Why are brand logos important?
…and can’t I just get a cheap one made?
In this article, I’m going to be discussing why having a good quality, professional logo is a key part of crafting your overall branding and business strategy.
First of all, what IS a logo?
A logo is a symbol or small design that a business, organisation or individual will use to market themselves to the public. This often includes a brand name and can sometimes include a slogan as well.
People can often be under the impression that a logo is just a sort of “signature” and can look however they want and as long as it looks pretty, it’s fine.
Logos are so much more than that and while it’s SO important for you to love your own logo, but it’s also super important to get both the ideas and the process of crafting it just right for your audience.
The logo of a business is often what the customer sees first, it’s their first impression.
A lot has to be considered in the creation of such an impression to ensure they are positive and memorable.
Professionalism is something that is often skimped out on when it comes to branding and design because it’s often thought of as an “addition” to the business, rather than a very important focal point of a brand.
Yes, you *could* get a super cheap logo made by a student, someone on Fiver or by someone you know as a favour. But you just won’t get the quality, time, process and of course the results, that a professional studio or agency can provide.
Here are the top three reasons why it’s important to invest in a decent logo.
File quality.
It’s SO important to have a vector-based logo rather than made from pixels. What is vector? You may have heard of pixels - the little dots that make up digital images such as photos. They’re the reason why when you try to enlarge a small photo, it will start looking grainy and lose quality.
Vector images and files are the standard way of crafting logos and other similar brand graphics to ensure resizing capabilities. Cheaper designers will often create logos in something like photoshop or Canva and then they’ll send you one copy in a .jpeg or .png format.
You will be forever limited to the size that they have given you, so if you ever need a larger or better quality size for printing, it will either lose a lot of quality and look awful or you’ll have to chase down the original designer to make you different sizes when needed.Concept.
There should be quite a lot of meaning and theory behind a good logo since it’s the heart of your brand.
A good logo should express key ideas of who you are, what you offer and it should draw in your target market / ideal customer. Visually, your logo should be crafted in a simple eye-catching shape with a carefully formulated brand colour palette to stick to so that it can be spotted as your brand from a mile away.
Think: Coca-Cola’s red colour. Red and warmer colours stimulate hunger, thirst , power and excitement. If someone handed you a can of fizzy drink in that exact red shade with white writing, chances are you would immediately think it was a can of coke.
Another example is the Nike “tick” icon shape - most people see that tick on an ad or piece of clothing and know that it’s made by Nike.Credibility.
Having a logo that looks clean and professional heavily reflects your business standards and the services or products that you sell. If your logo looks grainy, unprofessional or obviously doesn’t match your brand and overall goals, people WILL notice and it can be a turn off.
If someone had a beauty spa company and their logo was a dark blue circle with a very serious, office-like font and a picture of a paper clip… well, their customers wouldn’t be that interested unless they enjoy the soothing sounds of fax machines and staplers…
If they were a food company but their logo was all pixelated and dull or poor quality, it may make some people think they aren’t very successful, that they’re on a serious budget. This easily jumps into questions like “Is this cafe hygienic?” and “Is the food fresh?”.
Logos are an integral part of showing off your business. They may appear on signs, adverts, social media, video, letters, invoices and even your merchandise or labels - you really need to get it right early on so that you aren’t spending more time, money and hassle later down the line.
I get a lot of new clients wanting rebranding done because they had one made previously that they really aren’t happy with.
I commonly hear things like “my cousin’s daughter’s dog’s teacher made me a logo in exchange for a bag of dog biscuits but it doesn’t really feel like mine and I’ve been told that it doesn’t look good.” So it’s either directly, or indirectly affected those client’s sales and success.
Investing in a great logo and branding identity doesn’t have to be a big scary leap of faith.
Make sure that the designer or agency that you choose to work with is able to discuss the design process with you, works with industry standards and considers the brand as a whole strategy, not just creating a pretty or trendy logo.
I have personally built an exciting branding process over the years where I will ask you questions all about your business, what you personally like, don’t like, what you’re trying to achieve in your business model and more, along with market research and us figuring out what makes your customers tick. All of these questions and conversations build the foundations of where to start with my designs and then it’s a decent process from planning to refining to finalisation.
I work with my clients and go through very thorough research, concept and refinement stages to ensure that they are super happy with it in the end, and that their clients will love it too.
I hope you enjoyed this little guide on logos and that it provided you with some insight on why they are so important in building your business from the get-go. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like any more information on brand strategy for your business.
