Logos for Plumbers
Your plumbing logo is often the first impression your company gets to make. Whether you intend it to or not, it sends a message- it makes a statement.
If your logo is dated, a mess, or confusing how are potential customers not going to expect the same of the service? There's time-tested consumer behavior at work here and a successful company will take advantage of it.
A great plumbing logo is not going to save your business. It's not going to make up for poor customer service or a bad business model. But it is going to effect your customers- positively or negatively. Our goal is to help make sure it's positive.
Plumbing Logo Guidelines
Plumbing logo design should be approached in the same manner as any other logo in any other industry. In fact, when feasible, all small businesses should be striving to mimic the best practices of major corporations- they've spent millions on the research, use it.
Ultimately, an effective plumbing logo will be distinct, clear, and memorable. Get the following five characteristics right and you'll have a successful, effective plumbing logo.
1. Simple
Above all, your plumbing logo should be simple and easy to interpret. Simple does not mean boring. A simple logo can still be creative, and a well-designed plumbing logo will be; but it is also able to meet all of the following criteria as well - something a complex logo cannot.
2. Memorable
Logos are not designed to be memorable. Logos become memorable with effective branding, marketing, and advertising. There's nothing particularly memorable about a little bird or a lowercase 'f', but those marks grew to become two of the most recognizable brands in the world (Twitter and Facebook).
Are your customers able to recall your logo? They should be. Your plumbing logo needs to be easy to remember, easy to describe, and original at the same time - memorable and simple go hand in hand.
If your logo includes a brand mark like Nike's swoosh or McDonald's arches (as opposed to just the company name like Google) the customer should know the company the brand mark belongs to (accomplished with successful, persistent branding). Don't arbitrarely have a brand mark if it can't stand alone - there's nothing wrong with a text-only logo if well designed and properly marketed.
Think twice before you use a clipart gallery, a DIY logo maker, or an online repository of cheap logos. Not only will they rarely, if ever, meet the criteria of an effective logo, but chances are another company is already using it... likely multiple companies!
3. Lasting
Great logos persist through time. Take Pepsi and Coca Cola for example. Coca Cola's logo has remained virtually the same (with just the smallest of adjustments) for over 115 years. Pepsi on the other hand, has seen a handful of substantial rebrands in the same time period.
Both Pepsi and Coca Cola are successful companies with effective logos. The point is one, it is possible to design a logo to stand the test of time (Coca Cola) and two, unless you already have a nationally recognized brand, few competitors in your market, and a gigantic budget (Pepsi) to redesign a logo every couple of years, opt for timeless.
This doesn't mean you should never change your logo or rebrand. Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons:
- Are you looking to update your company image?
- Change your target audience?
- Is your current logo too complex?
- Too similar to a competitor?
- An exact copy purchased by another company from a logo mill?
These and more can all be valid reasons to update your logo. It's just more preferrable (and budget friendly) to find a logo that can last.
4. Adaptable
Adaptability is where the real difference between a professionally designed plumbing logo and an amateur logo can be found. The professional plumbing logo remains effective in the various ways it will be used - from a website to a business card, from full-color magazines to black and white newsprint.
Vector Format
Regardless of where you end up getting your logo, it should be in vector format. Vector format is what allows your logo to scale and properly fit a postage stamp or the side of a building. Common file types like JPG, PNG, or GIF will often work for websites and other online applications, but won't cut it in print, specifically very small or very large applications.
A worthy logo designer will create a vector logo and provide AI and/or EPS file types of your completed logo - even a text-based logo.
Your marketing materials come in a variety of sizes and color options: letterheads, brochures, business cards, vehicle decals, billboards, etc. Will your logo look good on all of them?
In order for your plumbing logo to be adaptable it needs to remain sharp, clean, and legible whether it's blown up on the side of your truck or shrunk to fit a business card. It will also remain legible when it's not possible to use the full-color version.
Does your logo hold up when only used with one color, in grayscale, or just black-and-white?
5. Appropriate
Finally, if possible, your logo should be appropriate for your industry, your ideal customer and your company's mission. If you're targeting a middle-class, every-day audience your logo should probably not feature an elegant sans-serif font in shades of gold, silver, and black that conveys a message of high-end expensive service.
An appropriate logo will also have appropriate colors.
On average, consumers make a subconscious judgement within 90 seconds of initial viewing and the overwhelming majority of that judgement is based on color. About 80% of people believe color helps increase brand recognition (memorable logo).
And appropriate colors go hand-in-hand with simple logos: color can increase comprehension by over 70%. So don't take your well-designed, simple yet creative logo and then ruin it with poor color choices.