Logo Design and Branding Guidelines for Financial Advisors
If you think having a great logo isn’t essential to the growth of your business — think again.
Your logo is going to be the face of your company. When someone comes across your website, the first thing they’ll look at is your brand name and your logo. If it doesn’t leave a good impression on your target audience, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle to change their initial impression.
Financial brands rely heavily on building trust and gaining people’s confidence to get more clients. In order to be effective at attracting new clients, you need to portray an image of success and prosperity. A generic or amateurish looking logo simply won’t be able to convey the right message or deliver the right image for your brand.
Your logo will also be visible on all your marketing collateral and business documents, so it has to be something you can proudly display and advertise. It’s an essential part of your marketing that helps build awareness for your brand.
With all this in mind, here are a couple of guidelines to help pick the right logo.
Your Logo Should Reflect Your Brand Image
The first thing to consider when coming up with a new design for a logo is your own brand image, as well as your company values and story. A logo is more effective if it properly embodies the brand image that you’re trying to project.
It should also give the viewer a good idea of who your company is and what it stands for. This allows people to immediately identify who you are whenever they see your logo. Picking a random design will just end up confusing your target audience.
Choose the Right Colors
A logo should look good whether it’s displayed with all its colors or in black and white. As a general rule, you shouldn’t use more than 3 colors for your logo. Usually, your logo’s colors will also be used for your brand’s primary color palette for all your other marketing collateral.
You can be very particular when choosing shades but you have to remember to be consistent. Once you establish your signature colors, people will start associating those colors with your brand.
Lots of famous logos like Starbucks, Coca Cola, and Target use just one color. And they always make sure that anything that carries their visual identity also has their signature color.
Every color you choose will also have a corresponding psychological effect on the viewer.
Here are just a couple of examples:
- Red indicates excitement
- Blue stands for dependability
- Green can mean growth
Different shades can also evoke different emotions. It’s better to work with a designer and try out different combinations so you can see which one works best. Your branding and marketing goals should guide you when choosing a color palette, not your personal preferences.
Keep it Simple Yet Attractive
In most cases, a simple logo is much more impactful and iconic than a complex one. Simple doesn’t have to be basic or minimal, but it’s main design elements should stand out and be easily recognizable. Adding too much clutter will just dilute the idea that you’re trying to convey.
If you take a look at a lot of iconic logos like Google, Amazon and FedEx, they actually just use special fonts along with some visual accents and signature colors. But all these logos are easily recognizable even from afar.
What matters more is the meaning of the visual elements you’ve chosen. As mentioned earlier, the design should be carefully chosen so that it reflects who you are as a brand.
Make it Unique
Whether you choose a simple or a more complex design for your logo, make sure it’s unique to your brand. Uniqueness makes your logo stand out and makes your brand easier to identify.
A boring and generic design will just get lost in a sea of other logos and brand names. There’s also a good chance that your logo will end up looking similar to other company logos that you don’t want to be associated with.
Appeal to Your Target Audience
When you’re developing your logo, you also have to keep your target audience in mind. If you’re targeting a particular niche or persona, you need to make sure your audience will be able to identify with your logo.
For example, a conservative or traditional audience might get turned off by abstract designs that are too modern or bold. However, a younger audience will find it hip and trendy.
If you want to appeal to a broader audience, simpler designs will work best, but you have to make sure it’s easily relatable.
Final Thoughts
Don’t be afraid to experiment and come up with many different designs. Get people’s opinions and see what works best. If you suddenly decide to scrap a logo and replace it with a completely new one, you’ll also be scrapping all the brand recognition you’ve built up with the old one. It’s better to just make small tweaks if you want to update your logo, so it’s best to get it right – or very close to right – from the very start.