Logos should be crisp and memorable. They should represent the brand in all ways and should be easy to recognize.

By comparison this means bad logos could have many unpleasant qualities: confusion, murkiness, over-complexity and/or poor recognition.

A great logo is easy to recognize and connects directly to the product. The Nike swoosh is a great example of quality branding. Everyone should be able to recognize it and understand what it means or what it stands for.

Bad logos are often too bright, too loud, or too confusing. They simply don’t make sense and don’t fit with the quality of the brand.

The biggest mistake I see is over-complication and merging ideas together that just don’t fit. Take a look at some of the logos used as examples in this article. You’ll be left ruminating on how designers could actually make these and pass them off to real companies.

Gaudy colors, textures, and poor spacing create terrible relationships between text and symbols. These logos are memorable and you probably don’t want to remember them either.

But not all bad logos look like this. I’ve seen logos that are so-so but still have too much going on.

This logo is a great example where it seems OK, but not great. Every element in the logo feels too bright and it seems like everything pulls for attention from the viewer.

Subtlety and layered elements work best.

Design some part of the logo to stand out above all the others. Great logos follow a give-and-take methodology where some elements are flashy while others are not pushing for more attention