Branding and logos are an integral part of our everyday lives. They are everywhere we go, as markers to us, often subliminally, to go into a business or make that online purchase as we recognise and trust a business or product that has put in the effort into strategising, designing, and marketing their brand effectively.
So, what is a logo?
A logo is a considered design that portrays the ‘message’ and style of your product or business and is also a unique, recognisable reference pointing people to your business. The uniqueness comes from the design decisions made as to how the logo will look. This is based upon a brief from the client, market competitor research and then decisions in terms of colours, shapes or fonts used to design the logo.
I would like to walk you through some famous logos and describe how these logos have communicated so successfully with their audience.
Amazon
Amazon is the largest online marketplace, particularly during these times when it has been hard for people to shop physically. Amazon’s logo has the text and a smiley symbol or a curve that connects A-Z. Their logo suggests that they can bring a smile to their customer’s face by delivering the right product – fast. This is suggested by the orange of the arrow and the dynamics of the direction and movement that it suggests. They also want to emphasise the A-Z range of products that they deliver! Isn’t that a smart way of including two different ideas into one simple design?
Twitter is another example of an immediately identifiable and recognisable logo. Birds, more particularly pigeons, were used to transfer messages. Birds generally suggest communication. This represents the birds we hear every morning in the countryside ‘twittering’ and ‘tweeting’ to one another. Twitter is one of the major platforms used for communication and community building. They also have tweets instead of posts which resonate with their logo. The blue and the circles are stable images and colours – soothing and balanced in nature and by suggestion.
Tesla
Now, a major leader in the transport sector, Tesla’s simple T logo represents the range of products that it has launched as soon as someone sees it. It also represents the cross-section of an electric motor. It is directional, simple, stable – to give that sense of reliability. The red is powerful and has been used to represent the power of the car. The ‘T’ has been designed like a plug to represent the unique plug-in electrical charging that the car requires.
I could go on about various logos and the story behind their brand success….but conversely, not all logos are a clear representation of the type of services a company provides. These can actually damage a brand and lose business. I bet we have all encountered those when we have been out and about in the world too. Confusing, hilarious (not in a good way!) and just downright inappropriate or designed by an amateur in an ill-considered way.
Why a logo?
Why do you need a logo so badly…why is your designer insisting that you spend money on this often in the early stages of your business startup when you already have so many expenses?
It is natural for you to think like that when you are starting out but there are many reasons why you cannot do without a decent logo. Your brand style and logo colours and look and feel are a visual effect that affects potential clients and influences them to choose you to provide products or service to them. This is based upon the style of your logo matching the style of service that you are providing or planning to provide. They need to feel ‘like’ and ‘trust’ to ‘buy’. Your professionally designed logo will influence these feelings hugely.
Branding
A logo is unique to a company and sets you apart from your competitors. It’s easy to imprint a good logo onto the minds of your potential customers with some solid marketing around your design choices and then include the logo and your brand identity in all the future campaigns. Just by seeing a logo of a business, we instantly relate to the product and that particular company and make a buying decision on this basis.
Better purchase decisions
Do you know that having a logo makes you money?! I mean, just look at the way Amazon, Nike, Google and Walmart do that. Their logo on their campaigns is enough to instantly create a sense of trust and credibility which has been previously associated to their logo through marketing, word of mouth, time in the market and perception which promotes a buying decision from their customers.
Talk to your customer
Every business needs to have several mediums to communicate directly to their customers. Social media is definitely one of those mediums but for a new business or for any business, for that matter, a logo becomes so famous and etched to our hearts that a simple post with just a logo of the company, will often result in a high volume of customer engagement. That is the magic power of a good, professionally designed logo. It resonates with people and some just follow your brand because they love your ‘style’ and the feeling of being in the club of people that associate with that look and feel.
Where can you use Logos?
Logos must be used on all your campaigns, both digitally and printed. Social media platforms, Banners, Flyers, Business Cards, YouTube, you can’t plaster your logo about too much so long as you make sure you only associate your logo with quality. Never align your brand with an unknown brand as this could impact on your brand negatively.
Rules of a Good Logo
So, how do you finalise that, yes….this is the logo that my business should have? And this must be the image of my brand? Here is where a Graphic Design Agency like ours comes into the picture. Just let us know about your business and our qualified design team will create a clever Logo that syncs with your business style, that will create trust and most importantly, talks to your customers in a positive way. A startup can spend anywhere from $100-$3000 for a logo depending on the different choices and requirements of the business (source:techcrunch.com). It is always best to consult a professional graphic designer to design your logo to get the best result that you have been searching for your business. It really is an investment that will pay for itself over and over again if it is a good logo.
You as our client will be an important part of your business logo design journey with us. You will be with us initially to consult on what it is that you would like to achieve with the design, your main competitors, then later to approve concepts in terms of suggested imagery, typography, colour, positioning statement, etc. We make sure you are 100% happy with the end result before we give you the final files for you to have and use during your business life.
There are many types of logos we can design for you so let’s have a look at some of them:
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Lettermark
Lettermark basically consists of 2-4 letters, an Acronym if you like, such as IBM, eBay and HBO. They are actually a condensed form of the whole business name. More than 30% of the companies in the world use this type of logo design.
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Wordmark
These are similar to lettermark but wordmark logos are the whole business name themselves, like “Google”.
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Pictorial marks
These are images or icons that people can relate to instantly. Apple and Instagram are a couple of examples.
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Emblems
Most agencies, public organisations or schools tend to make use of emblems. They are used to suggest solid strength and a long history of success.
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Mascots
Mascots consist of illustrated characters. They can be cartoonish or cute, which again attracts the eye of the people and promote a certain feeling relevant to the product or service on sale.
So as you see, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration before finalising your logo design. That said, logos for large companies that have been around for generations such as Coke or KFC make subtle changes regularly to keep their logo current and up to date. We can make changes to your logo to match the current trend and customer choices of the time. If you are in doubt about your current logo and feel it needs a refresh or total redesign, contact us for a FREE consultation so that we can help you to decide the best logo options for you.
On average, a person gets exposed to 5000 brand messages per day. How will you make your story stand out in this competitive market?
