How Can You Tell If Your Logo Is Hurting Your Brand?
How Can You Tell If Your Logo Is Hurting Your Brand?
First of all your logo is not your brand.
It is just a visual representation of what you’ve determined your brand to be.
If you skipped all the steps to define your entire brand, and jumped right into the logo, then there’s a good chance it is hurting your brand.
You have a brand whether you know it or not.
Your brand is what people feel, or think of when they consider you.
Defining your brand is your effort to tell the story you hope/want people to feel, or think when they consider you. Everyone could have a different idea of your brand, but your efforts to define it for them, and then staying true to it will help you harmonize their impression. Either way, they have an impression, and that is your brand.
Ask yourself: What do I want people to say to others when referring to me and my business?
It should be specific, impactful, and a reason to care.
"What do I want people to say to others when referring to me and my business?"
Your brand essence is the connection that people have with you and your business. It plays a crucial role in shaping their opinions, preferences, and loyalty. By understanding and defining your brand essence, you can create a strong and consistent brand identity that resonates with your target audience and helps you stand out.
Going from your brand essence to designing a logo involves a series of steps that help you translate your brand's core values, personality, and identity into a visually appealing and memorable graphic representation.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to go from brand essence to logo design:
- Define your brand essence: Start by identifying what makes your brand unique, what it stands for, and what emotions you want it to evoke. Create a brand statement or a tagline that summarizes your brand essence.
“Nobody knows Tellico Lake better than Rick Smenner”
That’s a ringing endorsement that hits solidly.
It’s a solid brand that should be consistently promoted and protected.
- Research your target audience and competition: Understand who your target audience is and what appeals to them. Research your competition to identify the visual elements that work for them and areas where you can differentiate your brand.
- Create a mood board: Collect visual elements that resonate with your brand essence, such as images, color schemes, typography, and other design elements. A mood board helps you visualize your brand's personality and serves as inspiration for your logo design.
- Choose your logo type: Logos can be symbolic, typographic, or a combination of both. Based on your brand essence and target audience, decide whether you want to use an abstract symbol, a mascot, a wordmark, or a combination of these elements to represent your brand.
- Select colors and typography: Choose colors that reflect your brand's personality and evoke the desired emotions in your target audience. Pick a font style that complements your brand essence and ensures legibility across different platforms and sizes.
- Sketch and iterate: Start sketching out different logo concepts, incorporating the elements you've chosen. Experiment with different layouts, shapes, and arrangements to create a variety of options. Don't be afraid to iterate and refine your ideas.
- Seek feedback: Share your logo concepts with colleagues, friends, or focus groups that understand your brand. Ask for their opinions and impressions to gauge whether your logo effectively communicates your brand essence.
- Finalize your design: Choose the logo concept that best represents your brand essence and appeals to your target audience. Refine and polish the design to ensure it's visually appealing, memorable, and scalable.
- Create a logo style guide: Develop a style guide that outlines the proper usage of your logo, including color variations, sizing guidelines, and any other specifications. This will help maintain consistency and brand recognition across various platforms.
- Implement your logo everywhere: Update your website, social media profiles, marketing materials, and other touchpoints with your new logo to establish a consistent brand presence.
By following these steps, you can effectively translate your brand essence into a visually compelling logo that represents and strengthens your brand identity.
If you find yourself a bit overwhelmed with all this, or if you jumped the gun and settled on a logo before considering your Brand Essence, reach out to us and we can help. We've been building brands and designing logos for over 20 years and can't wait to discuss how we can help.