Many people are looking to create a new logo, and many even hire professional marketing & branding help through graphic designers, and professional logo creation experts, however this is an issue that is so often misunderstood.
One myth that many people believe about logos, especially the mark, is that it is going to fully tell what your business it, in and of itself, like it is a painting or a picture of your business or organization, or that it is an advertisement in and of itself. Really, it is just a simple, memorable shape that represents your business, organization, product, or service.
A good logos primary job is to easily allow people to associate a picture, with your business uniquely. That’s it’s entire job, and why logos are so important.
Think about this; think of the ancient Egyptian writing, and think about modern Asian country’s languages. They are all really “logos,” if you will, of each word in their language. The human mind is exceptionally designed to be able to associate a picture with an idea. In English, we do not have these pictures, so this very powerful part of our brain is not fully used, or is it?
Check out these “word pictures” in America:
Can you can still identify them and their product/service.
You can read those symbols just as easily and quickly as any Chinese person could read any other proper noun. Do feel the emotion with each? Do you feel the luxury when you see there Mercedes Benz logo?
Now let’s make them the size of this text:
See why I consider it to be like a language?
When you are making and creating a new logo, you are making your own “mark” in the language of people’s minds.
They are word pictures for Target, McDonalds, Visa, Delta, and Mercedes Benz. It is not the words next to them, the color, or the size you remember, you remember those shapes. It does not take a long time in America to quickly learn these iconic brands, and exactly what they sell, not because of their content, but with where they are used. On a picture of a car, overlaid over a video of French Fries, overlaid on an airplane, on your bank statement, or just a sign on a building.
Notice how none of them say anything at all about what it is that they do, or even have anything to do with what it is they do? Some have a story behind them, some have an authorial reference to things, but in general, they are primarily just pictures.
Use your icon in each of your sermon slides on Sunday, on any flyer you print out, on the footer of your email, should we eventually get a sign, there as well, posters, business cards, shirts, you get the idea; people will become branded with your organization, which people will remember, and trust.
That is branding.
Branding is the big idea.
The secondary elements communicated are how trendy you are by your fonts, when you can use color, what psychological message you want to communicate. What kind of audience you are targeting, where you are located, and what emotion you want people to feel when they see your logo all play a part in this factor.
After that, then you can talk about how it is associated with your product. The McDonalds mark slightly resembles a french fry, Visa slightly shows speed of purchase, Delta kind-of looks like a plane wing, Target kind-of gives the idea that you have hit the bulls-eye.
It is 100% ok to just dis-like a mark, I dislike a few already that meet each of the criteria above. You don’t really need a good reason, if you dig down, you will likely find some emotional trigger that it fired, and that will be why, but that is
Lastly, don’t bother to “announce” your logo. Announcing a logo to people that do not understand this concept is like asking for unwanted and unhelpful criticism, and very few people really understand branding from a marketing perspective and an art perspective.
All logos are trademarked, and are subject to copyright by their respective owners.
Many people are looking to create a new logo, and many even hire professional marketing & branding help through graphic designers, and professional logo creation experts, however this is an issue that is so often misunderstood.
One myth that many people believe about logos, especially the mark, is that it is going to fully tell what your business it, in and of itself, like it is a painting or a picture of your business or organization, or that it is an advertisement in and of itself. Really, it is just a simple, memorable shape that represents your business, organization, product, or service.
A good logos primary job is to easily allow people to associate a picture, with your business uniquely. That’s it’s entire job, and why logos are so important.
Think about this; think of the ancient Egyptian writing, and think about modern Asian country’s languages.