An appealing logo attracts an NPO’s target audience and gives a sense of identity. It acts as a visual reflection of all the organization stands for, increasing first impressions of potential supporters, fostering supporter loyalty, and exhibiting professionalism. Consider the logo you are creating for them as a possible supporter of the cause.
While logos are practically ubiquitous in modern society (think of the golden arches, the black swoosh, or the silver apple), they’re not always simple to create. Check out the following dos and donts for creating a logo for an NPO (Non-profit organization)to start the process.
Dos:
Recognizing The Purpose/Mission Of The NPO:
The NPOs logo should, to the greatest extent feasible, reflect its goals. Make sure to keep in mind its mission and vision statement documents and consider them before starting your logo design project.
If you haven’t already, once you’ve been reminded of what the nonprofit organization is trying to accomplish, jot down a few words that you believe best describe its efforts. Name the signs, pictures, or phrases that most accurately reflect the NPO’s ideals and its purpose.
Create a Tagline:
The nonprofit organization’s services are summed up in 3–7 words with a slogan that is incorporated into the logo.
A slogan is not required, but it could give your logo design more intrigue.
There are many varieties of logos, including:
Font-based logos are mostly composed of the organization’s name in the text.
Without any words, an icon or symbol serves as the organization’s logo.
A symbol and text are combined to create a combo logo. They are typically the most typical.
Combination logos frequently include taglines. And occasionally, the phrase “follows” the logo. Imagine Nike. They use a “tick” as their emblem, which is a motivating wordless phrase. The greatest effect is made by this degree of succinctness.
Take Note Of The Color Scheme:
Colors significantly influence the messaging of a brand. For instance, using red as the primary hue in the logo could suggest that the company is aggressive, passionate, and/or spirited.
Seriousness, security, expertise, connection, liberty, safety, and trust are all represented by the color blue. It has the seductive qualities of strength, serenity, and dependability. Organizations working for peace, water, and democracy frequently use it.
Red is the color of passion, fervor, aggressiveness, passion, violence, power, rebellion, appetite, impulsivity, and emergencies. Nonprofit organizations that promote health, nutrition, anti-violence, and lifesaving utilize it frequently.
The color yellow stand for clarity, warmth, and optimism. It represents coziness, vigor, the sun, vitality, happy feelings, organization, clarity, and caution. Yellow should only be used sparingly since it draws attention.
Elegant, sophisticated, and classy are all attributes of black and white. The color purple is associated with creativity, fantasy, and imagination, as well as purity, peace, monarchy, elegance, and rarity.
The color green is associated with the natural world, recycling, and other environmental and sustainability-related concepts. It frequently associates with the Earth, organic development, tranquility, peace, and wealth.
Brown is earthy, comforting, and familiar, whereas pink is feminine and associated with female characteristics.
As you can see, each hue conveys a different emotion to viewers or consumers (and these emotions may also be cultural, so verify this if you’re a local business.
It’s entirely up to you how many colors you want to use in the NPOs logo. Sticking to 2 to 3 colors is probably best in my opinion, as it seems to be the norm in this type of logo design, and seems to work pretty well for most NPOs.
Review And Revise The Nonprofit Logo:
Ensure that the logo is flawless. Make sure you include everything the client asked for and that it accurately reflects their organization.
Secondly, attempt to picture the logo being utilized on all the different media platforms. Imagine it in t-shirt designs, email signatures, and the corner of social media posts. In each of these situations, consider whether it will present well and accurately represent the NPO’s objective.
Check lastly for any fundamental errors. Spelling mistakes or using typefaces and colors that are not specified in the brand guide could cause this. It’s better to find these errors now rather than later after the logos have been printed incorrectly on 100 copies of a booklet.
Donts:
Dont Do Insufficient Research:
Fundamentally, creating a logo is a communication task. How can photography effectively convey the spirit of a brand?
You must have a thorough knowledge of what you are attempting to convey—or not to communicate—to achieve this effect.
This is true in any logo-designing scenario. However, it is especially true when it pertains to designing a logo for an NPO, as you need to communicate its values and mission through the logo. You can accomplish this more effectively the more information you have.
Employing Unsuitable Imagery Without Being Aware Of It:
Particularly in design, the devil is in the details. White space or shapes can be deliberately employed to effectively promote brand messaging. This, however, might also backfire.
Several logo designs, such as those with excessively phallic shapes, incongruous or unpleasant symbols in white space, etc., unintentionally convey the wrong message.
Making The Color Logo Design (first):
A strong logo can be seen without color. Color is obviously a crucial component, as highlighted previously in the “Do” section of the article, but starting with color can make it more difficult to determine whether the design is effective enough. Even worse, ideas that actually function may be disregarded simply because a hue offended someone.
Create the NPO logo in black and white first to ensure it functions properly. This will enable you to focus on the design alternatives (as you will likely have numerous options of them available).
Avoid Being Overly Detailed:
Complex or detailed logos tend to be more challenging for the viewer to remember and will also look bad in small scales or one-color tints. Instead, focus on understanding what the logo’s purpose is, which is to represent the brand and assist the viewers in correlating it with the NPO’s brand values.
Don’t Be Overly Literal:
How many businesses do you know that have an airplane in their logo? Consider an airline. Too much correct when you get overly practical with the logo design and include obvious features, it is quite easy to fall into generating a boring and conventional logo design that will not be at all appealing to your client.
Be more imaginative when creating a brand logo and consider various methods of conveying the NPO’s mission and core values without being overly literal. You can use color psychology as well as shape psychology to convey various emotions.
Take-Away:
Creating custom logo designs for a non-profit organization is no simple task; trust me on that. There are multiple factors that you must take into consideration, as have been highlighted throughout this article in detail.
That being said, if you keep in mind what to do and what not to do when creating a logo for an NPO, then I have the utmost confidence that you will be able to craft the best logo for any NPO,and to their utmost satisfaction!
