How To Choose The Right Type Of Logo For Your Situation?
- Writer for DDI on Medium
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 29
3 Situations I’ve Identified Clients Are In.
Situation #1: I’ve Only Been In Business A Few Months.
Prospect: “So I did a design of this logo for my business. This is the name (enter name X). I just need you to clean it up for me. I find it looking blurry. Um…it’s a purple logo.”
…proceeds to explain the inspiration behind the color of the blurry logo.
Me: “At what time did you factor in your industry and the client when you decided on the color purple?”
Prospect: “Ummm…I read your article on color eh but (uncomfortably laughs), I just like that color.”
Me: “…And the logo mark?”
Prospect: “What about it?”
Me: “…what did you base the design off of?”
Prospect: “What do you mean?”
…proceeds to explain the inspiration behind the logo mark.
Me: “OK, so the mark represents the meaning of your name. Well, that’s not how it works. Brand marks or pictorial marks are usually based on the brand’s identity or what the brand does.”
Prospect: “Ohh. Well, yuh could build de brand off of what I’ve designed?”
Me: “No. You’ll be coming at it from the wrong direction. You don’t establish a brand with the logo: Your brand is not your logo. You establish the brand first, and you create the visual brand after.”
Prospect: “So I’m not ready for a logo?”
Me: “How long have you been in business?”
Prospect: “A few months”
Me: “🥴…no, you’re not ready for a logo.”
I understand the peer pressure that comes with putting your services on social media. Seeing people in your industry with a logo for their profile picture can stimulate desire and make you a little desperate. You don’t know most of those marks have nothing to do with their brand message, you don’t know most of those people don’t even know what their brand’s message is. All you see is a cool design they like “very very much”.
If you’re in the testing phase with your services, you can’t possibly commit to a brand identity just yet. That said, you’ll save yourself $300 by simply creating a font logo on Canva.
Situation #2: I’m Low-key Entertaining A ReBrand! Maybe, Kinda Not So Sure?
Small business owners get advice the same way companies in Trinidad and Tobago low-key get free work. They crowdsource it. The nuance here for 1-3 man shows is that we turn to friends and family as opposed to professionals.
But whether the person is creating whatever they like or mirroring what you ask for, the outcome is the same when taking advice from someone unqualified to give it:
When you're switching things up, a new design does nothing for what people already associate your old brand with; it only confuses them because the change is superficial. If a rebrand isn't the goal, then we're still working with the same principles. What's the vibe of the brand? If the name of the brand oozes luxury, if the vibe of the product and the service is luxury, don't reinvent the wheel. Simple and timeless, not playful like it belongs on Wizards of Waverly Place, or The Mummy Returns, perhaps, are the rules we're playing by for credibility.
Anyone can look up a font they like, apply it to a design, and call it a logo. Almost no one (graphic designers included) in Trinidad and Tobago can create the right vibe with typography for a 1-3 man show because building a brand from scratch isn't something done here. Your brand strategy will help you appreciate the depth of your brand’s message communicated visually. With that said, if putting your logo on travel items is the goal, monogram logos are common in such scenarios.
Situation #3: I Have A Logo I Like…I Just Need It To Go With My New Brand And Website.
Me: “Do you need a logo?”
CEO: “No, we already have a logo.”
Me: “Kindly send it to me please. I will need an Adobe Illustrator version for the project.”
CEO: “Hmmm, I’ll need to track down the person who designed it. Adobe Illustrator you said!?”
Me: “Yes. Not JPG, or a screenshot of it from Facebook. The original file.”
Two months pass and nothing.
CEO: “I finally got a hold of him. Here is the Adobe Illustrator file you asked for.”
Me: …I notice it’s fluorescent green, but her brand color is Citibank blue.
A good brand can truly make an ugly logo look like it was hatched out of a moment of inspiration.
Living in Trinidad and Tobago, logos are created purely on the foundation of aesthetics. These days, most service providers are either shopping at the business toolkit or using the same software because all the logos have the same look and feel to them. But I digress.
When you’ve successfully provided your services to over 500 clients, you have a responsibility to the value your services provide to seek out the right type of help you need to reflect it. Nothing about your brand should be an afterthought; you shouldn't be forcing your brand’s message to align with an ugly logo to save a few dollars. The brand should have been found first, and the visual brand created after.
Depending on your industry, combination marks (the word mark together with a pictorial icon) will be the best type of logos for you. Examples of industries that use combination marks are the fashion industry, the automobile industry, the fast food industry, sports clothing industry, and the insurance industry, to name a few.
I am the Founder and Visual Brand Strategist at The BrandTUB **Schedule a call with me if you need help with your visual branding. Let's see if you're a good fit! **Figure out what you're trying to say with The One-Page Workbook™ **Sign up to receive these weekly articles in your inbox if you’re not quite ready to work with me yet.
