What makes a restaurant logo great?

Restaurants tend to jump into logo designs. Some are great. Some are pretty bad. Our suggestion would be to hire us for your logo design, but we understand that that’s not always in the budget. At the very least, here are some points to take into consideration so you too can have a great logo.

1. Distinctive.
The design idea need not be unique in the world, just distinctive enough so you can “own” it in your particular marketplace.

2. Practical.
Can be printed small, in ink or pixels; works in black on white as well as in colors; works in reverse too, white on black. (Faces, human or animal, usually flunk this last test; the eyes turn white.)

3. Graphic.
Communicates purely in visual terms, to the right brain hemisphere; doesn’t depend on verbal, intellectual interpretation. (Example: Tenneco seriously considered and rejected a “10ECO” logo design. Clever, but it’s not a mark, it’s a pun.) If a wordmark, it can be recognized by form alone (you don’t have to “read” Coca-Cola’s logo more than once or twice).

4. Simple in form.
Contains only one graphic idea, one gimmick, one dingbat. Thus if there’s a symbol, the accompanying name is plain and unadorned. And if it is a wordmark, one idea or device makes it special–like IBM’s stripes. (The more unique the name, the simpler the graphics can be.)

5. One message.
In content too, great designs try to express no more than one attribute (such as stature or speed or dynamism) and support a single aspect of positioning.

6. Appropriate.
In the end, of course, the content’s got to be right. An otherwise-great mark fails if the reputation, positioning, and personality expressed are at odds with management intentions.

7. Rendering
The logo should be rendered in Illustrator or another vector program so you can increase and decrease its size without losing resolution.

8. Fully Explored
What’s the logo look like on a white background? A dark background? What about a full color picture? These all need explored and delivered with a logo design. Especially for restaurants.