Logo Logic

I’ve sold ‘Logos’ for shitloads.

The CEOs buying often think they finally have their ‘Brand’.

They don’t.

All they have is a really expensive bit of artwork that they can hang above their bed.

A brand is a Promise.

A brand is not a Logo.

That’s not to say the Logo isn’t important. Of course it is. It has to be fit for purpose and its sole purpose is to symbolically represent the Brand Promise. To be the vehicle for that Promise and eventually become synonymous with it.

‘Symbolically’ is the keyword here. Not ‘literally’.

If you go for the literal and try to pack too much in, you’ll end up with a car crash.

No Logo can ever tell the whole story on its own. Especially at the beginning. It just can’t. It first has to be imbued with and completely soaked in the Promise.

Only when it ‘is’ that promise in the minds of customers is it valuable in and of itself to a business.

So the Logo only becomes of genuine commercial value as and when it comes to signify the Promise it exists to represent. And only when that happens, can the application of the Logo to a product attach the intangible value of the Promise, allowing the brand owner to sell that product for a premium.

Only then have you got a brand.

In the beginning, the Logo is just a consistent tag along the communication journey, a signpost to the ‘Promise Land’. Empty. A meaningless, vacuous icon to build value into.

The Promise is everything.

The Promise is the soul.

The business is the Promise keeper.

The Logo is the Promise bearer.

Branding then, is a process of conscious evolution.

Branding costs money.

Branding takes time.

Brands are like hungry children. They must be loved, fed, watered, clothed and put through school. Branding demands this constant attention and investment.

So, here’s a tip: The less brands the better, unless you’re minted.

Creatives love to create. Designers love to design. If you let them, they’ll cook up a Logo for everything, even your accounts department.

Don’t let them.

Don’t get stuck with a bunch of worthless starving Logos. Pseudo-brands desperate for attention, craving meaning, sprayed-on nonsense.

You laugh, but I’ve seen it. I consulted for a company where I discovered that every department had a different business card with a different logo. The argument from HR was that each department was unique.

Utter bollocks! Yes, my heart is unique from and different to my lungs or my kidneys. Each organ performs a very different unique function. They are all special with a particular purpose. But all are part of one body and none can exist without the whole.

Letting HR loose on ‘employee branding’ as if it’s something different, is letting Mickey Mouse loose in the Wizard’s lair.

Concentrate value in one Logo crystallising one clear promise over time. Consolidate one unique brand.

All of this lays up some useful guidelines for Logo creation:

• Every Logo should be able to be printed at any size and work well in monochrome. Obviously.
• A Great Logo should capture the organisation's intended Promise in a clear concept with a clean execution.
• A Fantastic Logo should be simple & bold, relevant & appropriate, symbolic & iconic, memorable & distinctive, timeless & scalable, versatile & practical.
• Full-on Fucking Fantastic Logos should be cool enough to be tattooed on your body.

And here is an easy mental check:

Full-on Fucking Fantastic Logos can be recreated by hand from memory.

Think Nike’s swoosh, McDonald's arches, Adidas three stripes. Logos you can see in your mind’s eye that are so simple and bold, even if you are rubbish at drawing, you can still sketch them.

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? BJ Cunningham C/O DEATH? Cigarettes