Quite simply, a logo is the face of your brand. It’s a visual representation of who you really are and what you do. And over time, it becomes more than just a visual. It becomes a connection and medium through which customers actually relate to you and recognise as a brand.
Through this medium, your customers start to tell you apart from your competitors or those others who are in similar businesses. It is through your logo that your customers start identifying you with a perception they have in their mind. Subconsciously, they ask: do I want to be associated with this brand? Does it really communicate what I am looking for? Does it stir an emotion in me does it tell me a story that I am interested in?
A good logo is essentially a combination of a good story narrated in the simplest way through a visual language. A logo is an image that communicates the story of your brand visually anywhere, anytime, without your presence. It embodies the term brand image, signifying connection, and identity. A logo is a visual medium that connect your customers with the company, product, services, and experience.
Let’s look at some examples.
Google: Google’s logo is young, colourful, vibrant, simple, and promises easy user experiences. From their logo and their interface to their communication, these values are consistent. This attracts all the young, talented minds who believe that ‘Less is more’. Today, Google is not a webpage or a search engine. It has replaced the word SEARCH. Even the modern day version of Sherlock Holmes googles things to solve cases when he’s pressed for time.
Nike: While the brand itself is named after the Greek goddess of victory, the Swoosh of today is inspired by the wing of the goddess. This iconic brand actually has its roots in myths and legends. And today, it honours legends. Does that change your perception of your favorite brand?
Puma: Puma’s aesthetics are bold, fast, in-motion, vibrant, inspiring and strong. It’s the perfect logo for athletes and inspires a lot of brand loyalty. When you ask someone what they are wearing, they don’t just say a jacket, they specify – Puma jacket.
What do we learn from these logos?
That a product/service is only as good as its owner.
You are the brand you create. Most startups fail to understand that your product or service is only as good as you are. You may be good at explaining the essence of your product, your big idea and the culture you want to build – but are you limiting the narrative of your brand story when you are not able to speak to every customer face-to-face? This is where good design, and a savvy design firm can help to fill that gap.
If logos and branding didn’t exist, there would be no way to easily indicate who you were buying from.
We would be stuck reading every single label and description for every product. Products and services would then be stripped down to their pure utility—we could only determine the value of something based on its actual function. Although a Marxist dream, imagine if every product, restaurant, and company had the exact same label, set in the same type, with the same colours. Would that not be a boring world to live in? Thus, novelty is extremely important in business, culture, and branding. A logo is the smallest amount of stimulus that communicates the ownership of a particular good or service.
People don’t buy your product, they buy connections.
As asked in the movie, The Matrix, do you think it’s the air you are breathing? (Yes, we’re fans). Similarly, do you think it’s your product that people buy? No. They buy what they are attached to – an emotion. Which is why when a brand makes a change in their logo, social media goes berserk, their market shares may fall, and all hell breaks loose. You may have a great product, good service, strong supply and distribution chains and nothing else may change – but people are offended when your company logo changes. They are subconsciously connected with the perception that you created for them and related to the brand. Your customers relate to your logo and identity far more emotionally than they do to you.
Logo design is a science and it’s not a skill. It’s visual psychology.
Do you use Photoshop or Illustrator? Will you give me logos in cmyk, rgb or black and white? Will the logo be in two colours only or three? Logo design is not about your software, your skill or the aesthetic appeal. It’s the sum of you, the designer, and both the design firm and brand put together. The design of logos and identities is a science. A good logo is about you, who you are, where you see your brand, the culture of your company, and the emotion of your customers; the people who want to connect with you. Here, science and maths come into play in the use of line, shape, colour, texture, form, user needs, user persona, business objectives, company culture, values, the right design grid system, and more. A good logo is like a great dish with the right mix of ingredients in the right proportion.
How can we help?
Headless Hippies helps startups narrow the field with the right personas that allows them to focus their marketing and branding budgets and goals, from the beginning. Many companies ask – who is the best logo designing company in Bangalore? But that is the wrong question. You should be asking – who can the best logo design in Bangalore for me? You need an agency that will tailor your logo design to your success and performance, instead of an aesthetic that flatters their own needs.
Involving a good design company right from ideation of your product or service actually helps you lay a clear path. Design firms ask the right questions and challenge your own perceptions of product or consumer. We often get briefed by clients on what the product is, its features and how it works. We challenge their perception by asking questions like who this product is for? Why would anyone buy it? What is the importance of this product in the consumer’s life? How old are these customers? How will the product appeal to them? What is their age and gender? What do they do daily? What are the values of your company? What are the attributes?
Are you ready to have your brand get noticed? Look through some logos and brand identities created by Headless Hippies.
