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Branding: Logos
What's Important
If we were to trace two connected, upside down U’s in the air, what brand would I be illustrating? (la tee dum tee dum, hmm, hmm, hmm … time’s up) That’s RIGHT! McDonalds! So how cool is that? That a brand is so strong that it can be traced in the air and nearly everyone will know who it is. So how did they do it? Well, besides millions and millions of dollars in advertising and sponsorships, they did it through consistent, highly controlled branding. While we do not pretend to know the exact height and width dimensions of the Golden Arches nor the exact color of yellow used, we can be certain that McDonalds does and that there is absolutely zero deviation of those dimensions and colors whether used in Boston or Bangkok. There is also wonderful simplicity in their brand. You could take a lesson from their simplicity as well. Less is more. Clear trumps complex. The underlying premise is that you can be as clever and allegorical (look it up) as you want to be with your intricate logo and no one besides your mother will ever notice or care. The rule is this: don’t make the market work to understand your brand. Keep it simple and then use it consistently over a very long period of time and you too may one day be able to trace your company’s brand in the air!
Things You Can Do Keep it simple. Use primary colors. Avoid script or overly stylized fonts. Use high contrast, dark colors against a light, preferably white, background. Consider simply using a text treatment as your logo and brand. There is, after all, a lot of precedence for this approach. Just think Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, IBM, Microsoft … you get the idea.
That’s all for now. Look for more Insights soon. Until then, God Bless and keep safe.