What Is A Bad Logo?

What Is A Bad Logo?

We spend a lot of time talking about what makes a perfect logo, but now it is time to talk about what makes a bag logo. Many designers today tend to pretend to have the skills and experience to create professional logos. The amount of effort required to create a one-of-a-kind logo is often underestimated. If anyone promises to supply you with a professional quality logo for less than £200, you have to wonder how much time and work was put into creating your logo.

If you want to create the best logos, learn graphic design with Blue Sky Graphics and brush up on your existing skills.

Types of Bad Logos

Outdated Logos
A common issue with poor logo designs is the use of out-of-date tools, graphics, and effects. The logos seen above seem to have been designed decades ago—and not in a positive way. Effects like old-fashioned skeuomorphism, 3D gradients, clip art, and some fonts were overused in the 1980s and 1990s, making these logos seem especially dated.

What Is A Bad Logo
What Is A Bad Logo

The solution

If you have out-of-date branding, the only way is to update it to move it into the twenty-first century. Yes, retro style is common. However, if you want a logo with a retro vibe, do so on purpose and use vintage design features currently in style, such as the hand-drawn vintage look in the Spruce logo below.

Unnecessary detail

It is not that detailed logos are poor in and of themselves; they are not scalable. Detail logos work well with big banners, murals, and car covers. If those were the only ways the logo would be seen, extensive logos would be the rule, but note how much the logo appears on even smaller, harder-to-see surfaces. The issue with complex logos is that they look awful on small screens like tablets, as well as on swag and products like pens and business cards.

The solution

You are not required to leave the comprehensive logo if you do not want to. Sensitive logos, which design variant logos for smaller sizes, are a perfectly viable option. To put it another way, keep the comprehensive logo for large placements and a new one for limited placements.

Irrelevant visuals

To put it another way, “strong logos, but poorly matched.” These are not inherently terrible logo styles, but they are not suitable for their respective labels. The three logos above are beautiful, but they do not correctly reflect their brands—they seem to be for businesses in other sectors.

Above everything, the logo should be a symbol of your company. You may apply any of the expert design guidelines. Still, if you do not produce anything that represents the spirit of your own business, it will not be beneficial for brand equity or creating consumer loyalty.

The solution

Please stick to the imagery that is specifically related to your brand, e.g., your company’s name or what it does. The key is to be inventive. It would help if you also used common and recognisable imagery in the logos without creating bland ones.

Choosing the Right Fonts

Since lettering is still a part of branding, typography is important in logo design. The lettering you choose can conform to the company’s priorities and products. Consider the various font types to determine which the right match is.

Do not go overboard, or you will soon become an eyesore. Cursive letters with smaller uppercase letters, for example, will work well together if they match the identity.

You should also avoid using too many different fonts in a logo. There is no need to use more than two different fonts.

Themes that are in dispute

Logos will help to set the tone for your business. If you are a serious brand for serious people, you can look more formal by using geometric designs and muted colours. If you are a tech business that needs to look modern, you can use images like wire circuits or astral grids to do so.

The problem occurs when themes are mismatched, and you generate the wrong image of your brand. Is a frightening-looking guy with a gas mask the perfect mascot for a 420-friendly gym? They seem to wish to separate themselves from experiences of smoke inhalation.

Similarly, an agitated infant may be a literal mascot for a children’s conflict management programme, but it may come off as aggressive unintentionally. The end result may be a more inviting picture for newcomers: a smiling kid who can control their frustration, inspire parents and relax distressed children.

The solution

Both your graphics and visual style should represent your branding objectives. Using commonly recognised symbols and clientele’s favourite themes is a shortcut to successful communication.

Colour selection is weak

Colour is a key factor in the design process. It reveals a lot more about your organisation than you know. Colour is crucial because it is where consumers’ first memories are created. Colours are more than just a means of communication since they express thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

A competent artist will instruct you on which colours to use and which to avoid. A note of caution: avoid using loud neon colours!

Untidiness

The simplicity of a good logo is important. How much have we used the expression “Keep It Simple?” It is not so much about what you add as it is about what you strip out. Consider how plain some of the most recognisable logos are; Nike, Apple, and so on. These logos are excellent examples of good logo design. They are straightforward and unforgettable. They work without colour or text, and you would recognise them even if they were tiny.

Extra ‘elements’ only serve to distract the eye and devalue the emblem. It also has an effect on legibility at smaller scales.

Raster Elements

Having your logo in Adobe Illustrator or EPS format does not guarantee that you will receive vector graphic images. In recent years, we have seen several examples of logos that used both vector and raster graphic elements.

Watercolour logos are a fine example. The watercolour portion is usually a PNG (raster graphic) format, while the text portion is vector graphic. When you scale these logos, the text remains sharp while the watercolour elements become fuzzy.

Generic logos

Logos are more powerful when they are memorable, while bland logos or following in the footsteps of someone else have the reverse effect. If you do what everybody else is doing, there is a fair risk that the brand will be mistaken with another.

The reasoning behind standardised logos seems to be simple: imitate the logos that people want. However, after a few months or years, the industry gets saturated with logos that all do the same thing, and once-unique logos become nothing more than a dime a dozen.

The solution

The only way to stop flat icons is to keep up with what everybody else is doing. Check out our generic logos guide to learn which patterns are overused and can be avoided.

As previously said, generic logos often begin as successful logos, so you do not want to abandon all trends just yet. Only make sure to have something exclusive.