Making a logo?

In a nutshell … a logo of a website is part of the brand of a website. Not to sound like a wiki but let’s regurgitate the definitions. It is a name, symbol, monogram, emblem, trademark, or other graphic device designed for easy and definitive recognition by the audience of a website - they are the face of a website or the visual identity. When designing a logo you have to ask yourself the following important questions.Who are we? What do we want to communicate? How do we want to be seen - image? What makes us different from others - our position related to the others?

Two faced logos??

Let’s take a closer look at some logos used on websites I plucked here and there. I have included screenshots plus a link to the actual website in the article for you to see.
Some are accompanied by a brand icon - in this case all icons are aligned left of the text. We read left to right which may explain the left alignment of the brand icon being in the majority, or what about the brand icon (if present) should be spotted first? I am just thinking here - it could be arbitrary or even a custom to do so. Have a look here at some: Click Fraud Solutions, Frazier media, Style surge.

Other are text-only logos. Have a look here: Hal Bergman, joeBLOG, cameronmoll.
These logos are designed by a common principle: a unique text treatment and a distinctive colour palette. Even more, these logos I picked out, all have a common style: the textual part of the logo is clearly styled in two distinctive colors or styles in a symmetrical way. I find this way of logo styling a very effective way to make a strong identity. The examples prove my point furthermore it seems a widely used technique for creating logos.

Colors! Typography!

The textual part is styled or colored twice. We can conclude both colors contrast well against the background color - beit one color or a gradient. When looking at the 2 colors being used: one part of the text is white, black or a shade of grey. This way the colors match well, make a good contrast. This creates a sense of cohesion between the logo elements.

When making a logo: color psychology is very important. Colors have all a underlying meaning. The voice of tone is clearly present in the colors that where chosen. Warm colors - more vibrant, higher contrast, more saturated indicate excitement. Take a peek here: Helicopter flights over London Cool colors add dignity - muted tones, ambient, less contrast. A good example is the logo by Shaun Inman. In addition, the Inman logo makes use of a wordplay shauninman.complete, a small detail but it goes well with the other parts of the logo.

The logo of Frazier media does not use two distinctive colors but applies different styles in its textual part: two whites where one part is bold and the other part is light. Another example is the logo of PingMag where you have the bold and lighter part, with an extra graphic touch on the dotted i. Some logos have also a tag line positioned under the logo text - smaller and in a color derived from the company name or website name. The color of the logo text or the styling of the text is sometimes directly derived from the brand icon when present. Have a look here: Frazier media, Shaun Inman, Style surge. The CSS Mania logo in particular uses a greenish gradient derived from the leave icon, and positioned the tagline and the other textual part playfully alltogether. The cameron moll logo blends the letter m and n to make a joint between them - the letter n is overlapping half of the m. All small details to strengthen the distinctiveness of its brand.
Both textual parts of the logo can also differ in size. Examples of that: CSS Beauty, joeBLOG. You can adjust size, use two distinctive colors, play with letter-spacing, you name it. All boils down to it creates a sense of "it all fits and blends" and makes the brand stand out!

Examples

Frazier media - http://www.fraziermedia.com/

Click Fraud Solutions - http://www.clickfraud.com/

Comunnamead UEM - Universnamead Europea de Madrname - http://comunidad.uem.es/

Advanced Steel Recovery - A steel and non-ferrous recovery facility - http://www.advancedsteel.com/

Helicopter flights over London, aerial tours & trial helicopter flying lessons: Helicopter Days, Biggin Hill, Kent UK - http://www.helicopterdays.co.uk/

Hal Bergman Photography - http://www.halbergman.com/blog/

CSS Mania - http://www.cssmania.com/

CSS Beauty - http://www.cssbeauty.com/

Shaun Inman - http://www.shauninman.com/plete/

joeBLOG - http://www.joeblog.ca/

Planet Actors - http://www.nivas.hr/pub/planet/index.html

StyleSurge | Design & Programming Solutions - http://www.stylesurge.com/

Cameron Moll - http://www.cameronmoll.com/

PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things" - http://pingmag.jp/

Any comments or reflections on brand design, logo design are welcome!

This is my logo I redesigned recently, rather different than the examples. The brand icon I use for the favicon or re-use in the website, represents the letter "O"

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