Pick the style before the symbol
Style — modern tech, minimal, luxury, playful, corporate, futuristic, or elegant — sets every other decision: typeface, color, weight, geometry. Lock the style first.
If you can't describe the style in one short phrase, you're not ready for a mark. Go back to the brand brief.
Wordmark first, symbol later
Most early startups are better served by a clean wordmark than a custom icon. Wordmarks scale across favicons, app stores, and partner decks without losing identity.
Add a monogram or symbol once the brand has been used enough that customers would recognize it without the name attached.
Color is a positioning decision
Tech leans cool blues and greens. Luxury leans gold, ink, and ivory. Playful leans warm primaries. Pick a palette that reinforces what you want customers to feel before they read a single word.
Lock one primary, one accent, one ink, one paper. Resist a third color until the brand can support it.
Test on a favicon and a phone
If your logo doesn't read at 32×32, it doesn't read at all. Drop it into a browser tab, an iOS home screen, and a Slack avatar before you commit.
If the favicon falls apart, simplify the mark — not the favicon.