Good Logos Start in Black and White

Personal branding is all the buzz among bloggers these days. While there are many elements of a personal brand one of the biggest is your logo. Most bloggers are decent writers, but terrible designers. They don’t understand the basic principles of creating a logo for branding purposes. On the other hand I am decent designer, but a terrible writer : )

There are a few rules I have when creating a logo:

1. Logos should start in black and white.
2. Logos are not just a word in a fancy font.
3. Logos should not contain pictures.
4. Logos should be sharp, unique and distinctive.
5. Logos need to be readable when printed at 1″

If you think of any major brand logo they follow these same rules: Nike, Apple, AT&T, FedEx, Microsoft, McDonalds, WalMart, you name it…

I have created many logos in my life, but the IZEA logo is one of my favorites. It is a strong logo that meets all of the above requirements. It works big or small, in black and white or color. It works screen printed in one color on a t-shirt just as well as it does animated in video.

I know what you are saying…. “Ted your logo on this blog can’t be done in one color and it uses a picture”. Yes…. but just because I am a jackass doesn’t mean you should be. It’s way harder to create a good black and white logo than it is to slap some text effects and a photo together. I took the shortcut. Now I am quite frustrated with my logo, I am going to have to redo it when I have some time. I can’t print it on t-shirts (without expensive full color) and you can’t read it when it is small. Not to mention it kinda sucks and is not my best work.

If you are going to invest time in branding yourself I suggest you take the time to do it right. Start in black and white, you will thank me for it later.