Are you planning on opening your very own online clothing store? Well, there are many already out there, and while choosing the best clothing manufacturers for your fashion brand is important, creating a strong brand identity is just as crucial. Part of building that identity is creating a defining logo. A good logo should successfully set your brand apart from competitors.
Above: logo design by Mindful Design Consulting
1. The Aesthetics of a Good Logo
A logo needs to actually leave a stamp on a potential customer. It needs to communicate what your brand stands for in a second or less. Are you trying to show your target audience that you are in the sophisticated haute couture market, or perhaps you want to be known as a discounted, yet still fashionable, retailer? Your logo needs to incorporate what your brand really is in order to attract your ideal customer base.
What does your core consumer expect? A soft lilac or rose color may be appropriate for a lingerie brand, but it would be awkward and out of place if you are selling overalls to blue-collar men. You need to think deeply about the actual emotions that you want your brand to invoke. What do you see when you feel in that way? What is its physical embodiment?
2. Ways to Design a Top-notch Logo
You can create your own logo if you are especially expressive or artistic, though you may need a good set of tools to get the ball rolling. If art is not really your thing, you can always hire a trained designer or rely on an online design studio to get you started. And, while you may be gifted enough to commission your own logo, it is sometimes better to leave it in the hands of the professionals. This will save you loads of time in the long run. Online designers are usually less expensive than those that work from a studio, so working with them may also help you save some money as well.
3. Choosing your Color Scheme
Your color scheme should be unique, but expressive of exactly what your clothing is all about. It can make or break your logo as far as effectiveness. The wrong color scheme can actually turn potential customers off that haven’t even had the chance to scope out your products.
Colors are much more analogous to emotions than we realize. However, the professional advertising agencies have studied this correlation for years. They discovered that blue symbolizes calm while red is associated with passion, love, and abounding energy. Black gives off a vibe of sophistication and elegance. Yellow is great for children’s wear because it is sunny and bright. That said, it is wise to avoid multi-hued logos unless the colors match and/or are various shades of the same color.
So, what do want your brand to say? Try studying different hues and what message they silently convey to other’s brains.
Above: branding design by Mindful Design Consulting
4. To Use Graphics or Not
There are many clichés in the fashion logo niche. You will see thousands upon thousands of logos featuring silhouettes, animal patterns, and hats, gloves and other minor accessories. And, while it may make sense at first to do what pretty much everyone else is doing, it is no way to stand out from the crowd, which is what having a unique brand identity is for. What picture comes to mind when visualize your brand’s mission? If you see a clear graphic in your head, that may be a great starting point for you to consider.
Many online retailers choose text-only logos with decorative fonts, and that will suffice, but the combination of text and graphics is sure to turn more heads in the long run.
5. Settling on a Font
Equally important to a killer logo is the right choice of font. Your font should not only reflect your brand’s personality like all the other components of your logo, but it should be clear and legible. It should also make an immediate impact on the casual onlooker. It has to be easily readable regardless of the background that it is set against. This can include your business cards, social media accounts, website, and any mobile applications. Fancy, scripted fonts with overly-decorative odds and ends do not translate well across multiple media. As Sewport CEO Boris Hodakel has stated, “Technology is all around us. We need to allow it to assist or even drive our everyday activities.”
Above: logo design by Mindful Design Consulting
You should also match your text font with your graphics. For example, if you have a large icon, a strong, thick text makes more sense. Smaller graphics work better visually with daintier, more refined fonts.
As you can see, it is easier than you may have imagined to create a unique logo for your clothing business. With a little bit of dedication and care, you should be able to put together a strong symbol of your brand’s identity that you will happily associate with your company for years to come.
This post is sponsored by sewport.co.uk.
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