New financial planning firms face a range of questions when thinking about new logo design.
It can be difficult to know exactly what you need and what to look for in a financial services design agency. How much effort needs to be put into creating a logo? How much should you spend, and what kind of designs work best? How do you select a designer who you know will do a good job?
These are understandable queries for financial planner startups to have, and in this article, we’re going to address some of the key ones to help you find the best solution for your logo design project:
Know how far you want to take it
It’s important to decide early on where you sit on the logo design “project scope” scale. In other words, are you simply looking for a quick, cheap logo design just so you have something to put on your letterheads? That’s one end of the scale.
On the other side, you have a bespoke logo design integrated within a full branding project. Here, you go into great depth with your financial branding agency, fleshing out your corporate colours, styles, fonts, imagery, the tone of voice, logo design and more – i.e. your overall visual identity.
Ideally, we believe that the latter option is usually best for financial planners if they have the resources to commit to it. A high-quality, consistent and original brand will set you head-and-shoulders above the competition for years to come, and increase your lead generation and client retention efforts. However, understandably not all financial planners have the time or investment to commit to a grand project on this scale. Quite often, we speak to startups who want a high-quality logo design to get them going, and later on, they can develop their branding in a new project once they have proven their business model.
Take a look at your specific needs, goals and situation and make an honest assessment about what kind of logo design project you would like to commit to. At the very least, we encourage financial planners not to go down the cheap and quick route. Cutting corners with your logo – the visual focal point of your visual identity – will not do you any favours with your clients’ and prospects’ perceptions of you.
Which logo designs work best for financial firms?
That’s a great question, and any financial branding agency would be hard-pressed to come up with a definitive answer. Not only is every financial planning brand different, but their client-base and target audience will also vary.
On top of that, whilst the general principles of good logo design tend to stay fairly timeless, it is also true that styles and fashions change over time. In other words, many people might look at a financial logo today and think it looks amazing – only for it to be derided as “out of date” ten years later.
With all of that said, our designers here at CreativeAdviser would say that the following points can help ensure that your financial logo design is as good as it can be:
- Make sure the logo design is consistent with your overall brand identity. Your logo doesn’t need to “say everything” about who you are and what you stand for – that’s a lot to ask out of a single image! Yet it should fit in nicely with everything else around it. For instance, does your financial planning firm aim to create a feeling of care and even nurture, or is it more corporate and serious? Regardless, your financial logo should reflect and reinforce this key aspect of your identity – not contradict it.
- Make sure it’s original. This is one reason why we advise against the cheap route for financial services logo design. If your designer is doing things on a tight budget, then they are less likely to put in the effort to create something truly original and will likely cut corners – possibly even copying another brand. Make sure your financial logo has a high level of uniqueness and stands apart from your competition.
- Keep it simple. The reason we say this is because your logo should be memorable, and easy to recognise. This is hard to achieve with a complex, busy financial logo design. Keep it simple, and you are more likely to stick in your prospects’ minds.
- Keep it flexible. In today’s digital world, your logo will likely need to sit on a range of different platforms and contexts – social media profiles and thumbnails, email footers, letterheads, website headers, digital advertising banners and more. A strong financial logo design will have sufficient flexibility to adapt to these different environments.
How to select a good financial branding agency
Ideally, you should look for a creative agency with lots of experience in the financial planning sector. You’re going to find the design process much more enjoyable and efficient if you work with someone who understands who your clients are, what it is you do, and the wider market you operate in.
If you are a small, startup financial planning business then you probably do not want to work with an agency that is too large. Their overheads will be bigger than a smaller creative agency, which will mean that your project will likely cost more. At CreativeAdviser we’re a fairly small team, so we can often offer bespoke logo design for startup financial plannings firms which suit their needs better in this respect.
Finally, have a look at a few different financial branding agencies and compare their style. The fact is, an agency can be very experienced and qualified to do your project on paper, but each agency has its own approach to logo design and it’s important to find a creative partner which fits well with your own tastes and creative preferences.
