Creating an exclusive logo is art. A logo should have direct meaning with style, color & fonts, etc. A person should have clicked in his mind as soon as he sees the logo & that should store in his subconscious. To use of icons, fonts, etc depends upon the domain you are working on. In my experience, I have seen people to the main focus on icons but font plays an important role here. To use icons & font in a way so it should come up well as responsive & print media. I check everything from top to bottom. I have an experience in logo creation from the last 15 years wherein I created logos for clients from the USA, Denmark, Newzealand, India, etc.