As a brand and website designer for doulas, midwives, birth centers, lactation consultants and other perinatal professionals I have seen TONS of logos. And what I can say is there are some pretty unappealing logos out there. I want to outline some top logo design mistakes I see when it comes to doula logos.

Logo Mistake #1: Using babies, bellies, and lotuses

I get it, you want it to be known what it is you do and what better way than to put an obvious visual like a baby or cute belly bump in your logo. But a logo is a symbol of a business and brand NOT the actual representation. Using babies and bellies doesn’t appeal to most people. It’s overdone, outdated, and honestly not unique or appealing. I promise if you work with a brand designer and dig deep into the core of your business you can find much better graphic options. Oh, and the silhouette of a belly bump on an ideal body size may be triggering to people who do not look like that. Your logo is NOT for you and it needs to appeal and resonate with your ideal client.

Logo Mistake #2: Hard to read

If the name of your business is illegible the logo is failing to do it’s job. Logos must have readable text. Common issues I see are text that is way too small or hard to read script fonts. I don’t recommend using script fonts in your logo since these tend to be trendy and go out of style quickly. But, if you’re choosing to use a script font in your logo make sure it’s easily readable and not too delicate.

Logo Mistake #3: Too many colors

I love color! I think it brings energy, emotion, and life to design. BUT your logo is NOT the place to have all your colors. As a brand designer, I actually start by designing all of my logos in black and white. Once I have a design that looks good in black and white THEN I will add in other colors. Too many colors in a logo can feel overwhelming. A logo should be simple.

Logo Mistake #4: Too busy

This is related to the point above with color, but I often see very detailed and intricate logos. These are overwhelming to look at. A good logo should be simple and memorable. Look at brands like Nike, Amazon, McDonalds, and Apple—SIMPLE, yet memorable. Also, overly busy and intricate designs do not look good when shrunk to smaller sizes like on mobile devices or business cards. A simpler design will look better wherever you put it.

The cliff notes version is this, KEEP IT SIMPLE. No logo is better than a bad one.

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