Have you ever noticed how certain logo designs stand out from the crowd? Take, for example, the logos for companies like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Toyota, Sears, Kellogg's and Nike. It's no secret that each of these Fortune 500 companies devotes millions of dollars each year to develop their brand and promote their corporate identity.

But, by themselves, these corporate logos also have certain innate qualities that make them more memorable and easy to distinguish from other corporate symbols. These qualities are based in the designs themselves and in the techniques and research used in developing them.

Here is a list of these qualities and short descriptions as to how they work together to create a logo design that's both original and unforgettable:

Simplicity

Simply put, simplicity is one element all effective logo designs have in common. People are drawn to clean, uncluttered logo designs because they can easily absorb and recognize the symbol at a glance. Busy, crowded logos such as designs featuring many intricate details, elaborate images or pictures are distracting to the viewer and tend not to be as well recognized as cleaner designs.

Proportionality

Ideally, a logo should function as a discrete unit with a width not much greater than its height. Remember that a logo design should work well on anything from a business card to a billboard, and logos that are too long or too tall become difficult to read when they are reduced or enlarged.

Small Color Palette

It is no coincidence that 80% of the world's most widely recognized logos use either one or two colors. Truth be told, few good logo designs use more than three colors; this is because using more than three colors usually turns a logo to mud. A basic color palette of one to three colors (which may or may not include black) keeps things simple and allows the selected colors to clearly convey a mood or emotion.

Easily Legible Fonts

Creating a logo design in elaborate script fonts may look classy, but what good is a logo if nobody can read it? Your best bet is to choose a font that is distinctive but still easy to read. (FYI: Two thirds of most logos are designed with sans serif fonts, such as Arial and Veranda, with the other one third designed in serif fonts such as Times New Roman and Garamond.)

Practical, Usable and Adaptable

What this means is that a logo design should be practically designed so it can be affordably and easily used in a variety of mediums. For example, a logo:

- Should not be designed with so many colors that it costs you a mint every time you want to   print business cards or letterhead.

- Should not be designed with a gradient (such as a picture), which is difficult to reproduce.

- Should be created so it can be easily converted to black-&-white.

- Should be created using Web-safe colors so your online logo looks the same as your printed logo.

Originality

A primary task of a logo design is to clearly distinguish a company from its competitors, which means a logo design should be unique, one-of-a-kind and ownable (meaning the company should be able to trademark the logo with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and officially own the design as their intellectual property).

Works Within Industry Conventions

Often there are consistencies among logos in certain industries, and following these conventions can help customers more easily identify what you do or what you sell. This does not mean you should sacrifice originality, but it does mean you (or the firm creating your logo design) should be aware of patterns among logos in your industry and somehow incorporate these consistencies into your design.

For example, did you realize that the main color for the logos for Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Hewlett Packard and Intel is blue? The color blue is associated with stability and progress and has long been a standard color among high-tech companies. So if you were a technology company, you would probably want to incorporate blue into your logo design to take advantage of these positive built-in associations.

Captures the Personality of the Company

Finally, a logo design should clearly express a company's identity who they are, what they do, how they work, how they want to be seen by the world.

The best place to start here is to think about your company as if it were a living being with a personality. What would that personality be? Conservative or daring? Traditional or modern? Sophisticated or fun? Serious or whimsical? Once you have narrowed down the traits that define your company, you are then ready to start exploring the images, colors and fonts that best express these traits.

All told, an effective logo design takes into account all these factors and puts them to work to create an image that customers won't soon forget.

About the Author

Jeff Kear is co-owner of www.MyIconDesign.com. In his decade-and-a-half in the industry, Jeff has created revenue-generating advertising and design for nationally recognized brands such as Budget, MetLife, Moosehead Beer, Qwest and Toyota. In addition to working for design firms and ad agencies, he has served as a marketing and communications specialist at Fortune 500 companies and holds a master's degree from the University of Maryland.