– Are these logo designs called Iconic because they belong to famous brands?
– What does it take for a logo to become iconic?
– What is important – an iconic logo or an iconic brand?
– How does a right logo impact the brand’s branding efforts?
– Why are these logos successful?
– How can a small business entrepreneur have an iconic logo for his business?
If you get the same questions, read through the article to learn from my findings & perspectives about Iconic logo design. I hope you will get answers for these questions at the end of this article.
First, let’s get to the basics and understand what is a logo design and what does it stand for?
What does a Logo Design mean to a Business?
A Logo is the introductory element to a brand or business.
It’s the brand’s identifier. It creates the first visual impression for the brand and it is important that the customer gets a sense of what the brand is all about by looking at the logo.
Logo should be remembered even hours or days or months after one sees it. One should be able to recollect & recall the brand by seeing the logo. Logo should remain effective for many years to come. Being trendy doesn’t go well with the logo of a company. Trends & being Iconic walk in opposite directions.
That brings us to the fact that the logo should have five basic aspects in order to become ICONIC.
- Simple
- Appropriate
- Memorable
- Versatile
- Timeless
These traits are often talked about by the famous logo designer Sagi Haviv who has done some of the iconic logo designs like US Open, National Geographic, etc.
Also read: 5 Timeless logo design concepts you should know
Let’s check these aspects briefly what they mean for a good logo design.
Simple:
A good logo design should be simple that doesn’t confuse the customers. It should be clear & straightforward. A logo should be devoid of any unnecessary or overloaded design elements.
Simplicity is the one that is always difficult to attain in design & branding world. It is very hard to design a logo very simple.
A business might have variety of offerings or products with a lot of features, attributes & benefits. Most business owners want to convey everything through their logo. But, that’s not the right way because it might lead to poor brand recall.
Since the logo is the very first element that meets their customers, it’s good to keep just one or two primary messaging in a logo design.
A simple logo with single most important idea or message works brilliantly. Think about any of your favourite brands’ logo. They just stand for one primary message.
One could conclude their logo by doing a simple exercise. Keep removing the elements one by one and if the logo is still able to stand for the brand in a unique manner, we can say that there is room for making the logo simpler. The simpler a logo is, the more people will remember and resonate with your brand.
Eg: Adidas, Apple, McDonalds
Appropriate:
Needless to say the importance of the logo being relevant to the industry or the brand. This important aspect helps in conveying the right message and making that right connection.
Appropriate logo doesn’t have to be explicitly relevant for your industry.
For eg., it’s not necessary to show a camera for a photographer’s logo or a coffee bean in a cafe shop’s logo. I don’t mean to say that one should not use product elements in their logo, but what I mean to say that it is not necessary at every instance.
This reminds me when someone had asked how ‘Apple’ logo is appropriate.
It doesn’t say anything about its products of offerings.
The truth is that your logo doesn’t have to say anything about your company or your product. It only needs to ‘identify’ your brand.
It is not necessary to have an absolute meaning for a logo to be Iconic. Appropriateness should be decided by the manner logo being able to represent the brand as a whole. It should represent the personality & the brand essence.
For eg., think about it, ‘A logo with bold letters’ for a Kids Club or a Toy Shop. Sounds serious, isn’t it? Whereas a fun & blobby font might suit this logo and its absolutely not needed to include a kid’s graphic or icon to convey that the brand is something for the kids.
Memorable:
When the logo is checked for SIMPLICTY & APPROPRIATENESS, it is easy get make it memorable.
The goal is to leave a lasting impression in consumers’ minds. A simple & appropriate logo stays in the minds for longer period and becomes a memorable brand.
A simple logo with less details and that is relevant to the industry is easily remembered. The idea is to create a memorable brand experience and it becomes extremely important to have a logo that can be remembered & resonated forever by their customers.
Also, consider the scenario where there are numerous businesses, brands and fresh logos blooming every other day all over the world. For the brand to sustain & become Iconic, logo should be memorable. Brand recall depends on the logo that is memorable & unique.
Eg: Starbucks
Versatile:
Versatile logos work well in all situations and areas of applications.
From a 16px favicon to a 60ft billboard, if the logo is identified and is able to communicate its message without losing any detail or getting distorted, then it can be called a good versatile logo.
Recently, brands have started using responsive logos very widely in order to suit the range of sizes the logos are expected to work & achieve a coherence in brand communications.
Versatility is one such important aspect that cannot be ignored while designing a logo for your company.
Eg: Apple
Timeless:
This one aspect could be difficult to achieve and one cannot say that a logo is timeless in few days, months or years after the logo has been put in use.
The logo needs to stay in the minds & hearts of the customers for decades and longer. There is no point in designing a logo with the current trends for a business that should stay long.
A good logo should work well at any point of time regardless of trends.
How to apply these principles to design logo design ‘Iconic’?
After having learnt the five basic aspects of a good logo design that are necessary to become iconic, very common or similar question that I come across is that how can the National Geographic logo be called appropriate for its brand. It’s just a piece of a rectangle. One cannot get anything out of it if one sees it on a blank board or a paper.
Let’s understand this by looking at it from this scenario:
When we see the National Geographic logo when all the brand strategic elements & communications are removed, the logo is just a piece of graphic.
The logo alone cannot represent a brand or cannot be a lone branding asset. But, the logo is one element that works in harmony with the strategic branding & marketing efforts of the company.
That brings us to the fact that the logo need not necessarily directly talk about the product or brand.
Having learnt & applied the five basic principles of a good logo design, one should give sometime for the logo to become iconic. The logo is never love at first sight.
It might take anywhere from a month to even a decade for a logo to establish the iconic status and be a permanent mark in the minds of the consumers. It purely depends on the brand’s strategy, product nature, market size and marketing budget & efforts.
Also read: Strategies & ideas for a perfect business logo design
Conclusion:
Iconic logo design can be called as silent logos. They are so subtle but deliver a brilliance message. A bad logo is something very generic and too complicated to remember & recall. A logo to be Iconic it should be simple, appropriate, memorable, versatile & timeless.
The five traits shouldn’t be taken for its literal meaning, but should be in sync with the totality of all the strategic brand elements. That’s where the fact that the logo should align with the brand, its vision, messaging and the personality holds true in order to connect with the customers at the human level.
