I spent 6 months trying to make a logo 'pop' with more colors and it backfired

I was working on a logo for a local coffee shop and kept adding shades of brown and green to make it feel more 'artisanal'. A client's kid, maybe 10 years old, looked at my screen and said, 'That looks like mud.' It hit me that I was overcomplicating the design to show effort, not to make it clear. Now I think simple, bold marks work better than busy, detailed ones. Do you lean towards minimalist logos or do you think more detail adds value?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavincraig5d ago

Totally get that, kids have a brutal way of cutting to the truth. Read a thing once where a designer said if you need to explain a logo, it's already failed. My take is minimalism wins almost every time because it sticks in your head. Adding detail just makes it harder to recognize at a small size or from far away. That coffee shop story is a perfect example of less being more.

alice_barnes355d ago

The Starbucks logo is insanely detailed and works fine.