Design your future. Start with a logo.

When creating a brand identity, the first thing you need is a logo - this is the face of your brand and a vital part of your identity. People often mistake this as the easy part, but imagine the millions of logos out there and ask yourself how many you would recognise? A small percentage no doubt. Don’t worry, this is more a sign of how difficult it is to get right than of memory loss! 

A great logo is meaningful, flexible, and individual. With the right exposure a logo will become instantly recognisable. It will become synonymous with what you do, who you are and what you stand for. In practical terms, your logo will need to be suitable to use in different ways. Whether it’s printed on stationery, online or enlarged, raised up the side of a building, you need to be able to read it at any scale or format, and know it.

It’s no good having a logo that looks great at a large scale if it doesn’t print well on a business card and vice versa. But more importantly, your logo needs to be unique. It’s not about fitting in, the goal is to stand out. You need to be recognised from your competitors. If your logo looks too similar to another, how is your customer supposed to know which one you are? So, avoid confusion, be brave, be bold, dare to be different and stick with it.

None of the examples above include the company name but I’m guessing you will know each of them. An iconic logo will, in most cases, evolve over time. Take the Shell logo for example, now a simple graphic with clarity and definition, it was originally a literal drawing of a shell.

One factor which plays a big part in a logo’s ability to become a recognisable brand is time. Initial reaction may not always be good but logos built on a solid idea, with meaning relating to the product, services or values of the organisation will have greater longevity than those built on the principle of following whatever trends were happening at the time. A brand should define itself outside of the temporary, and look towards a future of its own making. Many people didn’t like the London 2012 Olympic logo but as the events progressed it came to represent everything that was good about the whole experience. It was fresh, vibrant, eccentric and unique. Perfect!