Every logo doesn’t have a story untold!!
Let me tell you about some of the very famous stories associated with even more famous logos.
Nike: The ‘swoosh’ logo. Nike stands for the Greek goddess of victory and the swoosh is the representation of the wings of the goddess drawn for representing ‘movement’. An interesting fact… the designer of the logo got just $35 dollar for the design!!
Bacardi: Umpteen numbers of bats hanging under the roof of the distillery in Santiago Cuba never had the faintest idea that they were going to be the part of the brand forever. Also, fruit bats (god knows what this variety is) are a symbol of good luck in Cuba.
Lacoste: Rene Lacoste won a bet against the captain of French
davis cup team who promised him a crocodile-skin suitcase. Guess what… Lacoste won and got the name ‘The crocodile’ and hence the logo.
Apple: The biblical story of Adam and Eve in which the ‘Apple’ represented the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The repercussions of what happened after taking the bite is something we all know. This logo supposedly entices people to pursue their dreams.
Nice stories… aren’t they? But how many such stories are there and how many of them are genuine? And is it really necessary to have such kind of concept/story to create a good logo? How many of us knew that Nike is the name of the Greek goddess of victory? And of those who knew it actually knew it because of the popularity of the brand and not because of the popularity of the goddess. Adding to it… do you really feel that swoosh represent a wing?
If I am sounding like a human right activist trying to criticize Nike for the child labor in Sialkot Pakistan… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I just want to counter the tacit misconception that great brands have a great logo and a great concept behind that logo. We remember many of the brands & logos because of the performance of the company and product and not because of the ingenuity and creativeness of the logo. The logo just makes it easier for us to associate the product with the some intangible quality
So the question comes up that what makes a logo a ‘good’ logo. Well, generally accepted qualities of a good logo are:
Originality: It should be novel and unique.
Legibility: The idea should be lucid and easy to understand
Simplicity: It’s all about KISSing… Keeping is Sweet & Simple
Attractiveness: It should be eye catching and good enough to get registered in the mind.
Association: It should have a clear association with the product and service
Color combination: It should suit the way the brand is positioned
Representative: It should match with the characteristics of the company/brand name.
This list is obviously not exhaustive and does not represent any priority of the qualities. In the next few posts I’ll try to figure out how the perception of a similar logotype may vary from person to person.
3 comments:
Great Job Buddy!
Really an interesting blog to read especially who are interested in Branding, Marketing and even for those who love to come across various unknown facts behind something which is very common..
Keep it Up!
hey cool...
gr8 informative place for all the people like me interested in knowing about brands n more...
hope u write more on brands, history of brands, brand management, n all the brand related topics...
@Rusty:
Thanks Bro!!
@kpb:
I'll try writing on brands in a separate blog. This is more focused on 'Logos' :)
Post a Comment