How to take out the guesswork from the logo design process.
Every business, brand, charity or startup has a goal.
Or many goals. There are targets to reach, audiences to engage and change to bring about.
Although I think the product or service you offer is the most important element in the equation, your brand identity (those visual components your audience recognise from you, including your logo) will either help or hinder your movement towards those goals.
Why is that?
Your ability to engage your audience comes down to brand - everything from the way you look, the way you sound, the way you feel. If this is true, your brand is slightly out of your control because it’s ultimately down to the perception or gut instinct your audience has about you.
So you might have the best product in the world. But your people don’t trust you. Or they can’t see you.
Now we need to be asking the question: Does your logo help you to reach the correct people? And does it give them the right impression about you?
As we start to think about the bigger picture of your brand, and you ripple this out to your other touch points, it’s easy to see how your logo (often the focal point, the crux of your brand identity) can have a lot riding on it, so you want to get it right.
And there are plenty of good logos out there. But we’re not talking about good logos.
We’re talking about the right logo.
Just because a logo is good, does not mean it’s the right one for you.
If you’re about to dump some money into a logo process, you want to make sure that you get it right.
Because without a strategy in place, the logo design process is like throwing a dart at the bullseye.
Blindfolded.
With your weaker hand.
Upside down.
20 meters away.
This is what strategy does for the logo process:
A brand strategy increases the size of the bullseye. It removes the guess work, it clarifies the requirements of the brand identity.
“without a strategy in place, the logo design process is like throwing a dart at the bullseye. Blindfolded.”
Now you have a set of criteria to hold the logo up against. Consider the impact from the following questions you might ask about the logo design process:
“Based on our strategy and what we want to achieve in the next 5 years, does this logo help us to do that?”
“Now that we can pinpoint our target audience and tone of voice, is this logo appropriate?”
And that is why brand strategy is an absolute game changer for brands wanting to have impact.
Because you can take the guesswork out of those ‘artsy’ and ‘creative’ elements which can seem so fluffy and intangible. This is science combining with art, and the results are brands which are confident, clear and full of purpose.
So if you’re thinking about branding, I’d challenge you to do whatever you can to get that bullseye as big as possible.
Sort out your strategy.
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