Are you planning to redesign your company logo or simply considering creating a new logo for your start-up brand? Either ways designing a logo is a daunting process for graphic designers who consistently ignore the importance of doing groundwork when embarking on a branding project. Research plays a pivotal role in making a design project successful. Here I am going to share some actionable tips that you need to consider before creating a logo design.

Rigorously Research Your Clients Business

The most essential element that you need to put into consideration before start working on a logo is to first research the clients business meticulously. You need to have a clear idea about your customer and the business they are dealing with. As you will not be able to create a design that perfectly fits your client’s requirements until you are clear about the purpose that the logo needs to serve. A logo is meant to identify the organization therefore you need to have a precise idea and in depth knowledge about the business vision, mission and the values they have aimed to live by.

Know Your Target Audience Preferences

You need to explore your audience in depth if you want to create a logo design that will attract them towards your brand. Being a designer you need to know which design techniques will work best for your prospect audience.  Consequently, you need to understand the demographics of the audience that includes age, gender, location, income level, lifestyle and behavior. Get insights into what your audience actually wants with regard to the products or services they are looking for. Once you are well aware of all the above details, it will be easier for you to create a logo that will serve its purpose effortlessly.

Recognize Your Competition, Their Values & Visual Identity

The importance of knowing your competition plays a pivotal role as it allows you to gain some valuable insights into the industry trends that were successful in the past.

However, you need not to follow those trends slavishly rather you can take inspiration from them so that you create a design that is innovative and unique enough to outperform your competitors and make your brand stand out. Further, researching your competition allows you to identify the gap and build a design that separates you from those offering the same products or services. Moreover, by this technique you can also get a clear idea about how others are utilizing their visual brand, which will eventually help you to recognize visual strategies that will take your brand ahead of them.

Know Your Company’s Long-Term Goals

Here the key discovery is to build a logo that is timeless and versatile enough to outlast the evolving market trends. For that reason, ensure that you precisely comprehend not only where your company stands today but also where you are planning to see yourself in next 5 or 10 years. You need to think of a big picture. Examine what your long-term goals are so that you can easily incorporate that into your logo. For instance, if a company today offers only one product line, but in future, it aims to add another product line to its existing offering that makes it quite essential for you to have proper awareness of your long-term goals so that you can make a design that is flexible enough to withstand changes.

Know Your Budget & Timing

Before creating a logo, it is important to research and jot down details pertaining to budget, timing and scope. You need to have considerate knowledge about how much money you are willing to invest to make your logo design as per your desired specifications. Get a clear idea about the number of revisions you are planning to make once the logo is completed and initial concepts that you prefer to see. You need to have a clear idea about how much time you are required to spend working on the logo so that you can complete it on the given timeline. Moreover, you need to be well aware of what matters you the most in the logo whether it is speed, quality or cost and what message you want to communicate through it.

For any logo designer, research serves to be a crucial step that needs to be done in order to create a logo that articulately communicates company’s core values uniquely. With the above-mentioned tips you can create a vigorous visual identity of your brand that will leave a positive impact on your brand image.