The design process, at its best, integrates the aspirations of art, science, and culture.” — Jeff Smith
Business Logo
The value of a business logo is often underestimated. Yet it is, in whatever form it takes, the centrepiece of the communications of any organisation.
This applies regardless of the size of a business, whether it be the local plumber or earthmoving contractor, or a giant bank or international airline. So whether its business logo will merely be used on a yellow pages ad, or on everything from business cards to uniforms, trucks, advertising aircraft and buildings, this symbol stands for everything the business does while it distinguishes it from competitors, or every other entity crowding the consumers’ minds.
The business logo is also probably the most important —and for that reason most difficult — components of graphic design to get right.
In that sense, designing a business logo is no haphazard pursuit, and should be conducted as thoroughly as any business plan or marketing strategy. The designer needs to carry out a thorough analysis of all that the organization stands for and does. What he or she is aiming to do is create an object that is nothing less than a concentrated essence of the whole.
This doesn’t necessarily mean a business logo will always need to be in the form of a pictorial device.
Although symbols are often what come to mind when we hear the word ‘logo’, it can equally be a set of words: the company name set in a distinctive typestyle. (Interestingly, the word logo is derived from the Greek logos meaning word; reason).
Typograpical logos are every bit as valid — and valuable. SONY is one example, as are IBM and Coke. Sometimes all-type logos can be reduced to just initials (often interlocking, like Rolls Royce’s RR, or Fendi’s FF).
For this reason, choice of appropriate type style is no less demanding than the pursuit of any pictorial mark. (The perfume brand CHANEL, and car brand HUMMER — to take an extreme example — although both employ capital letters in their logos, use two very different styles).
Business logos can add value to company recognition and brand loyalty in on-going operation. They can also add enormous value to a company when it sells itself.
The right logo, with enough time and careful investment, has every bit as much capital value as the tangibles.
