll be giving you my top five branding tips, so you can get started right away.

Table of Contents

Pick out your key values

From the very first glance, your logo should convey who you are and what your business’ values are, so you’ll need to identify what you want to get across to your audience and how you’re going to do it. While you might have put a lot of thought into the imagery and colours you’ve used in your logo, it’s also important that you think about the overall shape of it.

Research published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that logos with a softer, more rounded shape tend to evoke a feeling of sensitivity and comfort, whereas angular branding can give off a sense of formality and durability.

So, create a list of bullet points outlining your brand voice, values, mission statement, and USPs and have these in front of you at every point in the design process, especially if they have changed as part of a bigger rebranding effort. Then, keep referring back to them to keep you on track. If you’re not sure how to convey your values, you might want to consider hiring a professional designer to help.

Figure out what’s working

When it comes to rebranding, there might be a temptation to review and change everything, but that means you could be getting rid of the elements that are already working. So, take a look at your current branding and isolate the things that are great about it so you can carry them over into your new logo. Remember, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

If you’re not sure what’s working for your brand, you could always ask your customers what they like about your logo (and what they don’t like) using online surveys. Even if you just get a couple of responses, you’ll have a better idea of where you need to go with your new branding.

Reidentify your audience

When you first created your brand, you probably started out with a key demographic in mind and tailored your business to them. But often, a few years down the line, you can find that your customer base is something different to what you initially imagined, so you’ll need to re-identify your audience before you redesign your logo.

This can easily be done by sending out surveys as your customers make a purchase or asking for extra details when they make an online account, so you can get a better understanding of who it is that’s buying from you. Then, you can tailor your new logo to something that appeals to them.

Keep it simple

The most effective logos are the simplest. Think of some of the most famous logos you know, like Apple, Twitter, Facebook or Nike, and what do they all have in common? They’re all simple and understated, but instantly recognisable.

When designing your new logo, try to keep it to its most simplistic form. Don’t overwhelm your audience with colour and imagery, as it could put them off your brand altogether. Instead, pick out the most important elements you want to incorporate.

One way you can do this is by working with the existing elements you decided to keep. Once you know what works well, you can try to simplify them by taking away all the elements that don’t have as much of an impact.

A simple logo is also going to be more versatile. Not only will it be easier to scale and print on custom-made products, but it can lend itself nicely to a wide variety of backgrounds and platforms. And, in an age when mobile and digital marketing is growing in popularity, this has become even more important.

Ask for feedback

Redesigning your logo can be a big task and it’s possible that you’re not going to get everything right straight away. Even some of the world’s biggest corporations add subtle changes to their branding now and again. This is partly due to a shift in market values or trends, but can also be due to a miscommunication between the design thought process and the finalised product.

So, once you’ve completed your new logo, ask your customers what they think so you can work out if your imagery is having the right impact. While some elements might seem like a great idea during the design stage, they might not transfer well in the final product, and your customers might not get the message you intended to convey. If this is the case, you can easily make some final changes before rolling out the definitive design.

Although your branding should be as timeless as possible, it may need a few small tweaks as it ages. So, don’t forget to revisit your logo a few years down the line to see if there’s any elements that could do with a little freshening up.

If you’re wanting to update your logo design in 2020, follow these 5 Expert Tips For Redesigning Your Logo in 2020 to make the process as easy and stress-free as possible to understand. Always hire a professional like The Logo Creative who are specialists in logo and brand identity design, and helped countless brands world-wide.

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Author Bio

Andrew Dark co-created Custom Planet with his friend John Armstrong in 2008 while they were both at University. What started out as a small badge printing business has now grown into one of the UK’s leading printwear providers thanks to the knowledge and expertise of Andrew and his team.

Also published on Medium.