Designing a logo is much like a dance. There is a lot of back and forth between the innkeeper and the designer. Sometimes the dance can go quickly! And sometimes a little extra work is required to get it just right, because let’s face it, it can be tricky to boil down the representation of your bed and breakfast into one succinct icon.
A logo has many important jobs to do. It has to symbolically represent your business through a combination of fonts, colors and iconography. Your logo should be able to impart a “feeling” for your inn, hit your target market, and be functional across many platforms in a variety of sizes.
Decisions When Developing a Logo
The Typeface
We can’t all afford to hire a typeface designer to create the perfect typeface for our logos… luckily today there are endless options available! The designer’s job is to sift through all of those options to choose a typeface that speaks to the feel of your inn. Should it be a script font? Fun? Plain? Have just a touch of a serif? Be thick? Be dainty? Have a lot of space between the letters? There is a lot to think about!
The Colors
A logo should work in black and white AND in color … but what should those colors be? Does it need to be serene? Festive? Regal? Natural? Your designer will know the color combo to best represent you! Sometimes color inspiration can come from the feeling that you’re trying to present. Or it can be a color pulled directly from your property. Maybe it’s the signature color of the shutters, or variations of green to represent the rolling hills around you.
The Iconography
Is there one thing that represents your inn? The designer should be able to explain why that icon is used. It can be a direct representation of your building – or a boiled down symbolic graphic. Inspiration can come from many places … and the more an innkeeper can talk about their inn, supply feelings, history, photos, the better!
Before and After Logos for The Aerie

On the left is their old logo – the new one we designed is on the right
The word “aerie” means “nest of a large bird of prey, usually an eagle.” So You can see that they tried to use that in their old logo. We used the same idea of utilizing the definition of the word, but did it in a much more symbolic way. The new logo is clean and modern, and will look great on the website, as well as printed on a mug or in a directory listing. It imparts much more of a luxury feel and is more comfortable and welcoming.
View more of our custom logo creations and contact us to receive a quote to get started on a new look for your brand.