The designers are always dealing with symbols, typography, and its application in visual communication. It's sometimes a very long process and quite tiring. Often we tend to overlook things small and simple, but to design a logo requires a detailed strategy and comprehensive planning. One of the most often overlooked is determining the appropriate logo.
Basically, the logo can be generally grouped into three categories: Iconic / symbolic (the type that has an icon or symbol), logotype / wordmark (logo consisting of the letters without symbols), and combination mark (ie a combination of symbols and letters).
So how do I choose an appropriate logo?
Here are some tips that may be useful to determine the right logo:
1. Company Name
To select the right logo, you should first adjust it with the name of the company. If the it's quite unique and different from the others, I would suggest to use lettermark. Doing this will make the company name stand out. Conversely, if a company name sounds to, general or in the form of an abbreviation, it takes the form of an icon element to indicate the identity and vision of the company.
"Cocacola" is a unique name, it is a right decision when the company logo only consists of letters. In other cases: "Apple" is a name that is quite common and easily found everywhere. Icon used in the Apple logo to help make it unique and easy to recognize.
2. Products & Subsidiaries
Another factor to consider in choosing a breed for the logo are the types of products and ownership of subsidiaries. Know your company's products even further: Is the company only selling a product? Is there some possibility of companies to sell other products in the future? And also, how the relevance of the product to the consumer? These questions are needed to balance an identity with the entity represented. Also, consider the ownership of subsidiaries: Does the company is a single company, the parent company, or its subsidiaries. The possibilities that the company will open a branch at any time also need to be taken into consideration in designing the logo.
Starbucks recently drop the word "Starbucks Coffee" from the logo leaving only Siren the mermaid's icon. The reason is because Starbucks is now also provide several types of products other than coffee. The use of the word Coffee in the previous logo was not necessarily relevant to the services offered by Starbucks, so redesigning ultimately be the best solution. Neither NBCUniversal, the company is removing peacock icon that is well known in the world. The reason is, NBCUniversal has dozens of subsidiaries, and the use of peacock icon makes it look more apt to one of its subsidiaries.
3. Media Communications
Identify communications media that will be used by the company. Each company had a room with the order of media publication itself. For example, airlines have planes, while the beverage company has the packaging as a medium of visual communication. By looking at the functions of each medium, it will greatly help to make us choose the right kind of logo in accordance with company briefs.
Toyota has a very iconic symbol affixed to the front of the car. Looks simple and elegant, imagine if the words "Toyota" taht were there? :O
What do you think? Come share in the comments. :)
