Bring on the lotus & the fancy pose - it's time for your logo!
This is always an exciting event in brand development!
Your logo is arguably the most used of your branding assets,
so it needs to be identifiable and relatable, just like your name.
Whether you use a graphic, typographic or a combination of these two, which is usually the case, your logo needs to:
Be identifiable in different scales - from a tiny Instagram profile photo to an A3 poster.
Adjustable to different applications and formats - landscape, portrait, circle, square and so on.
Consistent in its elements - colour, typography or font, graphic element - when applied to different formats.
...Let's go through them
Identifiable
Your logo should be simple enough in its elements that it is recognizable when the points above are applied to it.
Let me tell you a story of a misstep. I occasionally have the itch to re-brand. In this cycle of re-branding itch, I changed my palette and typeface or font. I changed the very recognizable font I already had to a sans serif, thin weighted font type and added a line underneath the name. I also added a graphic of a yoga pose above the name. I fell in love with it, yes, but with a little trepidation. At the time, I didn't know where it was coming from, until I applied it to my social profile icons, my favicon (the website icon on the tab) and other smaller placements.
Ah, then I knew what was making me not fully fall in love with it - it looked like just a blob of colour! It was not scalable AT ALL!
I thankfully went back to my original logo but kept the new mauve/dusky pink/old rose palette - that one I really like and represents myself and my niche better.
Adjustability and Consistency
I want to address the potential confusion over Adjustability and Consistency - there is no conflict here. Adjustability is being able to modify the placements of your logo elements to different formats to maximize its visibility to the requirements of the space its going to be put into. Consistency is the look of these elements in the different formats.
For example: A circular or square logo, arguably the most used formats or shapes, is good for most uses, but may look floating when applied to a bigger, rectangular space. The opposite is true for rectangular or longer formatted logos; they need to be formatted into a circular shape to be effective for most uses. That's Adjustability.
Now, the colour (or colours), typography, graphic elements and even the placements of these within its space should be consistent. If your graphic element is above your name, it should always be above your name. If you use a regular font weight, always use a regular font weight, don't suddenly use italic or bold font weights even if the typeface or font itself is the same.
That's Consistency.
The perfect symbol is Identifiable, Adjustable & Consistent...
and still shows who you are!
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