The design process, at its best, integrates the aspirations of art, science, and culture.” — Jeff Smith
corporate logo
Corporate logos can have extraordinary power.
They can attract customers, reassure them, aid their satisfaction in using the product or service, and keep them coming back for more (even if the company sometimes disappoints).
Great evidence of all this is shown in the willingness for people to wear, or use, or drive products where the corporate logo or brand name are actually quite prominent, part of the product’s very design.
One reason for this is that on the one hand a logo says a lot about the company to whom it belongs. On the other hand, this can have a reciprocal effect where the logo says a lot about the person who buys it.
To take the simple example of clothing. Proud wearers of the Nike swoosh emblem or Addidas’s three stripes may feel they belong to a particular mindset, even tribe.
In shirts, the small stitched emblem of Ralph Lauren’s Polo Player says something about the wearer. This is somewhat different to what is communicated when the symbol is the Playboy bunny. And different again if it’s French Connection UK’s abbreviated initials ‘fcuk’.
Such power and attendant pride and loyalty are not gained easily. They are created carefully, brick by brick, product-by-product, service experience-by-service-experience.
It requires those who design and guide the creation and dissemination of these symbols to employ great care and thoroughness. The designer needs to completely understand the total personality and workings of a business before they put pen or stylus to paper or electronic tablet.
The outcome not only needs to be accurate, but unique enough to differentiate the company from a crowd of competitors in that same category; indeed from each and every brand in every category everywhere that clamours for customer attention.
Once the right corporate logo is created, it then becomes a matter of remaining committed and consistent to that across the entire spectrum of applications.
(This is not to say that the symbol or logo or brandmark need be set in stone. Smart brands are also intelligent enough to adapt and be flexible. A good example is the Apple logo. Where originally it was made up of rainbow stripes, it has now evolved to a simple silhouette, every bit as cool and distinctive).
A great corporate logo is priceless. Yet it can dictate price. Not just for consumer products and services, but the very price of its company’s equity.
