4 Criteria to the Right Logo

It’s like saying a person’s daughter is ugly. Companies often come to us to help them develop a “brand”. At PinPoint, we have a process where we examine certain qualities of an existing brand before we propose “next steps” for a company. We want to make sure that the current “visual brand” (the logo) is worth investing a branding strategy.

Here are 4 of the criteria that we examine:

Easily Read. Have you ever had someone mispronounce your company name when they look at your logo? It’s not a good sign. Your logo HAS to communicate your name properly and then your brand promises. If it doesn’t easily state your name, change it. There are so many readable fonts to feel forced to use indecipherable ones.

Simple to Draw. I often say that an elementary school child should be able to “doodle” your logo. Think about some great brands (Apple, Pepsi, McDonalds, etc). Their logos are so simple that you could draw them easily so that others could know what brand you’re thinking of. What about yours? Overly complicated logos are forgettable. Simple isn’t always easy, in fact, it takes us longer to develop a simple design than a complex design. We feel it’s worth spending the extra time!

Memorable. The purpose of a logo is to be a visual image that “sticks” in the mind of your audience or potential audience. The sign of a good logo is a symbol that becomes a “skeleton” that a brand’s meat can hang on. If people don’t remember the “hangar”, they won’t remember the “stuff” of the brand.

Current. Even the great brands update their logos. Pepsi has changed it’s logo almost a dozen times since they were created. The same for many other brands. The reason? Because a brand has to look current. Or people will not see you as product for today. Fonts, colors and design need to updated on a regular basis. I’m not saying to make a brand-new design every time, but subtly “tweeking” the design is necessary from time to time.

Sometime being so close to the design is not a good thing (think how parents think their kid is the best looking). So ask someone (or us!) about your logo. If it was not professionally designed, chances are that it’s in drastic need of change. And please, let us off the hook… it’s hard to say that your “baby” needs some work.