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The Evolution of Tech Company Logos and Some Guidelines

Feb 13, 2008 By AgentOrange Design, Tips N Tricks

A logo is defined as a graphical element, a symbol or icon combined with its logotype (a uniquely arranged characters) that forms a trademark or commercial brand. For a company, a logo is an aspect of commercial brand or economic entity. Its shapes, images, fonts and colors are usually different from others in a similar market.

It has been said that logo design is a most important area of graphic design, thus the most difficult to perfect. The logo is the image embodying an organization. Because logos are meant to represent companies’ brands or corporate identities and foster their immediate customer recognition, it is counterproductive to frequently redesign logos.

I have here some images of today’s biggest brand tech logos and their evolution throughout the years. All credits goes to Neatorama for the images, and you can check out their post on how these logos evolved.

Here are some guidelines that you might want to follow when designing a logo for your company.

• Do avoid being excess in attempting uniqueness for you might end up with a logo that is hard to recognize or associate with your company.
• Do not abuse the use of colors, use only few or limited colors.
• Avoid gradients (smooth color transitions) as a distinguishing feature. If you are going to use gradients make sure that your primary logo will still stand out or you can use gradients as a background without altering the brand.
• You may want to produce alternatives for different contexts. This will prevent your logo from losing integrity even if it is redesigned.
• As much as possible, design using vector graphics, so the logo can be resized without losing fidelity.
• Be aware of design or trademark infringements. Better check out the competition’s brand first. This will also give you an edge on creating a better brand for yourself/company.
• Include guidelines on the position on a page and white space around the logo for consistent application across a variety of media. This is also known as brand standard manual. This manual or guide provides clear, easy-to-use information to employees and corporate partners on how to use your brand in print, video and even email and voice mail signatures.
• Do not use a specific choice clip-art as a distinguishing feature.
• Do not use the face of a (living) person, unless you are marketing yourself.
• Do not use photography or complex imagery as it reduces the instant recognition a logo demands.
• You may want to avoid culturally sensitive imagery, such as religious icons or national flags, unless the brand is committed to being associated with any and all connotations such imagery may evoke.
• If you can, avoid using bevel, emboss, shadows and other effects on your logo. But it seems to work on Google so it’s up to you if you want to follow this part of the guideline.

There you have it. If there are some tips that you might want to add, feel free to comment on this post.

Tags: Design, evolution, guidelies, logo, tips