Are you ready to open up a brand-new restaurant? Do you have a particular type of food in mind like Chinese, Italian, or American? Creating a restaurant logo might seem simple on the surface, but there’s a lot of thought and meaning that needs to go into the design.
You cannot put together any old design and think it’s going to be a big success. You must identify images that will resonate with your target market and get your message across. You also need to create a restaurant logo that separates you from the competition while keeping your business firmly planted within your industry. Using a logo generator for your restaurant logo is a great idea, especially if you don’t know where to start. But no matter what you choose to use to create your logo, an understanding of what makes a restaurant logo great is necessary to have a professional-looking end result.
For the most part, when you design a logo, it needs to be visual, simple, and instantly remind your target customer about the fantastic meals available on your menu. It needs to entice potential diners and attract them to your location.
Anything else would be a massive failure during the logo design process. Since we’d like you to avoid making big potential mistakes, we’re going to share our best logo design tips with you below.
Please use these recommendations to your advantage before heading in and creating a logo using a restaurant logo maker. If you do, you’ll have an enticing, engaging, and simple logo that will drive customers to your restaurant daily.
1. Differentiate Your Restaurant from the Competition
When you look at some of the most famous logos in the world what do you see? Sticking with the restaurant industry, we’ll use the Wendy’s and McDonald’s logos as our main examples.
These logos have a way of differentiating themselves from the competition. They stand out, and people take notice of them.
Even though neither of these logos specifically screams food, they are known for their tasty hamburgers, delicious French fries, and other fast-food menu items. Yet Wendy’s logo and the McDonald’s logo look absolutely different from one another even though they sell most of the same food products.
Wendy’s founder decided to put the picture of a redheaded girl as their main logo image. The girl is Wendy, and she is the daughter of the founder Dave Thomas. When he created his restaurant chain, he made a cartoon likeness of his daughter to represent the logo and brand and this iconic image has stuck with us for many decades, and it’s memorable and recognizable.
Let’s not forget about McDonald’s and their golden arches. Everyone knows what the golden arches of McDonald’s means. It means inexpensive hamburgers, Big Macs, quarter pounders with cheese, delicious French fries, chocolate milkshakes, and all of the other tasty items on the McDonald’s menu.
As you can see, these iconic images represent these restaurant chains. But they are very different from one another. You need to create an image that will get your message across but also differentiate your business from other restaurants in the industry.
2. Using Expressive Typeface to Your Advantage
Using expressive typeface is another way to leave a strong impression on your customer base. Your logo can consist entirely of expressive typeface and still make its mark.
As an example, the Subway logo is an incredible example of a logo that uses expressive typeface and grabs your attention and makes you stand up and take notice.
The most important thing about considering expressive typeface is that you don’t necessarily have to go over the top to become creative with your logo design. Just make sure it is simple and tells the story of your brand. You do not necessarily need a picture to make this happen.
Other than the written text, the Subway logo incorporates two arrows into the design. There is one arrow in the Y pointing right, and another arrow in the S pointing left. This helps the brand stand out and makes the overall logo more memorable.
Other good examples of expressive typeface logos include Denny’s and IHOP. Both of these iconic images are incredibly recognizable to the public, and we all know what they serve in these breakfast focused restaurants. Although IHOP and Denny’s both serve lunch and dinner as well, they are probably most known for their delicious breakfast items.
3. Design a Logo That Tells Your Story
The best part about using storytelling in your logo design is it makes it very simple for your customers to view your logo and match it up to the food products that you sell. And this story should match up to the core type of customer that you want to visit your store regularly.
As an example, let’s take a closer look at restaurant chain Cracker Barrel. This is a family-friendly business that didn’t start out as a restaurant. When Cracker Barrel was originally opened in Tennessee, it was basically just your run-of-the-mill country store.
But the logo stuck because it captures the image of exactly what the business is trying to portray. The picture has an older man sitting in a chair leaning on a barrel.
It reminds people of the quiet life. It reminds them of a simpler time. It reminds them of a time when older men sat in front of storefronts leaning on barrels. This is Southern comfort at its finest, and it represents our simple past, great Southern hospitality, and home cooking all rolled into one.
Think about the story that you’re trying to tell with your logo design. Do you have a modern restaurant? Then you’ll want a current logo representing your brand.
Do you sell high-end meals and expensive fine wine? Your logo should represent high-end living and sophistication.
Do you have innovative dishes in your restaurant? Then you’ll want a creative logo representing your restaurant brand.
As you can see, it’s essential to think about the story you’d like to tell. And then you should come up with a logo design that tells the story in pictures instead of words or through a combination of images and words.
4. Symmetry Is the Hallmark of an Effective Logo
Before we dive into the benefits of symmetry, it’s essential to also note that it’s perfectly okay to mix-and-match different types of shapes, whether they are sharp shapes, round shapes, or any other kind of way for that matter.
But if you want your logo to be as effective as it can be, you also need to incorporate a clean design, which means strong symmetry should be the hallmark of your logo.
Let’s look at the Sonic logo as an example of an oddly shaped yet symmetrical restaurant logo. You see, Sonic has a unique design. They incorporate two overlapping triangles that round off at the edges. And then they have the name of the restaurant Sonic written within the yellow triangle.
While this logo may seem odd on the surface, it’s perfectly proportional in size and shape. This means it has the right measure of symmetry to make the logo look authentic, unique, and very useful all at the same time.
By adding symmetry to the design it controls the total amount of space being used and it makes the logo stand out much more in a very unique way.
Color symmetry is also very important to logo designs as well. The Sonic logo incorporates yellow, blue, red, white, and gray-blue into the design, but it does so in perfect proportion so that the use of multiple colors blend well together instead of appearing out of sync.
Bottom Line
By now, you can see the value of incorporating these tips into your restaurant logo design. They will make your logo more memorable, effective, and enjoyable for your customers.
Remember to incorporate design and color symmetry and expressive typeface into the design. Remember also to differentiate your logo from your competitors so that it remains exciting and unique. And finally, you can create a great logo design by telling your company story.
You do not necessarily need to incorporate all of these design tips into your restaurant logo design. But add as many as you can without overdoing it. Because of the more chances at creating a memorable logo you have, the better chance your restaurant will have at achieving real-world and lasting success.