Even the best logo design can be ruined with poorly formatted typography. However, you don’t need to be an expert in typography to ensure the type in your logo design is well formatted. You just need to know the most commonly made typography mistakes in logo design, so you can avoid them.
Five of the most common logo design mistakes that involve typography are described below. Whatever you do, don’t make them when you’re creating a logo!
Does the amount of space between the letters in your logo design look good? Is the text legible? If not, adjust the tracking between groups of letters or kerning between individual characters to ensure the text in your logo design is easy to read at all sizes.
Does the amount of space between lines of text in your logo design work to make the words easy to read? Are lines of text so close that the logo is illegible? Are lines of text spaced so far apart that they don’t seem like a cohesive unit? If the spacing between lines of text doesn’t look good, you should modify the leading between each line of text to ensure your logo design is as clear and concise as possible.
If your logo includes a layer of text on top of a filled block of color, make sure the colors contrast enough that you can actually read the text. Your text should stand out in your logo design, not blend into the background color. For example, light blue text on top of a dark blue background is far less legible than yellow text on a dark blue background.
If your logo design includes reversed out text on a filled background, make sure that background is no less than a 50% tint of color (the darker — the better). Otherwise, the text in the negative space will be very difficult to read.
Stick to one or two typefaces in your logo design or it will get too cluttered and difficult to read. Simpler is always better in logo design, and that applies to the typography used in a logo as well as the colors.
