Signs are first used to show people. If they don't look good, it's useless to do other things well. Just like a youth idol drama, if there are no handsome guys and beautiful women, no matter how good the script and the director are, it is no use, let alone the costumes and props. Therefore, a good logo should first look good, and this standard should be based on the average aesthetics of the target audience (consumers, recipients of information). For example, the symbol of a chemical fertilizer product (which may be bright red and green with strong color contrast) may not be considered beautiful by urban white-collar workers, but as long as farmers' friends think it is beautiful, it is a good symbol. The so-called green radish tastes different, and the standards of good-looking are also different. The key is to look at the feelings of the target audience corresponding to the brand. They think it is good to look good, and it is not good to look bad. It's just that you can appropriately improve this aesthetic standard, euphemistically called: improve aesthetic taste, but the premise of doing so is to fully consider the audience's acceptance ability.
2. unique.
Signs are first used to show people. If they don't look good, it's useless to do other things well. Just like a youth idol drama, if there are no handsome guys and beautiful women, no matter how good the script and the director are, it is no use, let alone the costumes and props. Therefore, a good logo should first look good, and this standard should be based on the average aesthetics of the target audience (consumers, recipients of information). For example, the symbol of a chemical fertilizer product (which may be bright red and green with strong color contrast) may not be beautiful to urban white-collar workers, but it is a good symbol as long as farmers' friends feel beautiful. The so-called green radish tastes different, and the standards of good-looking are also different. The key is to look at the feelings of the target audience corresponding to the brand. They think it is good to look good, and it is not good to look bad. It's just that you can appropriately improve this aesthetic standard, euphemistically called: improve aesthetic taste, but the premise of doing so is to fully consider the audience's acceptance ability.
It explains its main function-recognition. The earliest symbol of mankind should be the "totem" between tribes in primitive society. For example, the symbol of the Chinese nation "Dragon" is a combination of totem of previous tribes. Until today, when people see the "dragon", they will associate it with China, because it is very different from the symbols of other nationalities. This uniqueness is one of the most important features of the symbol. If a logo makes people feel similar to other logos, then it loses its "recognition" function, even if it looks good, it can't be regarded as a good logo, because if it loses its recognizable uniqueness, it will lose its basic meaning.
3. Concise.
Simple signs are designed to make people easy to remember and use. Just like the classic three lines of Nike hook and Adidas, this extremely simple symbol is not only remembered by people of different races and ages, but also recognized far away. The simplicity of the logo has brought many benefits. However, because there are more and more signs, people make some signs more complicated in order to distinguish their own signs from other signs to the greatest extent and enhance their uniqueness. In addition, the complex trend of symbols is also influenced by "postmodernism". The so-called "post-modernism" is relative to "modernism", which emphasizes simplicity, while the people of "post-modernism" say that simplicity is monotonous, so the pursuit of "post-modernism" is relatively complicated and tedious.
4. meaningful. Meaningful means that a sign should have a certain meaning and statement. If all the above are the shell (shape) of a sign, then meaning is the soul (inner) of the sign. Things without souls are lifeless. Similarly, meaningless signs are like dead wood. No matter how beautiful it is, it is just a beautiful vase. However, in my experience, it is actually very easy to give a symbolic meaning. Because each form can say some meanings, you only need to give full play to your imagination to "give" the logo multiple meanings. For example, for a circular symbol, you can use a series of beautiful words that you can think of associated with the circular shape, such as perfection, unity, tolerance, pursuit of perfection, integration and globalization. If it is a semi-circular symbol, it can also be explained by words such as harmony between yin and yang, special service for some people only, not seeking the biggest (more) but seeking the best, and not unloading efforts (pursuit). It's a bit like the old saying: it's all a matter of one mouth to say good or bad. To put it bluntly, that's what the sign means. Because everything has two sides, the key is to see which side you are talking about. Of course, it is best to consider how to integrate the meaning you want to give into the concrete form at the beginning of design, so as not to make people feel far-fetched.
5, with industry characteristics.
For those companies, institutions or departments that specialize in one industry, a good sign is to let people know roughly which industry they belong to as soon as they see the sign. It is not easy to do this. First of all, you should find some specific forms that can be highly summarized in this industry; Secondly, these shapes should conform to the fixed imagination of the general public (or target audience) on this industry; Finally, it must be organically integrated with the entire logo, and it cannot be abrupt and cannot be separated. It should be noted that this requirement is mainly aimed at those professional industries, departments and institutions, and does not apply to comprehensive enterprises and government departments.
6, easy to use. Signs should be displayed to the public, because the final performance effect is what people really feel. Even if it performs well in the renderings, if it is not ideal in practical application, it can only be regarded as a sign of failure. It's like a battle. No matter how excellent your team is, how perfect your battle plan is, and you are defeated in actual combat for various reasons, everything is zero. It should be noted that the application mentioned here is twofold: on the one hand, it is the performance effect of signs in different media; On the other hand, it is a VI system derived from logo. We have talked about the application in different media. The application in VI system is complicated, involving a series of problems such as art design, concept and practical application effect. We will discuss this later, and we only need to know that usability refers to two aspects. Vi is a symbol, a standard word. Standard colors, logo applications, and a series of brochures and picture books of visual recognition systems will have a wide range. Like brochures and product manuals, they can all be called picture books. Why do you design? Isn't design just to highlight the brand? You can use the design steps of this product logo and standard words to determine the overall style. An enterprise should have its own inherent differences with other enterprises.