What Makes A Good Logo?

A logo is to a business what clothes are to an individual. You have to wear it ! That's how you are being seen in the marketplace. People say "First impressions last" - so make sure your first impression is a good one. In the not so distant past logos used to be specially crafted typefaces sometimes incorporating a graphic element. They were strictly black and white and sometimes played on optical illusions where some white space became itself an element of the design because of its surrounding borders. Today with the advent of colour, logos have become like a corporate coat of arms rather than a corporate stamped signature. This is a trend and I suppose you have to go along with the fashion of the day but ask yourself : Do you really have to use all the colours of the rainbow just because you are paying for full colour printing ?

Can your logo be used for embroidery on garments ? How does it come out in black and white when transmitted through a fax machine ? Does your logo provide the same instant recognition blown up large as signwriting on a panel van or shrunk down like a postage stamp for a cassette label ? You can do some logo animation for the web and for audio visuals on DVDs. With such a wide range of applications the challenge is to maintain the same corporate look across the board. The worst thing you can do is to use one logo one place and another somewhere else. It destroys your identity. It makes people feel you are unreliable with no well defined corporate goals. Yes some large banks and telcos have changed their logos recently but they did it all at once and at great expense. Some business owners make the mistake of having a vote with their staff to pick from a selection of logo designs. You will end up with as many points of view as there are voters. What matters is how people perceive you out there in the marketplace and how you stand out from your competitors.

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