What is the first thing you notice about brands? Their product? Their typography? Their jingle? No. The first thing that anybody usually notices about a brand is its name & logo. A logo is like the face of a brand, something that gives a distinction to its physical identity.
Since a logo is usually the first interaction a customer has with a brand, it obviously has to be in a way that’s memorable, eye-catchy, and appealing. Basically, a brand’s logo has to be as great as its product, and in some cases, even better than the product itself. It has to be great. So naturally, a lot of thought goes behind designing one simple logo in order to make it that way.
But what makes a logo great? To understand that, let us first try to understand what exactly a logo is and why it is so important for your brand.
What is the basic function of a logo?
A logo is the first interaction a customer usually has with a brand. It is a tool for conditioning your customers and acts as a bridge for communication between your brand and your target audience and customer. The basic function of a logo is to represent the company it stands for and establish its identity in just one simple graphic. It is a visual element that communicates ownership of a product/service in the form of graphics.
A logo is like a representation of your brand which will tell your customers about what to expect from your products, services, or even your company’s culture. In fact, a great logo design can also inform people about your business values and the personality of your brand as well.
Why does a brand need a logo?
A brand needs to have a logo for creating and maintaining a distinct identity in the market. Additionally, a logo is important for brands to-
- Differentiate their products and services from their competitors
- Creating a unique brand identity
- Instill trust among customers
- Ensure brand loyalty
- Communicate brand authority & ownership over the product
What makes a logo design great?
A great logo is the perfect means for attracting new customers to brands and creating a memorable impression. But what makes a great logo? Contrary to common belief, logos aren’t just restricted to visual elements. They also have to be designed in perfect alignment with the brand, its products as well as the brand’s ideologies. So while a logo should be visually attractive, it should also accomplish its branding goals and appeal to its target audience.
A great logo should-
- Help you stand out from the competition
A great brand logo should be unique & distinctive and should not look like any other logo. For this, it is important to review your competition, analyze what their logos look like, and then strategize to avoid similarities or duplication. This will help your brand establish a unique identity for itself and help your customers to differentiate your brand from your competitors.
- Not too complicated
A great logo will be easy on the eyes, simple, and not too complicated to understand. The simpler your logo is, the easier it will be to remember it. This way, a simple logo would help your customers register your brand in their brains and remember it.
- Relevant
It is important to ensure that your brand logo design connects well with your audience. Hence, your logo should be relevant for your audience and be designed according to them. Research on your audience to understand who exactly the logo would be speaking to by determining factors like their age, education, values, and hobbies. Guide this research towards figuring out which design elements will best appeal to them, in a way that your target consumers can connect with it.
- Should Look ‘Structurally Sound’
Humans are attracted to language and symbols that represent organization, alignment, and symmetry. Hence, a logo should be designed in a way that it looks organized, planned, conceptualized, and simple while also staying unique at the same time.
- Adaptability
Adaptability, in this case, refers to how well your logo design fits any environment or means of marketing, be it physical or digital. Such logos are known as responsive logos. Responsive logos vary in size and complexity, and sometimes even exist in different colors to suit different uses. Today, a great logo design should be suitable for both mobile and web, for digital and print, as well as for every scale and shape.
Additionally, a logo should naturally be visually appealing, represent the brand well, be timeless and help the consumers remember the brand and associate with it.
Conclusion- You need a good logo!
Every brand wants to be remembered and every brand wants to be distinct and beat the competition. For this, a brand’s logo plays a very crucial part in creating an identity for itself. While understanding what makes a great logo is easy, a whole lot of ideation, research, and conceptualization goes behind designing one perfect logo.
Brands alone can hardly get this job done by themselves; which is why your brand needs the help of a professional designer who understands design well. A professional designer would be able to perfectly identify what your brand should look like and how its ideas should be visually represented.
At Way Forward, we have curated a team of renowned graphic designers who have exceptional knowledge of how art can be connected with emotions. Through their unique insight, they understand your brand and try to fit this representation into one perfect graphical element that will be the next best identification of your brand.
Your logo is essentially your brand. Make sure you get it designed from the right hands!