Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Once you see design options and types of logo, how will you decide on THE logo for your startup? Custom logo design or with a business logo generator, there is a framework to help you pick a biotech logo design that will become a strategic asset for your startup in science and technology.

What is a logo and why does your biotech company need it?

Have you ever thought about why you even need a biotech startup logo? Besides the fact that there is no business without a logo, what should it do to your startup?

Any professional logo designer will tell you that your logo is part of a brand identity system. That includes visual identity, a brand name, and a tagline. Together they shape a cohesive image of your startup.

The purpose of the brand identity is to create a strong memory structure. Your customers have to think of your business before buying your product.

Therefore, the purpose of your logo is to identify your business.

It doesn’t describe your idea or communicate features. It is solely an identifier for people to recognize and remember.

It gives your biotech startup a mark that your audience can use to remember your brand. Based on the picture superiority effect, we remember images better than words. So help your audience remember your startup in science and technology by choosing a memorable logo that will identify your business.

Step-by-step guide on how to choose a logo strategically

The point of this design process is to go through your brand strategy, remind yourself of what your startup is, pick the logo that identifies your startup in science and technology the best, and run it through a checklist to make sure the logo is usable.

The framework:‍

1. Go back to your brand foundation. What are your vision, mission, and purose? Every decision you're taking as a startup founder manifests your startup brand. Review your vision and mission and clarify why your startup exists.
2. Take a look at your values and beliefs. These are your boundaries. Your logo shouldn't contradict your startup's values but support them.
3. Write out your positioning statement. The statement can say: "To [target audience], our brand is the [category] that provides [benefit or value] because [brand purpose or reason to exist]." Use it as your umbrella message. All brand communication, visual and verbal, will have to fall under it. Your logo will ideally relate to the main benefit (in other words, value) your brand provides.
4. Go back to your brand persona. Pick three keywords you want your brand's logo to translate to your target audience. These three keywords inform your logo's look and feel. It should communicate the three concepts you have chosen.
5. Run it through a checklist. Below you will find the criteria for the logo review. Give each option a score to see if the logo is usable. Score each point on a scale from 0 to 5.

The criteria for a good-quality logo are:

✓ Readability

How legible is your startup logo? Can people make sense of it? Although your logo can be abstract, it shouldn’t be blurry or pixelated.

✓ Scalability

How does your logo work in large and small formats? On the website and a conference banner?

✓ Flexibility

Review the possible lock-ups: mark, logotype, mark + logotype. How does it look in color and in black-and-white? What if you used muted colors? Ensure your logo can live in different environments, from an app icon to a conference banner.

✓ Timelessness

Does it look like every other logo in your industry? Then it might be following a current trend. You may want to avoid trends because they don’t live long. Below you will find some recent logo trends among startups in healthtech, biomaterials, drug development, and therapeutics.

✓ Distinction

How does your logo perform among your competition?

✓ Contrast

How does your logo behave in low brightness conditions?

✓ Part of the system

How does it work with your name, tagline, and the rest of the visual identity (colors, fonts, imagery)? How does it work with the app’s UI?

Quick tests for your startup logo

To avoid common mistakes, run through these three simple tests.

1. If your brand logo was a signature, how would you feel signing documents with it?
2. Take a look at your favicon. Is your logo legible at such a small scale?
3. Check your contrast and font weight. You cannot predict where your audience will stumble upon your brand. Make sure the viewers can see it on phone screens on a bright sunny day.

Some things to watch out for:

• Again, favicons. These guys are almost insignificant as design elements. However, we live online. Imagine you are a B2B startup. An IT manager is trying to find the right solution for the enterprise. They have a bunch of tabs open. They better identify you easier than your competition in a row of favicons.

• Small elements. You might want to stay away from small details on your logo. The reason is the scale. Because your biotech logo will be living in different environments out of your control, it needs to be solid. Small details will cause trouble when printing and will be invisible on the small screen dimensions. That's why minimal logo design is raging now - it works everywhere, at every scale.
• Avoid acidic colors. The viewers may not be able to look at acidic colors of a healthcare logo design because of the bright colors. Moreover, they poorly translate when printing.
• Pixelation. Ask your designer to provide SVG format. It works well when scaling the logo from small to enormous sizes.
• Too many messages. Don’t try to communicate the whole brand through one mark. That’s why brand identity is a system. Several elements organically build your startup’s image.
• Don’t forget to trademark your mark. Period.
• Halo effect. The halo effect is an overlooked behavioral principle. But it is handy for startups in science and technology as their success depends on how well people receive the new technology. Therefore, make sure your logo isn’t resembling any idea or concept that may harm your startup’s image.
• Self-expression. We seek out ways to communicate our identity to others. Although your logo identifies your startup, think about how your customers and employees will receive it. Will they want to be associated with it? Can it become a part of their identity? These questions may lead to some interesting alternative logo designs.

To wrap up, below are current trends to avoid if you want to be different from your competition

More and more startups are showing up every day. Competition is rising and it is helpful to have an original logo design. Even if some of the marks are clever, you want to use any opportunity to stand out. Below are some biotech logo design images to give you an idea of the popular trends in biotech logo design today.

Trends to avoid:

1. Helthtech startups have been using circular shapes - a widely used graphic element. 
2. In drug development and therapeutics, you may want to avoid anything resembling a cross. It almost feels like its own biotech logo design template.
3. Biomaterials have used blue and green to connect their products to nature. Popular color choices in technology logos. Play with something other than blue or green. Yes, they're calming and corporately appropriate, but we are getting to a point where it looks like everyone is using the same biotech logo maker with the same default set to "absence of accent colors". Think of a color palette that roots into your company values. 
4. A favourite design in behavioral science are owls. I like owls, too. However, it is time to find another symbol.
5. Another popular pharmaceutical design inspiration: the usage of the brain or a wavy line in neuroscience is rising.

One final note on how to make your audience love your logo

Keep in mind the mere exposure effect: the more people see your logo, the more they are prone to like it. So once you have chosen a biotech logo design, put it everywhere in your communication: on social media profiles, on your white papers, collateral, on your website, and more. Teach your audience about a new player on the market and help them remember your startup as their helpful partner.

Key takeaways:

1. A logo identifies your company. Therefore, don’t saturate this element of branding with many messages. Keep it simple and make it work with the rest of your brand identity, including the biotech website design.
2. When choosing a logo design for Life Sciences companies, root your choices in your brand foundation. Every decision as a founder is a manifestation of your startup brand.
3. Keep it simple and make it easy to scale.
4. Your logo identifies your startup as much as it will become a part of your audience’s identity.
5. Once you have a logo, use it everywhere to build brand awareness in biotech industry.