A good logo is one people can recognize at a glance and read at any size, that still works in one color, and that looks like it belongs to your kind of business rather than to anyone’s. It does not have to explain what you do. It has to be easy to remember and hard to confuse with someone else’s.
Where a logo actually has to work
Your logo appears in more places than any other piece of your business: the sign, the truck, the invoice, the tab in someone’s browser, the small circle next to your name on a review site. In most of those places it is tiny, it is seen for a second, and it sits next to competitors. A logo that only looks good large and in full color fails in exactly the places customers see it most.
A logo is also hard to change later. Once it is on signs, vehicles and printed stock, replacing it costs real money, so it is worth getting right before it goes on anything permanent.
Signs your logo is not working
- It turns into a smudge as a social profile picture or a browser icon.
- It depends on color, so it disappears when printed in black or put on a dark background.
- It uses fine lines or small text that cannot be read on a sign from across the street.
- Customers describe it as “the one that looks like” another business.
- You only have it as a picture file, so every printer asks for a better version.
How 76 Design Solutions solves it
76 Design Solutions designs logos with everything a business needs to use them: a primary mark, secondary and stacked variants, color and one-color versions, a browser icon and social crops, and source files in vector format, so a printer never has to ask again. When the logo needs a full system around it, that is brand identity work. See 76designsolutions.com/branding-marketing.
If you want to see a new or existing logo on a real page first, start with the Website Plan and Homepage Mockup from 76 Design Solutions: a page plan and a homepage mockup for desktop and phone, built on your logo and colors, delivered within 5 business days for $49.99. The full $49.99 is credited toward a Small Business Website build, and the credit does not expire.