Over the past few years I have worked with countless companies, large and small to either redesign their existing brand or create an entirely new one.
Brand Message
Understanding what a great logo is made up of is one of many steps towards achieving better clarity in your brand message. Brand messaging communicates to your customers who you are, what you do and why they should go with you for your product or service. If you are a charity or community interest company, it would communicate who you are and why they should support you and your cause.
It’s not just your Logo
Brand messaging doesn’t only go as far as your logo. It’s your colours, fonts and choice of imagery and visual media. It is also your tone of voice, the language your company uses in campaigns and the overall look and feel of all experiences you offer out to them.
So in essence, what makes a logo important is it sets the scene for your brand messaging. That’s not to say that you couldn’t have a bad logo and great messaging, and vice versa, but it definitely helps if one compliments the other. Consistency is key, but it doesn’t have to be boring either.
But how do I know if it is fit for purpose?
Now we have delved a little deeper into brand message rather than brand identity (the all encompassing thing), you will now be thinking about the visual components of your brand identity. For your ease, I have compiled a list of questions I always keep in mind when designing a new identity:
What feeling does the logo emit?
Is it fun and quirky? Clean and corporate? Bold and trendy?
Does the ‘feeling’ match your target market?
Look at your regular customers, does your identity appeal to them? If you look at your competitors, do they appear more modern, memorable or striking than you?
Is your logo versatile?
Does it work in black and white, on-screen and on paper? Do you have it in vector format? If you aren’t sure what this means contact me. Is it sharp when you print it out as well as on screen? A logo that is not pixel-perfect can look unprofessional and overlooked.
Is it memorable?
Do people remember your brand? Customers recognise the best logos simply by a mark. If you think of the brain as a clean piece of ceramic, brands have the ability to paint areas of that ceramic with their visual identity, and if it’s strong enough, it will stay there for life.
Is it modern enough?
Of course, brand identities can emit a traditional look if that’s what would best suit the market; but on the other hand, logos do eventually start to look tired and old. Manufacturers of food brands very regularly update their identity to keep up with design trends and keep interest in their products. If you look at the industry leader in the same market as you- how does it compare? Look at similar and completely unrelated markets also, do they look more modern than your brand does?
So raise eyebrows, do it right, get your logo designed professionally.
Contact me today and get your brand identity designed professionally by an award-winning designer.
