They say first impressions are important and that’s never truer than when it comes to logos. Logos are the face of a brand, it is usually the first thing people see when they come in contact with your business, therefore not something that should be taken lightly.

If you have just decided to start your own clothing brand and are still in the process of developing its visual storytelling, then you have come to the right place. Using some of the world’s most iconic brands, we’ll teach you the basics of visual brand development so you can design the perfect logo for your business, from casual sportswear to high-end personalised polo shirts.

But before we start imagining our logo walking down the runway of London Fashion Week, let’s cover some of the basics first…

Part 1 – The Different Styles of Fashion Logos

A logo is an icon or a symbol that represents a brand, company, organisation or even a person. There are different types of logos:

Typographic Fashion Logo

As the title suggests, these consist of just the brand’s name written in a particular way. The fonts used for these types of logos can be designed exclusively for the occasion (sometimes even done by hand) or a modified version of an already existing typeface.

LOGO-TED-BAKER
The brand Ted Baker chose a tall sans-serif for their naming to create an elegant aura.
zara
Zara’s serif font is reminiscent of a fashion magazine cover like Vogue or Harper Bazaar.
Logo-alexander-wang1-e1362133243217
Much like Ted Baker, Alexander Wang went for a minimalistic style.

Symbolic Clothing Logo

These logos use an icon to represent themselves and they can be accompanied by text or not. There are two types of symbolic logos, abstract and figurative

Abstract Style
Most of the time they’re geometric shapes, but they can also be organic (made out of lines and edges that can be found on nature). What makes it abstract is that the human mind doesn’t recognise it as any particular object or element.

2000px-Gap_logo.svg copy
Gap’s blue square is iconic and works very well, nobody complained as far as I could tell. That’s why it baffled many when they tried to redesign it back in 2010.
2000px-Adidas_Logo.svg copy
The lines of the Adidas logo are iconic that they are featured in most of their products.
Levi's_logo.svg copy
The “bat-like” shape of Levi’s logo is a synthesised version of a banner in the original logo.

Figurative Clothing Brand Logo

The opposite of abstract, these figures represent something and the human mind should be able to recognise it. If it doesn’t, then the logo is not doing a good job. Designers often have to walk a fine line between creating something recognisable that is not too obvious.

burberry
In 1901 Burberry’s equestrian logo was developed around the latin word ‘Prorsum’ which means ‘forward’.
Lacoste_logo.svg
Did you know that the crocodile was chosen as the brand’s logo because it was the founder René Lacoste’s nickname?
1200px-American_Eagle_Outfitters_logo.svg
The bald eagle is an obvious choice as a symbol for a brand such as American Eagle Outfitters, but it works.

Part 2 – Creating the best logo for your clothing line

Qualities a logo needs to have: In order for a logo to be a good representation of a brand, it needs to check certain boxes. Opinions on what makes an effective logo vary from designer to designer, but as a general rule logos should:

a. Still be recognisable regardless of size

Logos are placed in all sorts of mediums: from physical, like stationery and billboards, to online platforms like websites and apps. As awesome as it might be, it is not practical to have a logo that would end up looking like a fly when it is reduced in size. The other way around is not much better either, to amplify something that’s poorly constructed only highlights its flaws.

converse_logo_sizes
Due to its simplicity, Converse’s logo works pretty well on any size.
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b. Work in Black & White

When we conceptualise, it’s normal to get caught up in the moment and forget about certain important details. We may come up with some gorgeous colours, only to realise that it doesn’t translate to a monochromatic setting.

UnitedGrey
Everyone knows that the iconic logo of Benetton is green, but thanks to its minimalistic design, it works just as well when we get rid of the tone.
H&MColors
H&M is a brand that’s also known for its colour, this time is the bright red. Still, the logo doesn’t lose any of its impact in either black or white.

c. Work in negative

Aside from being functional in greyscale as well as full colour they should also work well when they’re inverted. I remember clearly a project I did when I was back in design school about a fictional brand we had to develop. I worked really hard on the logo and was very proud of it. It was a great logo in my mind until my teacher asked me to turn it white and place it on a black background. “It doesn’t work,” was all he said. Needless to say, I was disappointed and wished I had considered it on the early stages of the process.

Crocs_negative
In my opinion, the Crocs logo doesn’t work well when it’s inverted. The crocodile which is cute in its original version is suddenly — not so cute.
paul-smith-Copy copy
On the other hand, Paul Smith’s logo is pretty much flawless in whichever way you use it.

d. Be timeless

A logo that needs to be redesigned every five or ten years is not an effective one. Logos need to be timeless in order to become a recognisable staple in the consumer’s eye.

Chanel_logo_interlocking_cs.svg copy
A good example of a timeless logo would be Chanel’s interlocking C’s. It was trademarked in 1925 and hasn’t changed since.

e. Represent the brand

It might be a no-brainer, but a logo needs to represent a brand. It doesn’t have to be obvious, a t-shirt brand does not necessarily need to have a t-shirt on the logo, but it still has to reflect the values and target audience of the brand.

RayBanVSOakley
Ray-Ban and Oakley both produce sunglasses and have pretty much the same price range, the difference is that the first targets a “classic” audience, while the second caters to the “sports” market and that is reflected on their logos.

f. Work on different formats

As with sizes, logos will be represented in all kinds of formats (business cards, powerpoint presentations, photocells and many other mediums). A very intricate design may look great on a computer screen, but will probably lose detail when it gets printed on a business card.

07-Twice-Brand-Identity-Packaging-Socio-Design-BPO
The above image is an example of Twice Fashion, a Chinese luxury fashion label who’s visual branding has been developed by SocioDesign (a graphic design studio based in London). To find out more about this case study, visit bpando.org.
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Part 3 – Tips on how to design a successful fashion logo

Even though we already recommended hiring a graphic designer, you still should know the basics of what makes a good design so you may be able to judge properly. There are few things that frustrate a graphic designer more than a client saying: “I don’t like it, but I can’t say why. Change it.”

Do

    • Keep it simple. A straightforward design is easy to understand and easy to remember.
    • Keep the colours in mind. While the logo needs to work in black and white, colours are just as important because they (subconsciously) communicate the values of your brand. Also keep in mind that these need to work in digital and on physical, some web colours can’t be printed and vice versa.
    • Be creative. It should go without saying, but logos need to be unique if they want to stand out from the rest. We live in a world saturated by brands, so any steps that might be taken to differentiate your brand from the rest are welcome.
    • Be original. Again, obvious, but it still needs to be stated because more often than it should, people want to copy other logos. This is counterproductive in more ways than one. The first one being that you don’t want your products to be confused with someone else’s.
    • Draw on paper. Sketch! Even if you don’t know how to draw, grab a pencil and start doodling what you have in your head. Trust me, the designer will appreciate it as it will make it a lot easier for him or her to bring to life what you want.
  • Use a geometric shape as a starting point. Most logos are based on a circle, triangle, square or rectangle. The first three tend to be more comfortable as they can be placed almost anywhere.
Louis_Vuitton_Logo.svg
The iconic L and V from the Louis Vuitton logo has been designed inside a square.
emporio-armani-logo-vector
Giorgio Armani’s eagle has been designed inside a triangle.

Don’t

    • Complicate it. We already stated it, but it’s worth repeating. A convoluted design is hard to replicate. Although, there is always an exception to the rule.
    • Be inspired by flimsy trends. Fads come and go — pretty quickly. It might seem like a good idea, at first, but in a couple of years when everyone has moved on, your logo is going to look pretty outdated.
    • Rush it. A good logo can take weeks and even months to be produced. Don’t rush the process! Or you might end up with a half-baked idea. Remember this is the icon that will (hopefully) represent you for many years to come. 
  • Redesign your logo. If you get tired of it, don’t change it. Not just yet. It takes a while for people to relate a brand to a symbol so if you redesign it very often, you may run the risk of confusing potential customers.

Protect your design

Once you’ve gone through the entire process of developing a brand, it is time to protect it. It would just be awful if after all the hard work someone would steal the design only because you didn’t trademark it. If you want to know more about trademarks and copyrights, check the following post we wrote on the subject here.

Resources to create logos online

If you want to learn more about logos, check out the following sources:

Logo Design Love

A website dedicated to logo design. Personally speaking, I love this website because one can tell it has been curated with the utmost care.

Logo Thief

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Logo Thief, a blog that talks about designers that steal other designers’ ideas. It is oddly entertaining. The only problem is that it hasn’t been updated since 2016.

Logo Geek

The website of our friend …. also known Logo Geek! He’s constantly updating his blog with interesting content regarding everything logos.

Branding, Packaging and Opinion

A blog that features case studies of logos and visual brand development.

Consider Hiring a Designer

If you’re starting your own brand then you’re probably on a tight budget and hiring a graphic designer might seem like a commodity that you can’t afford right now. If that’s the case then, I would strongly advise you to reconsider and make some adjustments to your financial plan if possible. I am aware that graphic design can be expensive, especially when you’re hiring an experienced professional, but the design of a logo should be seen as a long-term investment. As I already stated above, a good logo should be timeless. In the long run, you will save time and money with a well-designed logo.

Avoid internet services like agencies that design logos overnight, design competitions and (God forbid) free make-your-own-logo tools. It might be tempting, but any of these services won’t do your brand any good. How much effort do you think a designer put on a logo that was created in the same amount of time that most of us take to do our laundry?

A proper logo should take weeks and sometimes even months to be designed. That’s because the professional designer will do research on the competitive industry and your brand’s story before he or she even sits down to draw the first line. Designer’s who turn work too quickly usually grab from the Internet an already made icon or template and then work from there. If you don’t mind having the same logo as thousands of other brands, then go ahead, but we believe the face of your brand should be unique.

If you still have hangups about paying a designer for their efforts, look at it this way: the software they use to create a logo costs around £60 a month and that’s not even mentioning the money and time spent on design school to learn the program.

When you pay a professional designer to develop your logo ideas, you’re paying once for something you’ll be using for many years to come.

Part 4 – Examples of clothing brand logos

Palace-1
The “Tri-Ferg” logo of the up-and-coming brand has become highly coveted among urban fashion fans.
Versace-logo-wordmark
Fashion label Versace has a very busy logo which is usually a big taboo, but in this case, it suits the brand.
the-hidden-meaning-behind-10-streetwear-logos-gosha
Russian brand Gosha Rubchinsky took inspiration from artist Timur Novikov to design the logo for their brand.
Stussy-logo
Stüssy’s logo is typographic and is obviously inspired by graffitis.
Undefeated
Urban streetwear brand Undefeated adopted the five strikes as their emblem to represent victory.

T-shirt Printing for Fashion Designers

Thanks to our five years of experience in the apparel-printing industry, we are able to offer a service catered towards the needs of fashion designers and creative directors. Printsome’s T-shirt printin services are perfect for streetwear collections, T-shirt lines and merchandise, among many other possibilities.

From the moment you get in touch, one of our printing experts in either London or Glasgow will answer all of your questions and find efficient solutions to your needs. It is our mission to help you reach your goals.

We ship all over the UK with flexible delivery services that can adapt to most deadlines. Fast T-shirt printing has never been this easy. Need to to print in bulk? We got you covered. Why worry about inventory or logistics when we can take care of that? To find out more, simply visit our website by clicking on the banner below.

Author

Harald is one of the founders of the Printsome-Insights blog! Previously, Senior Content Writer, with over five years experience writing about garment printing, he's now been whisked away into entertaining other audiences with his fabulous words. For over seven years he has been proofreading, blogging, copywriting newsletters/landing pages/social media + editing. Whilst also bringing Printsome brand to life with voice and soul. He is also well-versed in enforcing content styles and content strategies for B2B businesses.

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