Ask ten people what makes a good logo and you'll get ten different opinions about taste. Ask a designer, and the answer has almost nothing to do with taste at all. A good logo isn't defined by whether it's "nice" — it's defined by whether it does its job across every situation your business puts it in.
It works small, in black and white, and at a glance
Most people will never see your logo the way it looks on your designer's monitor — full color, large, on a clean background. They'll see it as a tiny favicon, a grainy embroidered patch, or a black-and-white fax of an invoice. If a logo only works under ideal conditions, it isn't finished. A strong mark holds its shape and legibility shrunk to the size of a thumbnail, and still reads clearly with the color stripped out entirely.
It's distinct from your direct competitors
It's remarkably common for businesses in the same industry to gravitate toward the same visual clichés — the same blue circle, the same leaf icon, the same rounded sans-serif wordmark. A good logo is checked against direct competitors specifically, not just judged in isolation, so it doesn't quietly blend into the category instead of standing apart from it.
It's simple enough to remember
Recognition depends on simplicity. The logos people remember without effort — a swoosh, an apple, a bitten fruit, three stripes — are simple enough to redraw from memory. Complexity might look impressive in a first presentation, but it rarely survives contact with the real world, where people glance at a logo for less than a second.
It's appropriate to what you actually sell
A playful, rounded typeface can undercut a law firm's credibility just as easily as a rigid, corporate mark can make a children's brand feel cold. Good logo design starts from who the business needs to convince, not from what the founder personally finds beautiful. Appropriateness is often the difference between a logo that looks good on a mood board and one that actually helps close a sale.
It's built to scale as a system, not a one-off image
A logo rarely stands alone. It needs a primary version, a simplified icon-only version, light and dark variants, and sometimes a horizontal lockup for tight spaces. If a mark was only ever designed as a single flat image, these variations tend to look like afterthoughts. A logo built as a system from the start holds together no matter where it's applied.
It's original enough to trademark
A logo that's a close variation of an existing brand's mark — even unintentionally — creates real legal risk and undermines the point of having a distinct identity in the first place. Professional designers check new concepts against obvious existing marks before presenting them; it's worth confirming your designer does the same.
The short version
A good logo isn't about personal taste. It's legible at any size, distinct from competitors, simple enough to remember, appropriate to what you sell, built as a flexible system, and original enough to protect. Judge concepts against that list, not against how they feel on first glance.