A long time ago I sat in a conference room with a brilliant branding consultant and the CEO of a major company. The consultant was pitching to the CEO and had shown him some fantastic case studies and made some excellent suggestions as to how his agency could help bring his company to the next level. I had not been in the business long at this point, and I remember being absolutely mesmerised. I have always loved the branding aspect of business and this session only made my love stronger.
After about an hour’s pitch the CEO looked at the consultant and said: “So, you want to change our logo?” My face dropped. I could not believe what I was hearing. The fact that a CEO of a major company distilled the whole subject of branding down to changing the logo not only shocked me, but also frightened me. If the big boys don’t know what branding is all about, what hope is there for small and medium businesses?
Fortunately, not everyone is like that CEO. I am happy to say that more and more people realise what branding is all about, and that the whole concept is about so much more than a logo. Check out my resource page on branding if you want to know more. In this post, however, I do want to talk about the logo. Because although a logo is not the same as a brand, it is an important part of it. You could say that your logo is the face of your brand. It is often the first thing, and often for a long time the only thing, people see of your brand and it is therefore extremely important.
A logo is not really a simple thing
Your logo is the face of your company, your product or your service. Your logo has to convey the right message. It has to be “on brand”. This, often very small icon or image, has to convey your brand in a simple way, often just logotype, i.e. just letters, or just a simple image. It has to differentiate you in the market. It has to be easily identifiable and recognisable.
A logo has to adapt to a variety of situations. It will be used on paper, electronically, on a web site, in black and white, inverted, in full color, with other logos, it can be used absolutely huge, like on a building, or incredibly tiny on a mobile website or in an app.
Given its importance, and the complicated world in which it is used, you need to make sure [Read more…]