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Hello, this is Jules and welcome to the full party.

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Today we are continuing our series on branding, effective branding, and I did a whole episode

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on effective branding, what it is, the components of an effective brand and creating brand values.

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This episode is going to be on logo, creating a logo, what a logo is, what it is not, things

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that often people confuse a logo for.

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And then we're going to talk about easy ways to create a logo, what I think your logo should

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be just based upon things that actually make branding simple and easy in the long run.

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And what I'm considering here is longevity, ease of use when you work with designers.

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And so this has a lot more to do with practicality than it does with the artistic factors that

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I think a lot of people consider when they create a logo.

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And so I'm going to simplify this for you and there is going to be some tough love here

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because that is what I value.

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I value brutal honesty and I see people overcomplicate their branding too many times and my hope with

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this series is to take you out of indecision, make some choices, make them in a series of

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steps in order to get your branding done and most importantly, put yourself out there to

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be more consistent and actually shoot your shots instead of petering your fingers.

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Okay, so let's dive in creating a logo.

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What is a logo?

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So logo is a mark or a name that your brand or business is recognized for.

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And as I write this podcast, I'm talking to DIY artists, entrepreneurs, anyone who might

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be trying to make a brand.

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Chances are you're probably bootstrapping and doing this yourself.

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So if you need help in creating your name, go ahead and listen to that episode.

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There are a variety of ways to choose a name, but there are also practical things to consider.

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So logo is usually a visual representation of what your name is and who you are.

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Because we're going to keep this simple.

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I'll tell you what a logo is not.

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A lot of times I hear people confuse a logo with artwork, glyphs, and icons.

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A logo should not be complex artwork.

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It is not a glyph.

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A glyph usually accompanies a logo and a glyph is a small piece of artwork that represents

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your brand.

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And it is also not an icon.

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Sometimes icons accompany logos, but those are usually just as imagery.

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And then I'll go ahead and get into each of these artwork glyphs and icons with an example.

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But let's talk about artwork.

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When you see album artwork, for example, podcast artwork, like my podcast album cover, that

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is not a logo.

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That is artwork.

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It is comprised of key art.

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And the reason why that is not a logo is because a logo needs to be simple.

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A logo usually is something that you could create a stamp out of, for example, and then

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you could stamp that thing everywhere.

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People would know that is your logo.

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Artwork is usually a lot more complex.

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A lot of artwork is not easy to replicate.

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Therefore you do not want that as your logo.

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Except we're talking about glyphs.

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So glyphs are imagery that usually accompany logos.

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And glyphs need to be quite simple.

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Let's use an easy example.

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So Gucci.

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Gucci is a brand.

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They have a logo.

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But Gucci also has a glyph, which you'll often see, which is the double G's that are facing

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each other.

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That is the glyph.

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And that glyph works.

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It's recognizable.

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But Gucci is also the legacy brand.

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Gucci is a legacy brand and they have that working for them.

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So that double G that's facing each other is iconic and recognizable.

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We're continuing on icons.

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Icons are not your logo.

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So Gucci might have a lot of different icons.

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Let's say if you go on their website, they might have an icon for shirts, hats, scarves,

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but none of those components separate by themselves are the logo.

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Basically, none of those icons would mean anything if they were not put next to the

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stamp Gucci, which spells out G-U-C-C-I.

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And this is important to distinguish because what your logo should be is something that

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represents your brand.

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It should be the name.

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And I'll talk about that a little bit more.

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So let's talk about a logo package.

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I think one of the reasons why people oftentimes confuse all these different pieces, artwork,

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glyphs and icons as part of the logo itself is because they can make up a logo package.

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But in reality, you don't really need any one of these things artwork with sore icons

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if your logo is not solidified.

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A glyph can oftentimes be shown next to the name.

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So that's at double G again next to the Gucci, that would be a glyph.

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And there can be varieties of your logo based on the size and where the logo is used.

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Let's use a Gucci legacy brand again.

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So Gucci as legacy brands existed before the internet, but these days their clothing is

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on print runway.

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There are digital fashion shows, websites that include the Gucci logo and all these

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varieties of places where you'll see the logo, they appear in different sizes.

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You wouldn't use the same logo for different types of publications because it doesn't

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always make sense to.

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So they have an in-house designer and probably contractors that work on different sizes of

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the logo.

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Maybe the logo is even motion and doing something different if they're trying to promote for

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New York Fashion Week, but it doesn't always have to be that way.

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These are all stories that evolve over time based upon different uses.

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If you are a new artist, designer, company, you don't need all these different varieties.

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So don't get too ahead of yourself.

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Don't overcomplicate.

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All right.

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This is a little tough love because while there could be a ton of varieties for your

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logo, if you're just starting out, don't create a crap ton of varieties.

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Overcomplicating is another way of you not actually doing anything and we want to avoid

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that.

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So indecision will kill you and prevent death.

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Just choose something simple.

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Now onto this next section, what I think your logo should be as a designer.

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And I'm talking to you as someone who's worked with brands, both digital and print.

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I believe your logo should just be your name and I believe you should start out in just

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black and white.

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Now we talked a lot about finding your name.

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Ideally, now your name is simple enough to where you could just write it in whatever

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preferred font you have and then that should serve as your logo.

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The reason why I think that just your name written out in your preferred font, a part

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of your brand packaging font should be your logos because it's simple.

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It's easy enough to just send the font files to a designer.

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You can write it out and then that's your logo.

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Logo needs to be simple because while you can make your artwork complicated, let's

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say that you made a really awesome poster for Gucci and it had all these trees in the

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background and lions jumping out.

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You could stand in Gucci right in the corner and you would be able to easily read that

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logo just because it's spelled out.

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There wouldn't be any confusion of what the brand represents.

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You could just read it.

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And I think this is why sometimes people get confused because they oftentimes experience

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branding as all these different parts coming together, but each individual component serves

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a specific purpose and has rules and limits.

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Logos should be simple.

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They need to be written out.

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You should be able to type a logo and any accompanying artwork, work withs or icons

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can be different.

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But again, that is a separate design mission with different parameters and the logo is

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going to be a part of your branding package.

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So ideally you choose your fonts before you type out your logo.

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So then you can play with it.

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And when I talk about colors, just start out by writing your logo in black and white.

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Up next, I will go ahead and give you a little bit of a bonus, but I think there are different

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ways to play around as your logo.

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And if you listen to the branding episode, you'll know that I told you to only choose

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one to two fonts.

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So you shouldn't have too much wiggle room in writing out your logo name.

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And then you can play around with the spacing of that font.

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Even if you were to type it out in that same font, it would still look similar.

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And then that would help you maintain recognizability.

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And again, this is one of the reasons why we want to keep things simple because when

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you start to overcomplicate, it makes it hard for designers to work with your brand.

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And then also it takes more time to make a branding asset for you that represents who

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you are.

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And ultimately what that does is just all those little extra pieces of time that add

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to making you recognizable slows down for ability to move fast.

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So that is a really quick discussion on logo today, but it's because logos need to be

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simple.

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I see people overcomplicating logos all the time.

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A logo should just represent your brand.

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And I believe that it should just be the name of your brand or your company written out

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and your selected font.

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A logo is not artwork.

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It is not a glyph.

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It is not icon.

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It is not album art.

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A logo may be included on your album arts, but it is not any one of these things by themselves.

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And again, I think a logo, you should stick with it and it should be simple enough to

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where you could use it for years without needing to change it.

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A lot of these design decisions that I've talked about already should be simple enough

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to where you don't need to change it too much.

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You can change your artwork, you can change your glyphs, your icons, lots of different

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things.

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But ideally you don't change your branding too much because then if you're changing these

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foundational bones of your visual representation, it becomes confusing and messy over time.

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So these are my thoughts on logo.

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And if you like this series, go ahead and give this episode a thumbs up.

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Rate this podcast five stars.

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This has been the pool party by Jules.

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Thank you and have a great day.