Too many visual elements

Often designers assume a logo should visually convey what the brand is all about. They often think if it’s a fine dining restaurant brand, its logo should visually depict that by including visual elements like a fork and knife or chef’s hat. But it’s not necessary. Don’t force yourself to include such visual elements within a logo. Include visual elements only when they fulfill the purpose, match with typography and don’t look too much stuffed forcibly. A logo may still look very appealing and eye grabbing without any visual element. Visual element need not be an object or literally what your brand is all about. It can be abstract too, but with reasoning behind it, conveying the brand promise.

Don’t fall for italic fonts

Quite often designers fall in love with calligraphic italic form of fonts. But, such fonts come with their own limitations. They are hardly legible from a distance and specially keeping in mind when print outputs are not of great quality. Such fonts also do not go with every category of product, may be doing justice for perfume brands, lifestyle brands but hardly match with an educational institution’s logo. Don’t fall for such fonts unless you are confident about them and it matches with the product category in hand.

Don’t make it look fine only when big

Designers often get tempted to put too many elements in a logo, make them multi-colored and as a result clutter the entire logo. They forget it may look fine only when they are projected big, but when compressed the logo may look very confusing and not readable. There will be occasions when you will have to print your logo in really small size, in a corner of the documents like envelope, writing pad, letter head, calendar. If your logo is not clear enough in such a case it may get totally unnoticed. So make sure your logo is clear and distinct even when small. Key to such clarity is simplicity. Keep your logo distinctive yet simple.