Geeze, don’t expect so much from the little guy
Business owners want their logos to be big and loud and to tell the entire story of their company while simultaneously being wildly entertaining, brainwashingly memorable, and then have it step out of a business card to hold a customer upside down in order to shake all the loose change out of his pockets. At the end of the day, success is defined by expectations.
Often we have clients who look at a logo and say “But this doesn’t tell people what we do.” That concern stems from not understanding the point of a logo (see Part 1). The logo shouldn’t literally tell people what you do, but it should represent who you are. More to the point, it should help people identify choices that represent who they are. “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC. My Calvin pees on a Chevy logo. My Calvin pees on a Ford logo. All my athletic clothes have to have ’swooshes’.” The point is that a logo helps people identify a brand, but ultimately the brand is desirable because of the value of the product or experience behind the logo.
It takes time and hard work for a logo to reach its full potential. Iconic designer Paul Rand (who designed famous three letter acronyms such as IBM, UPS, and ABC, among many other famous corporate identities) had this to say about logos, “It is foolhardy to believe that a logo will do its job right off, before an audience has been properly conditioned. Only after it becomes familiar does a logo function as intended; and only when the product or service has been judged effective or ineffective, suitable or unsuitable, does it become truly representative.” He also described the purposes of a logo in the following ways:
- A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon (i.e. a coat of arms).
- A logo doesn’t sell (directly), it identifies.
- A logo is rarely a description of a business.
- A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.
- A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.
For more on Rand’s insightful logo philosophies read here.
Take a look at the logos that represent the top 10 most valuable global brands. What is the role of the logo in the overall brand experience?
When all is said and done, a logo should never be left to itself to do the heavy lifting in terms of marketing your business. It should be a tool among many; part of a system that can help you tell the right story to the right people in the right way. Let’s be honest, we are emotional beings. The way something presents itself will play an important role in how it is received and adopted over time. We would have never successfully navigated adolescence without having the iconic tag on our fly, right? That tag just exuded awesomeness.
You, as a business, want to be understood, but what you really want is to be desired. Just like the clothes you wear or the car you drive, your logo, in conjunction with experiences and other stylized elements, can play an important role in inspiring confidence and even desire from others. “Wow, these guys look like a big deal,” or “That just feels like me,” or “They are clearly innovative people.” We encourage our clients to try and see the bigger picture when it comes to selecting a logo, which is an excellent segue into the next part of this series, aptly titled, “It’s not about you.”
Learn all you ever wanted to know about logos here: http://www.squidoo.com/logobliviexasperalysis
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