Logos: What you need to know

We are often approached for help with designing company logos. People have new ideas all the time and a logo seems like the best place to start in terms of marketing. Sadly, the little element sure causes a lot of commotion and heartburn for both businesses and creative agencies. Too often, no one is happy. The Mine Academy has embarked on a mission to cure the world of what we call "Logobliviexasperalysis," a highly debilitating epidemic that we want to shed a little light on in a four part article over the next couple of weeks. We hope you'll join in. To whet your appetite, let's just launch right in to the first part:

Let's start at the beginning. What is a logo anyway? We won't go into all the technical gibberish about the distinction between "logotypes" and "marks" and "icons" etc. We'll just say "logo" and assume we all know more or less what we're referring to. Logos are often confused with being a company's brand in and of itself. This idea comes straight from heifer history. For centuries cattle have been "branded" as a way for owners to say, "that symbol means that cow belongs to me." (http://www.barbwiremuseum.com/cattlebrandhistory.htm) If you flip open the first page of Marty Neumeier's quintessential book The Brand Gap, he quickly dispels the idea that the logo itself is your brand. Rather, a brand (as it is currently defined in the industry) is how someone feels about or perceives a product or service.

A logo ultimately comes to represent or symbolize the business and it can potentially assume those emotional ties. The mark of the cow doesn't literally say "I belong to Farmer John, and you know how mean and ornery he can be so you better back off," but over time, and with the right system of communication in place, it can certainly come to make that point very clearly.

So do you need a logo? Most people would say yes. Does it need to be good? Of course, but what is good? Who knows what's good? How good is good enough? If I fork out the extra cash to pay for good, what is it going to do for my business?

We do believe that a logo has inherent value. It can be a valuable tool that will help shape favorable first impressions. In the sales arena, that can be the difference between life and death. It can be an important tool to help designate something in a clear and simple way. The key is to understand what you need to accomplish with potential and current consumers and the role the logo plays in the whole scheme of things. Join us next time as we continue this babble in "Geeze, don't expect so much from the little guy."

Business owners want their logos to be big and loud and to tell the entire story of their company while simultaneously being wildly entertaining, brainwashingly memorable, and then have it step out of a business card to hold a customer upside down in order to shake all the loose change out of his pockets. At the end of the day, success is defined by expectations.

Often we have clients who look at a logo and say "But this doesn't tell people what we do." That concern stems from not understanding the point of a logo (see Part 1). The logo shouldn't literally tell people what you do, but it should represent who you are. More to the point, it should help people identify choices that represent who they are. "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC. My Calvin pees on a Chevy logo. My Calvin pees on a Ford logo. All my athletic clothes have to have 'swooshes'." The point is that a logo helps people identify a brand, but ultimately the brand is desirable because of the value of the product or experience behind the logo.

It takes time and hard work for a company logo to reach its full potential. Iconic designer Paul Rand (who designed famous three letter acronyms such as IBM, UPS, and ABC, among many other famous corporate identities) had this to say about logos, "It is foolhardy to believe that a logo will do its job right off, before an audience has been properly conditioned. Only after it becomes familiar does a logo function as intended; and only when the product or service has been judged effective or ineffective, suitable or unsuitable, does it become truly representative." He also described the purposes of a logo in the following ways:

1. A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon (i.e. a coat of arms).

2. A logo doesn't sell (directly), it identifies.

3. A logo is rarely a description of a business.

4. A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.

5. A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.

For more on Rand's insightful logo philosophies read here: http://www.paul-rand.com/thoughts_logosflags.shtml.

Take a look at the logos we posted here that represent the top 10 most valuable global brands. What is the role of the logo in the overall brand experience?

When all is said and done, a logo should never be left to itself to do the heavy lifting in terms of marketing your business. It should be a tool among many; part of a system that can help you tell the right story to the right people in the right way. Let's be honest, we are emotional beings. The way something presents itself will play an important role in how it is received and adopted over time. We would have never successfully navigated adolescence without having the iconic tag on our fly, right? That tag just exuded awesomeness.

You, as a business, want to be understood, but what you really want is to be desired. Just like the clothes you wear or the car you drive, your logo, in conjunction with experiences and other stylized elements, can play an important role in inspiring confidence and even desire from others. "Wow, these guys look like a big deal," or "That just feels like me," or "They are clearly innovative people." We encourage our clients to try and see the bigger picture when it comes to selecting a logo, which is an excellent segue into the next part of this series, aptly titled, "It's not about you."

Certainly you've met a "frustrated artist." Why are they frustrated? Chances are, their soul musings reincarnated to physical mediums aren't keeping the lights on. Financially successful artists, be they painters, designers, musicians, actors, or whatever, must create things that other people care about and hence will pay for. The difference between a frustrated artist and a frustrated entrepreneur is about two bags of Ramen Noodles. The point is, if you just create things that are ultimately only admired by yourself, you're going to have a very small impact on the economy.

It can be natural to focus on one's own sensibilities through the logo development process. "I don't like orange. I don't like that style of lettering. We think it needs to be a detailed diagram of our production process but spun in a way that makes it seem like a super neat adventure ride." Business owners can have a very specific idea in their head about what their logo should be, and it can be frustrating when a designer presents something different. Though they never say it out-loud, the thought is, "We were expecting something else," which typically means, "We've seen plenty of logos for law firms and that isn't what they look like. I could easily draw one for you if I only knew how to draw, which is why we hired you."

None of this means you shouldn't have an opinion or that the work shouldn't be something you can be proud of. Nor are we suggesting that a logo shouldn't be appropriate to your business or category. Just remember, a strong brand experience is all about how your consumer thinks and feels about your business. Does it represent who they think they are or aspire to be?

We suggest that a business owner keep a few things in mind when developing a company logo:

1. At the end of the day, success is based on what a consumer ultimately chooses to do (i.e. decide to buy what you're selling). Understand them. Talk to them. Be a champion for them. As soon as you start to worry more about you than them you lose. Your only objective should be to fulfill someone's need as effectively as possible. It's basically applying a customer service focus to your logo and other communications representing your company.

2. Some things make great DIY projects. Other things like complex electrical issues, surgery, or logo design don't. Hire a professional and work closely with them, but give them the respect and space they need to do their work.

3. When hiring a professional make a good, thoughtful decision. Pick a creative person or group the same way you'd pick an accountant or heart surgeon. There are friends and family members that you may be able to coerce into helping you, and there are no shortage of mediocre agencies that will promise you they can do anything, but cutting corners is a decision that comes with it's own consequences. Beware.

4. Understand what the work needs to accomplish for the business at the end of the day. Part of that understanding is maintaining a realistic expectation of what a certain tool, like a logo, can actually do for you. Hammers are powerful tools, but they make terrible ladders.

That final point is an excellent launch pad for our next and final part of the series: What did you expect? Garbage in, garbage out.

Like a hat on a hook, expectations are the pegs that relationships hang on. We estimate that 99.72% of all angry feelings in life are a direct result of upset expectations. Your significant other might not care that you went out with friends, if you had not already committed to a romantic evening together. If we would have told you to tune in to this post by referring to it as "the greatest blog posting ever posted," you might be disappointed (assuming you'd actually take that kind of bait). In terms of logo design, one of the fundamental problems is failing to manage and deliver on the client's expectations.

Corporate America has been playing a rollicking game of Musical Agencies for... ever maybe. Creative agencies are hired and then fired all the time because the client didn't get the results they expected. Supposedly it's the agency's fault for sucking. From there they hire another agency and fire the agency, and then they hire and fire another one. Something about that pattern seems inefficient to us. That isn't to say that some agencies don't deserve to get fired, but in all our years of dealing with agencies and clients, most don't get a fair shake. One reason for that is clients tend to over-manage their agencies, but then they want to hold the agency fully accountable for the results. You can't force a plumber to use paper pipes and then get mad at him when the flooding begins. Maybe an agency shouldn't do something that they know isn't effective, but sadly, many will say yes to just about anything the client requests.

Another common problem is trying to hit a target that doesn't exist; agencies are often flying blind without getting a strategy or a clear objective from the client. Strategies and objectives are critical elements for qualifying creative work. There's a lot of talk in the industry about "strategy" but clients tend to want to move too fast to really build one, and many agencies don't really know what one is or how to get to a good one in the first place. At the end of the day clients are charged good money for good work and therefore expect something "good." But when the client and the agency are not on the same page it's hard to know exactly what "good" means, which is a breeding ground for unmet expectations. If you don't know where you're going or what the best vehicle is to get you there you'll never know if you've arrived.

You may be familiar with the phrase, "polishing a turd?" It happens in creative marketing all the time. The output is always reflective of the input. Good input starts with a respectful partnership that shares the same goals. It involves things like research, insights, planning, strategy, conceptualization, etc. Most companies (especially small companies) haven't figured out how to recognize, value, and deliver good quality input.

Unfortunately, they don't know much about good output either. Good output is measured by how many of the right people responded to your efforts in the they way you intended. So in summary, good input: expect good output. Bad input: expect bad output. If you're able to deliver good input and, within a reasonable time, the output is bad, it's time to start reexamining the agency partner.

Here are some expectation setting tips for positive logo solutions (or good output):

1. Understand what your business really is and who really cares about it

2. Get educated on the purpose of logos and the process of creating them (this little series of posts is a good place to start)

3. Pick the right professional(s) to partner with

4. Collaborate with them in appropriate ways throughout the process

5. Know when to trust the pro, i.e. back off

6. Learn to recognize a successful logo when you see one

7. Don't be afraid of good. Typically it's not what you were expecting. It often feels risky or uncomfortable

At the end of the day, our mission at the Mine Academy is to rid the world of the egregious plague we've termed Logobliviexasperalysis. Though we are but one voice we know that there are many in the trenches who are fighting this war every day. Our message is one of hope. Logobliviexasperalysis continues taking it's toll, but we must have the courage to overcome. It doesn't have to be this way. Clients, agencies and logos can exist together harmoniously. Join the cause today. Call us at 888.919.MINE to learn how.