Legal logos hold substantial power. Beyond mere aesthetics, they serve as an integral tool for improving brand recognition, enhancing professionalism, and distinguishing firms from competitors.
So, what transforms a good law firm logo into a truly exceptional one? From choosing the right colors and fonts to hiring the best designer, creating a great logo involves thorough research and a strong understanding of how to accurately reflect your brand.
Read on as we cover everything you need to know to create a law firm logo that leaves a lasting impression.
Why a strong law firm logo matters
Before we delve into how to create a law firm logo, let’s first explore why they matter. A well-designed legal logo offers substantial benefits. For instance, it can:
Establish brand recognition and trust
Attorney logos can help build brand recognition. Michel Tuan Pham, a professor of marketing at the Columbia Business School, summarized its role best when saying: “A logo is to a company what a face is to a person.” When clients see a logo, they’re more likely to connect it with specific traits about a firm—which can, in turn, build trust.
Set your firm apart from competitors
Creating a logo that reflects your firm’s unique identity and values can attract attention and help you stand out to prospective clients in a competitive legal landscape.
Create an impactful first impression
Whether it’s showcased on your website, marketing materials, or social media platforms, your law firm logo serves as the initial point of contact for prospective clients. That makes it a vital tool in making a memorable first impression. Create a strong law firm logo, and you’ll showcase the dedication and expertise that define your firm.
Key elements of an effective law firm logo
When creating an attorney logo, there are several essential factors to consider.
Choose the right colors and typography
A first step in designing a law firm logo is to understand the power of color. All colors have the potential to evoke certain thoughts and feelings. They can also symbolize different personalities and have different psychological effects.
To tap into these benefits, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with color theory and the color wheel—as well as how to use complementary colors to create an impact.
For example, you may notice blue appearing in many law firms’ logos. This makes sense, as the color is often linked to trust, peace, and calmness—which are all feelings you want your client to experience when working with your firm.
If you’re not familiar with color theory, InVision provides some insight. Learn more aboutcolor theory from InVisionandcolor psychology from Canva.
What color is associated with law?
Blue currently represents the majority of law firm logos. Since it’s a neutral color that may evoke a sense of calmness, it’s no wonder why many law firms have chosen it as their main brand color. Regardless of what color you choose for your firm, consider adding a secondary color to your firm’s brand to make your logo stand out.
Select a web-safe font
Since your logo will appear primarily online, opt for a web-safe font to ensure it displays consistently across various devices and browsers. Matching your logo font throughout your website and marketing materials will go a long way in helping with brand consistency.
Once you’ve chosen a web-safe font, you can customize the typography in the font to create a custom wordmark. A wordmark or logotype is essentially a logo that only contains text. If you’re working with a designer, this is when their expertise will come in. An experienced designer can adjust thekerning and leading(the spaces between the letters and lines), and customize the wordmark to be truly unique to your brand.
Whether you choose a serif or sans serif depends on what you want your law firm brand to convey. A serif font, such as Garamond, typically has a decorative stroke at the end of each letter, while a sans serif font like Helvetica does not. It’s also nice to have complementary serif and sans serif fonts throughout your website.Learn how to pair fonts thoughtfully from Canva.
Incorporate legal symbols and icons
Law firm logos don’t have to be overly complicated. Legal symbols and icons are a great way to build one that’s simple and memorable.
Think about the most famous brand logos you know, like Facebook, Instagram, Apple or Microsoft. Over the years, they’veevolved to be simplerand easier to remember and identify. Today, the most famous brand logos are based on simple shapes, symbols, or icons.
Law firm logos are no different. Don’t overcomplicate it with textures and gradients. This makes your logo flexible and usable in many situations, like your law firm’s letterhead, social media, website, and event backdrop.
Create logo versions with and without names
It’s a good practice to create both wordmarks and glyphs for your lawyer logo.Wordmarksare logos with your law firm’s name in them, whileglyphsare symbols that represent your law firm’s name. By having both wordmarks and glyphs, you will have appropriate logos for different uses.
Consider including law firm partner names in one logo, but also have a simplified version.
Get the right file types for your logo
This may sound technical, but it’s essential to ensure your law firm logo will remain sharp and high-quality regardless of medium—whether online or print. The formats you’ll need to achieve that in all cases include:
- Vector (.eps)
- Transparent (.png)
- JPEG (.jpg)
- Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg)
If you’re working with a designer, try and get an accompanying glyph so you can create a faviconfor yourlaw firm’s website.
Showcase your firm’s personality
Designing a logo that authentically reflects your firm is key. A well-crafted logo acts as a visual representation of your firm’s identity, vision, and values. By incorporating elements that depict your core values and showcase your expertise—such as symbols, colors, or typography—you can create a compelling logo that resonates with potential clients.
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Tips for designing a successful law firm logo
A unique law firm logo design contributes to a unique visual identity for your law firm. Not only does a distinctive logo communicate yourlaw firm brand’score purpose and values, but it also helps you maintain consistent brand presentation—which couldincrease your law firm’s revenue by 23%.
Here’s how to develop one that achieves just that.
Understand your target audience and competitors
Carve out time to research not only your target audience, but also your competitors’ visual identity. Look at their logo design, color palette, font, shapes, and if their law firm names are included.Doing thorough competitive researchinto firms in the same state and practice areas can help you determine how to create a unique law firm logo.
It’s a good idea to gather your inspiration by writing down what you like and dislike about each competitor law firm’s logo—along with what you think would help you stand out to your target clients.
You could even go further by analyzing how your firm can learn from the strengths and weaknesses of each reference logo. Writing down your thoughts sets you up for success in briefing your designer on your desired outcome.
Simplify your law firm logo design
Simplifying your logo design enhances its versatility and scalability, ensuring it remains impactful across different marketing applications. By streamlining elements, such as typography and graphical elements, you can ensure a consistent brand experience across platforms, whether you’re handing out a business card or advertising through a billboard.
Work with a professional logo designer or agency
Outsourcing your law firm logo design creation is a good idea because you’ll need a vector file with high resolution, and possibly a GIF for an animated logo. This requires specialized technical design knowledge and skills. That’s why it’s good practice to hire an experienced visual designer for the job.
How to choose a designer
- Go with an experienced designer or branding agency.Specifically, choose someone who specializes in brand logo design. It’s also a plus if they understand the legal industry. With a branding agency, it’s easier for them to make sure your brand is scalable and consistent, as they can help with more than your logo—like your website and ads.
- Make sure they can provide you with a detailed contract.Any designer who is invested in creating a great logo for your law firm should have a contract that includes an overview of the process, the number of revisions, and the file types you’ll be receiving.
- Look at their portfolio and their design style.This helps you determine if the designer’s style will fit your law firm’s brand.
- Think about your budget.Remember, the investment reflects expertise. It’s best to go with someone who is experienced and boasts a strong portfolio. If you have a smaller budget, freelance marketplaces likeUpworkandFiverr Proare some places to find designers for your project.
- Work with the same designer for marketing materials.Working with the same designer to create your law firm’s letterheads, business cards, envelopes, stationery, and more goes a long way in ensuring brand consistency.
Trademarking your law firm logo: Why it’s important
Once you’ve designed a memorable logo, you may wonder whether you need to trademark it. According to theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office, federal registration of a logo is not required. In fact, using your trademark in commerce—when you’re providing legal services—establishes your legal rights to the logo. These rights are known as common-law rights.
That said, trademarking your law office logo will enhance your legal rights to the logo, as common-law rights are limited. This means that those rights may only apply in a specific geographic location, and enforcing those rights in other states may be more difficult.
By federally registering your firm’s logo on the Principal Register, you get to enjoy several rights. These rights include but are not limited to:
- Having the exclusive right to use your logo throughout the US and its territories
- Proving you are the owner of the logo
For example, if another law firm happens to have the same logo as you and decides to dispute that they have the right to use the logo, you’ll have the advantage of enforcing your registration.To get started, you cando a trademark searchon your own, for free.
Best law firm logos
To help you create the best law firm logo for your business, we’ve curated the top logos that uniquely represent each law firm’s brand. Although this list is by no means exhaustive, you can use it as a starting point for inspiration.
1.Ben Crump Law
The serif font paired with the sans serif font creates an elevated brand for Ben Crump Law. When paired with the glyph (symbol), the brand is recognizable at every touchpoint.
2.Civil Resolution Tribunal
The simplicity in the shapes of the glyph (symbol) is complemented by a sans serif font.
3.Hello Divorce
This custom wordmark is truly unique and reflects the brand’s tone and personality.While technically not a law firm, the mix of fonts in Hello Divorce’s logo is attention-grabbing.
4.Osborn Gambale Beckley & Budd
This unique glyph is simplified with a two-tone palette and a sans serif font.
5.Cotney Construction Law
The simple shapes in the chevrons of the logo create visual interest and draw the eye towards the wordmark.
6.Tate Law
The simple, geometrical shapes in the glyph are complemented by a sans serif font.
7.Levine Family Law Group
This logo is elevated with the subtleness of the birds flying off of the “I” and is grounded by a sans serif and serif font pairing.
8.Vela Wood
This custom glyph is unique to Vela Wood and works equally as well stacked with the logo or as a standalone element throughout the firm’s branding.
9.Vanst Law
A simplistic font is paired with a custom glyph that compliments the minimalist elements of the font.
10.California Innocence Project
The use of a horizontal line element visually separates the sans serif and serif fonts.
11.The Daswani Law Co.
Using strictly serif fonts, hierarchy is achieved through scaling of the font and horizontal lines to separate the elements.
12.Donato Law
Using a simple shape, Donato Law’s glyph is memorable and can scale across various brand elements.
13.Jackson & Wilson Trial Lawyers
This condensed, sans serif font is balanced by varying the size of Jackson & Wilson above “Trial Lawyers.”
How do you create a law firm logo?
Creating a law firm logo may seem complicated, but when done well, it can be very rewarding for your brand. To create a logo for your law firm that stands out, consider if you need to trademark your logo, how to make your logo unique, top attorney logo design tips, and outsourcing the design portion of the project.
Buy a logo from a stock image site
Another option for smaller budgets is to buy a law firm logo from a stock image site likeShutterstockoriStock.Note that you may run the risk of another law firm or company using the same logo for their business.
You also need to purchase acustom licenseto go with your stock image logo. According to iStock, unless youbuy a custom license, you won’t be able to use any part of the logo or image as a brand logo for your law firm. You also need to purchase a custom license to register any part of the logo or image as a trademark.
Final considerations for creating the perfect law firm logo
The thought of creating a great law firm logo can be daunting. But with the right process and the expertise of a designer, you can have a logo that is unique, memorable, versatile, and consistent with your law firm’s brand. And remember, your legal logo isn’t set in stone. You can always refresh it as your firm evolves and grows.
We published this blog post in January 2021. Last updated: .
Categorized in:Marketing
