Read time: 3 Minutes

Today, we're concentrating on one of the key Distinctive Brand Assets: your logo. In just three minutes, we'll delve into what constitutes a good logo and how to gauge its effectiveness in the contemporary world.

Logos are designed to be unique and memorable, encapsulating a brand's ethos in a single mark. For millennia, they have served as a visual shorthand, helping organizations stand out. Even partial logos are often recognizable:

How to create an effective logo:

1️⃣ Simplicity is key

Every renowned brand has a simple, readable logo. Even the car industry has adapted to this flat trend. The typography should complement the logo and remain legible across different sizes and mediums. Avoid using more than one font to prevent clutter.

2️⃣ Aim for timelessness

While it might be tempting to follow the latest design trends, a good logo should withstand the test of time. Strive for a design that won't become outdated in a few years.

3️⃣ Make it memorable

Link your logo with a story or something special that resonates with your brand. In the digital realm, consumers rarely see a logo out of context. Platforms like Instagram always display a brand's icon next to its name, allowing brands to be more playful and expressive.

Examples include Seed, which uses their Dot across all channels for storytelling, and SoulCycle, which uses a yellow bike wheel.

4️⃣ Focus on Your Icon

Many modern brands place a strong emphasis on the icon within their logo. This is because icons are used in various places such as social profile images, app icons, favicons, and more. They tend to facilitate brand recognition more quickly than the overall written logo.

5️⃣ Pass the Favicon test

Your logo should be effective even in the smallest format - the Favicon (the little icon that appears on a browser tab).

When startups become overly focused on finding their "version of the Nike swoosh," we need to remind them that we live in a different era than when Nike launched. Today, it's more important to have rich and varied layers for storytelling than to have one symbol that says it all.

💡Takeaway →Your logo should be simple, readable, and incorporate diverse layers for storytelling.

Disclaimer → Distinctiveness alone does not constitute a great brand

While distinctiveness is important, it is not a substitute for creativity, imagination, wit, and empathy for the audience. It is valuable only as a means to ensure that all the credit for such creativity and quality is attributed back to the brand.

In the upcoming article, we will explore the Distinctive Brand Asset - Colors, and how to effectively use them. If you enjoy the newsletter, please forward it to a friend. It only takes 18 seconds, while creating it took hours. 👋🏼