The Art of Non-Profit Logos
A good logo visually represents the brand, but a great logo encompasses the organization’s identity. Here I’m going to redesign some non-profit logos, but not before showcasing some design pitfalls:
Color:
When it comes to colors the biggest concern is aesthetic (do the colors match, do they clash with the brand?). In designing logos, the artist may benefit from creating the logo without color and later adding it in editing. This allows for the artist to focus on the shape and form. Then comes the enormity of color choices to choose from with varying levels of hue (red vs. blue), saturation (light blue vs. blue gray) and brightness (light blue vs. dark blue) to choose from. Something to be aware of is the context for color. If the object is suppose to appear 3-Dimensional then shadows may need to be added. Something to also note is that some colors are thought to provoke certain emotions and some colors have cultural significance. With that being said, Psychology and cultural meanings need to be taken under consideration, especially if the organization is international.
Size:
The size of a design can capture the attention of the viewer. The Goldie Locks method can help you make the right decision if you don’t know where to start … keep editing it till it is “just right.” Take into consideration the size of the text (if there is any text adjacent). The size of individual shapes of the logo are also of importance. If the design consists of many mini dashes then the overall shape may seem congested.
Lastly, does it look like anything else?
This refers to other companies, objects or innuendos. For this, it’s best get multiple opinions on the design from outsiders allowing for new perspectives. This is also a great test for whether or not the organization’s identity is being expressed effectively. Most non-profits make their logos representational rather than abstract in order for their goals to be expressed by the simplest method: visually.
Now it’s time to take what we’ve learned into practice:
Let’s say a non-profit organization exists with the mission to take book donations and sell them with the proceeds going to housing the homeless or rebuilding people’s homes after natural disasters. Let’s say they come to me and I’m a graphic designer who designs them this:
Now, everyone has different tastes but this logo I designed has some obvious design flaws. Firstly, the image’s “base” is crooked and the perspective is off in several locations, not too mention one side is too long. The hand-drawn look is a little wobbly but can be improved with a little editing. The design itself isn’t bad. A book fallen down forming a tent (representing shelter) encompasses the organization’s mission. The image could use a little more refinement to make it apparent it is a book but put the name of the organization under the image and I’d call it a logo.
Now, let’s say an non-profit organization exists that specifically only helps middle aged balding men with glasses play poker. Here we have many specific qualities of the organization to incorporate visually into a design. We may have to only focus on the main qualities of the organization in order not to overload the design but we still want the organizations mission to be as obvious as possible. Let’s say I come up with this for the organization:
The result is specific and narrative but it has some pitfalls. First of all, the size of the head border is overwhelming and the color is bright. A better color choice could be using black instead of hot pink. The design itself is okay in the sense that it gets the job done but when it comes to making human faces the logo of a business they can look too cartoonish and can change the appearance of the overall business. The design could also benefit from a black border along each color shape to make it more crisp. We can identify all the parts of the design representative of the organization (middle aged balding men with glasses play poker) but a graphic of a pair of glasses and a playing card could also been descriptive enough. Truth be told, if you market your organization or brand well enough the simplest of marks can become synonymous with sports gear or archival tape or puppy rescuing.
Overall, make sure your logo expresses the organization’s mission to some degree if you depend upon donors and try to avoid the pitfalls of design.
Happy Designing!
Source: Brand identity Essentials : 100 principles for designing logos and building brands, Kevin Budelmann; Yang Kim 1968-; Curt Wozniak. c2010.
