As a website design & development company, we’re tasked with creating logos very frequently. Frankly, it’s one of the most challenging aspects of branding, marketing and website design & development. It’s equally challenging to clients.
It’s because actually designing a logo, for a graphic designer, is fairly easy. But people who pay for logos often want it to impart the ethos, brand, hopes, dreams and goals of the company. Some even want it to accurately describe everything their company does.
Simple is best
The first trademark, or logo, was a red triangle (for Bass Ale). That was in 1679. An equally simple logo was crafted for a car company in 1909. It was a three-pointed star. In 1971, the Nike logo was penned by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student. She was paid $36 for her work.
So you have a triangle, a star and a lazy-looking check mark that is often called a “swoosh.” And if you asked someone what these “brands” meant a year before they were adopted they would have had no meaning beyond the shapes they were. Of course, now their collective value as iconic brands is incalculable only because the companies made them that way.
That’s why the most important thing to remember is that new logos don’t represent what your company is right now, it represents what your company will hopefully become.
