A logo is a single, most visible manifestation of a company within a target market. It is a graphical display of a company’s distinctive identity. Through symbols, fonts, and colour,s a logo defines a company’s style and it plays a substantial part in the creation of the first impression.
A well-designed logo is thus an essential part of any company’s marketing strategy. It develops trust and is more likely to pull potential customers. After all, we humans have shallow traits that tend to go after looks, may it be while choosing a logo or a better half.
How often have we seen an instance wherein a poorly packaged/marketed product fails to leave an impact, even if it meets all the respective requirements? A book is judged by its cover? A person by the company he keeps around? You get my drift.
So, where does a logo appear?
The logo appears on business & office stationery, marketing material, websites & digital, and advertising.
What all to remember while designing this critical little thing?
1) Design: The logo can be appropriate for the business, or it can simply be abstract with no relevance to the business whatsoever. The latter one is a bid; it might work or it might not. It is totally upon chance and the human psyche. It is safe to go with a relevant logo with a concept backing it; however, it is fun to go with an abstract one; you never know, you can strike gold!
2) Forget Me Not: Relevant or irrelevant, it must be memorable. So that it will create a recall for your brand. Simplistic logos are easier to remember. Because who are we kidding? All Nike has is a simple tick mark for a logo, but how crazy are we about it!
3) Concepts: It isn’t mandatory to have logos that will exactly depict what your profession is. (E.g. a clipart house for a builder’s firm) They can be suggestive in an abstract way. What is essential is for the logo to have a concept. Amazon’s logo, a widely known logo on the Web, would have been pretty boring if it weren’t for its strategically spaced arrow that points from A to Z, portraying a store that sells everything from A to Z. Another good example is that of the Audi automaker.
The four circles in the logo represent the 4 companies that were a part of the Auto-Union Consortium in 1932, namely, DKW, Horch, Wanderer and Audi. Let there be science in your logo, let there be cleverness, let there be philosophy and let there be history! The more diverse your concept, the more useful it’ll be for you to use it in advertisements. It’ll give you more angles than just a single one to go about showcasing your product/work.
4) Originality: The concept must be original. There is an abundance of clichéd things around us; originality is refreshing and catchy.
5) Simplistic: It must be uncomplicated in form. After hours of creativity put into designing a logo, it is a sorry place to be in when you realise that your logo can’t be replicated on merchandise surfaces in the way you want it to be.
For e.g. logos that come with a shadow to it cannot be replicated to the last detail in an embroidered format, which at times is the requirement of the customer. Such drawbacks should be well thought out before designing a logo. Having gradient colours, tons of fine detailing, or lots of photographic content in the logo are going to make it harder to replicate on various surfaces.
Also, they are much more likely to look quite different in different situations. For instance, no two printing technologies can match the colours exactly. Digital printing will give a brighter, saturated aspect to colours, while offset printing won’t give as much vividness. This is why the most powerful brands in the world usually stick to a simple palette of less than 3 main colours. Also, they go for solid colours rather than gradients.
6) Now You See Me: Clarity is of the utmost necessity. Your logo may appear on vehicle signage, posters, building signage, pull-up banners, product packaging, just to name a few. Thus, the text of your company name should have enough clarity and ease to be read from even a distance.
7) To the Rainbow & Back: The colours have a say of their own! Different colours suggest different emotions and set different moods. For e.g. red colour conveys passion, aggressiveness, blue colour conveys comfort and trust and so on and so forth. While designing, it is necessary to know what idea/emotion/concept has to be conveyed, and accordingly, the colours should be selected.
8) Detailed briefs: Lastly, even the most skilled designers can only please their clients if they have a clear brief of what the client wants. If the brief from the client is too vague, it’s very difficult to know where to begin with the design.
The interesting thing in all this is how a simple image can make you feel something. It can bring out fond memories, or make you feel hungry, or give you a warm fuzzy feeling or simply make you feel disgusted! A single image can do any of these things! This is the beauty of a logo.
With a logo, it is seldom love at first sight. But fear not! For this is an important bit of design that might even go on to become globally recognised like our giants, Coca Cola and Nike, so don’t hesitate to give it your time and mind. That’s all for now, folks!
