What makes a good logo? A successful design may meet the goals of the design brief, but an exceptional mark with the potential to become iconic will capture a brand’s essence through simplicity, relevance, and distinction.
Keep it simple
Often, a glance is all that’s afforded to a logo before attention is directed elsewhere. You might be driving past a billboard, scrolling on your phone, watching TV. That second or two is all the logo has to make an impression.
Simplicity is key.
A minimalist approach also enables your logo to be used across the broadest possible range of media, from avatars to billboards, from business cards to favicons.
Think of the marks of Mercedes, Apple, Target, Shell. Their simplicity makes them easier to remember, and that helps improve brand recognition.
Yellow Pages logo
Make it relevant
A logo for a lawyer will be different from a logo for a children’s toymaker. A travel agency will have different considerations from a sports team. The design should always be relevant to the industry and audience.
Keep in mind, however, that a logo doesn’t need to say what a company does. Often, the less a logo says, the better. The BMW logo isn’t a car. The Quantas logo isn’t an airplane. The Nike logo isn’t a shoe. Yet they’re all relevant within their markets.
Wonder Years logo
Aim for distinction
Distinction means separation within the market. A strong mark will have a unique quality or treatment that, after a period of use, can be directly linked to the business it identifies without being mistaken for a competitor.
But how do you create a logo that’s unique? You focus initially on a design that’s recognisable. So recognisable, in fact, that just its silhouette gives it away. Working in black and white before adding colour can help to create a more distinctive mark because the contrast highlights the idea. Colour, although important, is secondary to shape and form.
Tenon logo
These three principles—simplicity, relevance, and distinction—are covered in much more detail in my book, Logo Design Love.
Logo Design Love
A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Marks
Third edition published in 2026 by New Riders
224 pages, paperback
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Work with me
If you’re considering a new logo or visual identity, whether that means starting from scratch or a subtle refinement of what you already have, tell me about the business, what you’re trying to achieve, why the project matters now, and roughly what you’re expecting to invest. That’s enough for me to tell you whether I can help.
And if you’re nearby, do drop in and I’ll brew us some tea.
studio@davidairey.com
David Airey
Logo & brand identity design
Studio
64 Beechfield Avenue
Bangor
Northern Ireland
BT19 7ZZ
Contact
studio@davidairey.com
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07739 530 457
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