Designing and customizing your own merchandise for your business can be a fantastic way to increase engagement and brand recognition. However, designing your logo for merchandise takes some practice, and you can’t just jump right in without any preparation or thought. Learn some of the common mistakes to avoid while designing a logo for branded merchandise.
When designing your logo for merchandise, it’s important to consider its longevity and the merchandise itself. If you base your logo on current trends in the industry, it could appear outdated in a few short years when trends start to change. If this is the case, customers might avoid wearing or using your merchandise due to its old design. While brainstorming your logo, try to simplify the design with longevity in mind.
Certain fonts might look good on paper or a display monitor but appear completely differently on merchandise. Part of designing your logo with merchandise in mind involves choosing a font style and size that will look good on printed, embroidered, and other styles of customized merchandise. Don’t choose a font that is overly complicated with excessive serifs and strokes. Your font should be simple and readable from a distance.
Another aspect of your logo that factors into its readability is how complex the design is. If your logo is too busy, potential customers may have trouble reading it from far distances. This factor is especially important when considering smaller merchandise items like hats or water bottles. Hats make some of the best promotional products for your business, but only if the logo is functional. Consider what type of merchandise you’re designing for and how to keep your logo readable on all merch types. One way to do so is to simplify and declutter the design.
Thanks to modern technology, you can generate many logo designs digitally on your computer. While this digitization is convenient for sending the graphic to customizing services, but only if you create your design with the right file type and size in mind. Don’t design your logo at a small resolution or file size. Otherwise, your design will turn out pixelated and blurry. This will lead to a poor-quality printing job on your merchandise.
Now that you know the mistakes to avoid while designing a merchandise logo, you’re ready to start designing and customizing your own branded merchandise.