1: Your logo must be distinctive

Your logo needn't be unique, but it must be distinctive enough to clearly identify you within your specific marketplace.

2: Your logo design must be practical

Logos always look great on letterheads. But logos can and do end up appearing everywhere, from exhibition displays to promotional pens. A logo must still work when it's printed small, or in black and white.

3: Your logo must be immediate

Any logo must communicate in purely visual terms without the need for intellectual interpretation. Even a typographic logo (wordmark) can be recognized by form alone (you don’t have to “read” Virgin ’s logo more than once or twice).

4: Your logo design must be simple

A logo must be understood in an instant so there's only room for one key idea. If there’s a picture or symbol, the accompanying name should be unfussy. If the logo design is typographic (a wordmark), just one interesting device will make it distinctive. And the more unique the name, the simpler any graphics should be.

5: Your logo must carry only one message

Successful logo designs express no more than one key attribute (such as power or precision or tradition) and convey the company or product’s market position (e.g. upmarket/downmarket).