By Bianca Frank, Creative Director · Bianca Frank Design, Anchorage
Originally published June 2023. Fully rewritten and updated October 2026.
At some point in every logo project the designer sends over concepts and the owner has to decide. Most people decide the way they’d pick a paint color: which one do I like? That’s the wrong question, and it’s how businesses end up with a mark they love on screen and regret on the truck.
The right question is whether the logo will do its job in the places it has to live. Here are the seven tests we put every concept through before we show it to a client, in the order we run them. Use them on whatever you’re being shown, by us or anyone else.
In short:
- A good logo is one that still works at the size of a thumbnail, in one color, five years from now, next to your competitors, and on the materials you actually use. Liking it is necessary but not sufficient.
- Alaska has its own trap: mountains, moose, bears, salmon and the northern lights are on so many local logos that they’ve stopped meaning anything. Specific beats scenic.
- The typeface carries as much of the message as the symbol. Choose it for legibility at small sizes and for what it says about the business, not for novelty.
- A logo that survives the tests usually came out of a process: a brief, research, several directions, refinement, then a system. Skipping steps is how you get something pretty that fails test three.
The seven tests
1. The thumbnail test. Shrink it to the size of your phone’s app icons, about half an inch. Can you still tell what it is? Logos spend most of their lives small: a social avatar, a browser tab, the corner of an invoice, a signature line. If detail disappears or letters merge, it fails. This is the test that kills most first drafts, and it’s why good logos look almost too simple at full size.
2. The one-color test. Print it in black only, then white on a dark background. Gradients, shadows and five-color palettes vanish on an embroidered shirt, a one-color stamp, a laser-engraved sign or a newspaper ad. If the mark depends on color to read, it isn’t finished.
3. The truck test. Imagine it on the side of a vehicle doing 55 on the Glenn Highway, seen for two seconds. Does the name land? For AK Mow and Snow, an Anchorage snow removal and lawn care company, we designed the truck wrap around a logo that already existed, and the whole job was making that name read at highway speed on a plow truck, the most-seen piece of the brand all winter. A logo that only works on a business card shows its limits the first time it’s blown up to the size of a door.
4. The lineup test. Put it in a row with your five closest competitors’ logos, same size. Does it stand apart, or blend in? In Alaska this is where most logos fail, and it deserves its own section below.
5. The five-year test. Pull up logos from 2016 and 2021 and notice what’s dated: the long shadows, the hand-lettered script, the hexagons, the gradient blobs. Ask whether the concept in front of you leans on a trend that will date it the same way. A good logo can be refreshed; it shouldn’t need replacing.
6. The hand-off test. Could a sign shop, an embroiderer or a new employee reproduce it correctly from the files without calling anyone? That requires vector files, a one-color version, exact color codes and the named typeface. If any of those is missing, the logo will drift the first time someone else touches it.
7. The “so what” test. Say in one sentence what the logo is doing for the business: “It makes a one-woman practice look established.” “It signals we’re the premium option.” “It tells people at a glance that we work statewide.” If the only sentence available is “the owner likes it,” there’s no strategy underneath, and the logo will be the first thing changed when the owner’s taste shifts.
A concept that passes all seven is a good logo. Whether you also love it is the last question, not the first.
The Alaska cliché problem
Open any Alaska business directory and count the mountains. Then the moose, the bears, the salmon, the eagles, the northern lights, the Big Dipper. None of these is wrong, and some of the best Alaska logos use them well. The trouble is how many businesses reach for the same one: when dozens of competitors share a symbol, it stops doing the work of identifying any of them, and a mountain range on an Anchorage logo mostly says “we’re in Alaska,” which the customer already knew.
The one we will argue with you about is the outline of the state. The Alaska silhouette is on so many logos, from fuel companies to dental practices, that it has become the visual equivalent of a stock photo. It’s instantly recognizable and instantly forgettable, it reproduces badly at small sizes (the Aleutians turn to dust, the panhandle disappears), and it says nothing about what the business does. If a concept leans on the state outline, ask what’s left when you remove it. Usually the answer is the real logo.
This isn’t an argument against Alaska imagery; it’s an argument for specificity. The question to ask is: what’s true about this business that isn’t true about the one next door? A surveying firm’s precision. A clinic’s calm. A laundry’s speed. A guiding company’s particular stretch of river. Build the mark from that. If a mountain or a moose earns its place, it earns it as a detail that supports the idea, not as the whole idea.
The lineup test settles it. Put a proposed logo next to five competitors; if three of them also have the same symbol, that symbol isn’t helping you, however good it looks on its own.
Choosing the typeface
Most logos are at least half type, and for a service business the name is often the whole mark. The typeface decides how the business sounds before anyone reads a word. A few rules we hold to:
- Legibility at small sizes beats everything. Thin strokes, tight letterspacing and ornate scripts collapse at thumbnail size. If you can’t read it on a business card from arm’s length, it’s wrong.
- Match the voice of the business. A heavy slab serif says durable and industrial; a geometric sans says modern and precise; a refined serif says established and considered. Pick the one that tells the truth about you.
- Avoid the font everyone else used this year. Trendy typefaces date a logo faster than any symbol does.
- Make sure you can get it. The typeface should be licensed to you or freely available, so your website, your print shop and your office manager can all use the real thing. A logo set in a face nobody else can access guarantees mismatched materials.
- Modify it, don’t just set it. A good designer adjusts spacing, weight or a single letterform so the wordmark is yours, not a line of type anyone could reproduce.
When we refreshed the identity for Kandi Hernandez Interior Design, the brief was to update the logo without losing the recognition the business had already built. The move was in the type: a softer, more rounded face and a more current treatment, so existing clients still saw the brand they knew and new ones saw a studio designing premium, timeless spaces. That’s the usual shape of a refresh. Keep what people recognize; change what’s aging.
The stages a good logo goes through
Logos that pass the seven tests almost always come out of the same sequence. Skipping stages is how a business ends up with something attractive that fails in use.
- The brief. Who the business serves, what it wants to be known for, who it competes with, where the logo will live. We do this through a written intake; the answers shape everything after.
- Research. The competitor lineup, the category’s visual habits (and clichés), the places the mark has to work.
- Directions. Several distinct concepts, not variations on one idea. You should be choosing between different strategies, not different shades of blue.
- Refinement. The chosen direction gets tightened: proportions, spacing, the one-color version, the small-size version, the typeface adjustments.
- The system. Primary mark, secondary mark, icon, color codes, typefaces, and a style guide. This is the stage that makes tests two, three and six pass.
Our own version of this is laid out on our logo design and branding process page. Whoever you work with, ask them to describe theirs; the answer tells you whether you’re buying a process or a picture.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a logo design good? It reads at thumbnail size, works in one color, stands apart from competitors, won’t date in five years, can be reproduced correctly from its files, and expresses something specific about the business. Liking it comes after those.
Should an Alaska business put a mountain or a moose in its logo? It can, if it’s used with intent and the competitors haven’t all done the same. Build the mark from what’s specific to the business and let landscape support it. The one to avoid is the outline of the state: it’s on too many logos, reproduces badly small, and says nothing about what you do.
How do I choose a font for my logo? For legibility at small sizes first, then for the voice it gives the business (industrial, modern, established, warm). Avoid this year’s trendy face, make sure the font is licensed and available to everyone who’ll use the brand, and have the designer customize it so it’s yours.
How many logo concepts should a designer show me? Three to five distinct directions is typical. More than that usually means none of them has been thought through; fewer means you’re not really choosing.
Can I update my logo without losing recognition? Yes. A refresh keeps the elements people recognize (often the name, the general shape or the color) and updates what’s aging, usually the typeface and the details. It’s the right move for an established business with a dated mark.
Run the tests on your own logo
Shrink it. Print it in black. Line it up against the competition. If it fails two or more of the seven, it’s working against you every day, and a refresh is cheaper than you’d think. Once you know what makes a logo good, the next question is what one should cost. If you’d like us to run the tests with you, get in touch.
Bianca Frank is the founder and Creative Director of Bianca Frank Design, an Anchorage agency that has designed brands and websites for Alaska businesses since 2007. She holds a BFA in Graphic Design and leads a small in-house team covering branding, web design, SEO and content strategy, with recent work for clients including Nalaquq LLC, the Native Village of Barrow, Solstice Psychiatry and Alaska Geographic. BFD was named one of Anchorage’s best web designers by Three Best Rated (2025) and received UpCity’s Local Excellence and Best of Alaska awards (2022, 2023).
