Thinking of famous brand logos, it’s funny how our minds immediately go to modern marketing, that of social media and tv adverts. Yet, the necessity of giving symbols an enormous communicative power can be traced way back in time, back to the paintings in the caves or engraved in stone. The term “brand” itself comes actually from cattle owners in the far west who branded their animals to declare ownership over them. If we think about it, the basic concept of “branding” has not changed at all and today we design logos with the intention of saying that our business is ours and nobody else’s.
But what’s the ideal job description for a logo? No, it doesn’t require flexible hours or teamwork efforts, but rest assured your logo can be a model employee for your company.
The “boss” of brand identity
One of the most common requirements for a candidate is to speak more than one language. So what if you get one that can speak them all without saying a word? Your logo has to speak for you universally: your story, your vision and the core values of your business, and it has to do it clearly with no room for misunderstandings.
A logo though is not only the flag bearer of your brand, it’s especially the storyteller of it. Most of the company’s storytelling is based on your logo, its colours, fonts and images; all traits contribute to the making of branding material such as letterhead, business cards, merchandise, packaging, billboards, website, social media etc.
Clothes make the man
You need to dress up properly for a business meeting. And if you do it, why shouldn’t your logo do the same? Apart from being appropriate based on context, grooming is what satisfies the inevitable human tendency of judging a book by its cover. We are not indifferent to aesthetics: our emotions give us feedback on whether we like something or not and often the sheer emotional preference is enough to make us buy a product from a particular brand.
A logo must wear the best clothing in order to be perceived as reliable, and worthy of your attention, which is maybe one of the most precious conversions in a society that has everything except time. With an attention span in constant decrease, your logo has between 2 and 5 seconds to make an impression and in such little time, you will not have any other available resource (human or not!) able to make it.
Love at first logo
Now, to fall in love is one thing, but to make it last forever is definitely something else. The greatest joy for a brand is a client’s long-term loyalty, and consistency goes hand in hand with the experience we have with a brand. For a consumer, when a continuous interaction goes well, a brand earns positive connotations which go way beyond the single purchase/product. In such cases, logos work as led lights in the dark able to be recognised by the customer thanks to their familiar traits. It’s not surprising Financial Online stated that 75% of people recognise a brand by its logo: symbols can make an impact on our memory, much more than words.
World's most recognisable logos
A spark in the dark
In a lightbulb shop, however, to be the brightest led light of all it’s not really that easy. Unfortunately, there is no fast lane for logos, but there are emotional fast lanes your logo can rush on in order to stand out. Being unique is a crucial message your logo has to communicate and you have to understand what it is that makes you different in an oversaturated market: is it your colours? is it a pictogram? or maybe a particular font? Whatever your precious detail is, make sure you use it at its best to tell everyone that among 50.000 led lights, yours is the best.
Investing in your logo means investing in your future. Appearance is important in our society because it is in our psychology in the first place and to go against our nature can hurt your business irreversibly. Hire a good logo, train it and give it time to grow: you will find yourselves with the perfect employee you will never want to get rid of.
