Together with its name, a company’s logo design is a central part of a company’s broader brand strategy. A properly designed and well nurtured logo is a powerful communicator of a company’s values and aspirations. Some companies have been known to commit massive resources and drastically alter a whole marketing strategy in changing or freshening their brand logos.
All modern corporations are sparing no effort nor expense in their quest to nurture and protect their brand logos. As an intellectual property a good logo is a bankable asset that can add real value to an enterprise. To be able to compete in today’s hyper competitive environment a company will need a logo to give it a solid identity in the market.
It however follows that a good logo design does not necessarily need to be expressly descriptive of a company’s core business or product. It often becomes a visual symbol with which a company is identified. It should evoke an emotional connection in the minds of a consumer and help foster a warm feeling about the brand. The logos for some of the most valuable brands do not say anything about a company’s core business or product. Examples include technology giant Apple (a simple apple that shows a bite), sports apparel maker Nike (the famous swoosh symbol), or fast foods behemoth McDonald’s (arched M symbol).
Characteristics of a good logo design
1. Most design experts agree that the most important characteristic of a good logo design is its simplicity. A simple, clean design is easy to recognize and remember.
2. Memorable
It follows that a logo design that is easy to remember will stick in the minds of the consumer. A logo that fails to do this naturally fails to promote the brand’s long term identity.
3. Timeless
The most valuable brand logos are those able to transcend trends over time. Beverage giant Coca Cola has used the same logo since the company’s founding in the late 1890s. Coca Cola, helped in no small measure by the company’s iconic logo, is now the world’s most dominant soft drinks brand. The brand’s name is now even mistaken for a product category in some markets.
4. Appropriate
While a good logo does not necessarily have to show any relation to the company’s core business or product, it still must be appropriate for the age, culture and ethical expectations of the market it serves. A company that markets fur products will attract scorn if it uses the image of an endangered animal species as its logo. A logo that offends other people’s cultural and moral sensibilities will only serve to discredit a brand’s standing in the market.
While a good logo design will not make a poor quality product any better, a good quality product will not necessarily sell itself either. How many times do we see products on a supermarket shelf with similar attributes and struggle to decide on which one to buy? In most cases the decision will be made on that product that manage to tickle and excite our visual senses. Only good logo design complimented by graphics of exacting quality can do this.
A good logo design is the visual representation of the brand. It is the most accessible symbol by which a consumer can associate a company with its successes in the market. The long term viability of a company will usually be marked by the ability of its brand to separate its products from those of the competition.