Following on Robin’s excellent post about branding, I wanted to take a closer look at one specific aspect of building your brand, the thing that one might say is the foundation of every brand: the logo.
We here at ribit do a lot of work for start-ups and small businesses in additional to our larger, established clients, and one of my favorite challenges when we get those clients is being able to start at the very beginning in building their brand, and specifically in doing their logo design. The reason it is a challenge is largely due to the fact that so many people have trouble understanding what a logo is, and what it is supposed to do.
A logo is a hieroglyph. A rune. A pictogram. It is a simple, easily recognized symbol that stands in for the name of your business. Done properly, a logo can become a sort of letter added to the collective symbol alphabet. It should not, and indeed cannot, capture everything about you and your business. To do so would require it to be very complex, and when it comes to logos, simplicity is best.
Consider the Nabisco logo. If you don’t know what it is, go look in your pantry. Chances are something in there will have it. On any of their products, it will be in the upper-left corner. It is a red triangle with the word “NABISCO”, surrounded by something that looks vaguely like an old fashioned T.V. antennae. Nothing about that thing (and incidentally, it is actually called “The Nabisco Thing” in internal Nabisco marketing documentation) seems to say anything about what Nabisco does. Taken out of context, that thing does not say Ritz or Nilla Wafers. Heck, it doesn’t even say “snack food”.
But we all know that it means Nabisco. We’ve been seeing it on the upper-left corner of boxes of crackers since we were children. That thing is possibly the ultimate logo ever created. Everyone knows what it means, that silly little oval and line sketch has become a symbol, a hieroglyph; a letter in our collective alphabet that means “Nabisco”.
As far as possible, every logo should aspire to that standard. It should be simple, instantly and easily recognizable, and it should be usable but also unobtrusive on every piece of paper and every web page or TV ad that your company produces.
Some basic guidelines:
- Simplicity! Do not be afraid of “plain”. Your logo is like a letter, not a painting.
- Recognizability. Avoid obscure or arcane looking symbols. If the viewer stops and thinks about what the logo is rather than what it stands for , they are no longer thinking about your company.
- Scalability. Your logo should look good on packaging, on a letterhead, projected large on slideshow, or printed small on a business card.
- Professionalism. The logo is your business, not yourself. If, for instance, you dislike a certain color, but that color works well in the logo design, do not let your personal preference ruin your logo.
- Trust your designer! You are paying them to do your design. Trust their expertise, otherwise why did you hire them?
Designed and used effectively, your logo can become a symbol that, when viewed, sets up a whole series of associations in the mind of the viewer and constantly reinforces your brand in the public eye.
