A logo design executes many functions to a brand or a business. We will talk about the top three functions that it does.

Identify:

A business without a logo is like a faceless human being! Unarguably, identification is the first and foremost function of a logo. It is the face for a company and it is what a customer sees the company through.

The quote from Karl Lagerfeld, which goes like this, ‘Logo and Branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French of English, but are great at remembering signs’ helps to understand this fact.

Among these marks, it’s very easy to identify the famous brand – Apple by its logo, right?

So, people remember & recognize Visual Signs.

There is no doubt that logos are seen and recognized by people and they tend to identify a business with a logo better than the business without a logo.

The logo is the one that IDENTIFIES, RECOGNIZES, RECALLS, REPRESENTS & DIFFERENTIATES your business.

A logo design, in its actual form, typeface, & colours, is the visual image for a company.

Coupled with a solid brand’s story, a logo is the identity to your brand that can communicate what your business does, stand for your product or service and stay in people’s minds for a longer period.

Connect:

After the customer has identified the brand with the logo, it is necessary for them to connect with the brand at a deeper level simply by seeing the logo.

It is well known that Logo is not = Brand. But, what we should know is Brand = Emotion.

A logo design should be capable of emoting the audience and make them experience the values the brand promises to deliver.

Nike’s ‘Swoosh’ logo expresses SPEED, MOTIVATION, MOVEMENT & POWER.

Would you feel the same emotion by seeing this version of logo? Definitely, not.

When you examine the logo in detail, the brand’s promise of speed, power, movement and motivation is well communicated through the logo’s bold and tilted typography and the swoosh, which symbolizes the sound of speed and motivation.

Looking at this logo boosts the spirit and motivation in our minds.

Many times, some clients reached out to us asking for a logo and did not want to build a brand or a story around their brand. Brand is an emotion and the logo is an important tool which communicates the emotion and the experiences a brand wants to deliver to its target audience.

So, a logo should CONNECT, EMOTE, BOND, EXPRESS & RELATE.

The logo, together with the mix of right type of font, colour scheme and elements, helps to emotionalize the minds of the consumer and sends the right message to connect to its target audience.

Memorable:

So, the logo has identified the business & connected with the target audience. The third important function is being able to hold that connection until the time the business exists.

Some logos wonderfully do this and hold that emotional connect even after the business has changed or the logo has been changed.

A customer encounters a number of brands, logos, signs and designs in the everyday world. New brands, sub-brands are introduced every other day, ever since the industrial revolution happened and the numbers are only going to grow.

A good logo has no end date validity. A business is born one day and ages as years pass. The target audience should be presented with an evergreen logo experience, rather than trendy ones, which dies as the business and the audience age.

To name a few, brands like Coca Cola, Nestle, Starbucks, Levis, McDonalds, Disney etc., were able to make an impression in the customer’s minds year on year because of their simple, memorable & iconic logos. (Read what goes behind makes a logo design iconic.)

These brands were successful because of the reputation and trust they have been able to build over the years by delivering the values consistently. One important factor that affects this success is a memorable logo design.

‘Leave the trends to the fashion industry’, says David Airey in his book Logo Design Love.

So, a good logo should also be TIMELESS, MEMORABLE, ETERNAL, EVERLASTING & AGELESS.

A good logo should be simple, memorable and devoid of any trends and unnecessary design elements, patterns, textures so that it helps in maintaining a positive brand reputation and helps the brand position as a leader as the business matures and ages.

Conclusion:

Logos are the tiniest element among all the brand assets of a business. But they are so powerful & effective in communicating the brand’s message. The primary function of the logo is that it has to identify the business. So, the logos should be in its simplest form to do its primary job the best.

The logo should also be able to connect with the right minds and establish the brand in the right sense. The logo design should be contemporary at all periods of time the business operates. It should leave an everlasting memorable experience & impressions in the hearts of the consumers.