Your Brand Logo: Not Just A Pretty Face

“Logos are the graphic extension of the internal realities of a company.”

- Saul Bass, graphic designer and Oscar-winning filmmaker

In modern brand building and marketing, your logo is what pins every aspect of your company’s presentation together. It is the single most important piece of design you will create, and it will be replicated on packaging, letterheads, business cards, signage, uniforms, letterheads, advertising, social media, sponsorships, and across dozens of other touchpoints to your brand. That it needs to look good is a given, but a successful logo should be so much more.

“The logo is an identifier but it’s also something that stands-in for who you are.”

- Steven Heller, design writer

When a client first approaches Creative ID about a logo, opening up our professional suite of design software or sketch pads is the last thing we do. A talented graphic designer can create a logo that looks good using standard fonts and simple images incredibly quickly, but it may not represent the brand the way a strong logo needs to, and without deeper understanding of the brand, it is even less likely to stand the test of time.

Contrast this with a brand designer’s approach:

At Creative ID, we won’t pick up our tools until we fully understand the brand our logo design represents. We converse with our clients, we explore their business, and we ask questions that really delve into the brand personality and culture. Through experience, we have developed a short but thorough questionnaire that we ask every client to complete so we can extract the best possible brief for the task. The questions range from simple colour preferences and favoured existing logos to those about target audiences and competitors, what the business is, and where it intends to be in five years, ten years, or beyond. We dig deeper into buzz words such as ‘innovative’ to understand not just what they mean according to the dictionary, but what they mean personally to the client.

One of the most common responses we have from our clients at this stage is,
‘We’ve never been asked that before.’
For me, that is how we know we are doing things the right way.

When we create a logo, it is a bespoke design that helps tell the story of a brand. We can’t do that if we do not first understand that story.

“Designers actually can change the world for the better by making the complicated simple and finding beauty in truth.”

- Michael Bierut, graphic designer

With this information, a logo can be designed that is a true reflection of the brand. Telling your brand story in a way that your customers understand and respond to. Some of my clients approach me for a revamped logo as their audience has changed in someway, and the brand evolves with its audience.

The next thing we need to think about is where the logo will appear, how it will be displayed, and how it will be printed. A striking metallic gold logo might look luxurious on the designer’s page, but how appealing will it be when a website reduces that to a flattened yellow, or the cost of specialised printing to maintain the reflective style across various media becomes restrictive? Also, how will the real-world application of the logo affect how it is viewed?

When designing for our Michelin-star client Chef Atul Kochhar, we thought about how the logo needed to work as effectively on aprons, takeaway boxes, and napkins, as it does on menus, signs, advertisements, and business cards. The brand values of luxury and quality are communicated through the design, colour palette and quality of every material.

“Logos survive because they can adapt to countless formats.”

- Sagi Haviv, graphic designer

Our luxury driving events client, RS Xperience, needed something that would work on cars, uniforms, and a full range of merchandise alongside all the standard branding touchpoints. In order to make this work, printing costs, possibilities, and potential pitfalls on all different types of materials need to be considered at the design stage, as does how the logo will be impacted by context. A logo might look great along the side of a van when the doors are closed, but how does it change when the door slides open?

I will talk about this in more detail in a future blog, but the final thing which needs to be considered with a logo-and any piece of design work, tone of voice, or brand touchpoint-is how it is seen in context by its audience. Will the target audience bring the same cultural references to their reading of the logo as the brand and designer expected when they created it? Does the colour or image mean the same in the culture of each viewer, or is the logo vulnerable to misreading, offence, or to excluding any potential customers? This is not just about avoiding an embarrassing faux pas; it’s about ensuring the logo remains effective across every possible area of the brand’s target market. Our background, experience, and passion for this subject have helped us become particularly adept at understanding this but, however your logo is created, it is an important consideration to make.

“Vaishali went the extra mile to fully understand what the logo should convey about the restaurant and also took into account the look and feel of the interiors so she could design a logo that was in harmony with the overall concept. Vaishali and her team encapsulated the essence of Vaasu first time without any changes needed. It’s been a pleasure working with Vaishali and I am delighted with the logo; I would highly recommend her.”

- Atul Kochhar, Michelin-star chef, restaurateur, and Creative ID client

The design journey is a meaningful process for our clients. It isn’t a rush job, but an investment so that our clients receive a beautiful logo that truly encapsulates their brand and provides a strong first step in their journey to establishing the right identity.

We take the time to get it right.

And it is the first step. Creating a brand identity does not stop at a logo. Having worked closely with a client to fully understand their brand, their business, and their story, we are in an ideal position to continue assisting with the development of that brand throughout its lifetime.

“Your smile is your logo, your personality is your business card, how you leave others feeling after having an experience with you becomes your trademark.”

- Jay Danzie, brand strategist, writer, and speaker

This starts with our standard provision of a brand manual which outlines guides for printing, using the correct materials and techniques, placement, and positioning. We can also offer to take full control of printing through our trusted partners who understand the importance of every decision we make to present the brand and its logo. Beyond printing, we can consult on all the other touchpoints of branding from taglines to uniforms, to decor, to the email signatures and wording used over the phone. Once we have established a true understanding of a brand, the next stage is to bring our expertise and experience in helping with applying it, consistently and effectively, at every stage.

“I recently had the logo for my business designed by Creative ID and am so pleased with it! The process prior to designing gave me confidence that their designers really had a good idea of what my business was about and what I wanted for my logo, which was very important to me. This trust was reinforced by the communication with Vaishali, who kept me up to date with the progress and I never had to chase anyone up. I was also really impressed that there were differently priced options as this meant the logo was actually affordable to me. Thank you everyone at Creative ID!”

- Rosie, Join the Circle, Creative ID Client

I hope this blog has been useful. If you would like to discuss any of the points raised in more detail or any other matters related to branding for your business, or if you want to find out how we can help you create a beautiful and effective logo that will stand the test of time, please contact us at info@creative-id.com

Until next time,

Vaishali