The Story Behind The Logo
Take a look around you right now, the world is surrounded by logos and designs. The Samsung logo on your phone, the BIC logo on your pen, the Give Way sign at the intersection, the Greenpeace logo on a bumper sticker. When you have a business of your own and travel down the road of logo design either by yourself or with a graphic designer, you tend to look at logos with more of an appreciation of all of the work, thought, meaning, design, re-design that went into them.
The fact is that all logos have had to come from somewhere and need to carry a specific and meaningful message that sets that business apart from the rest. While many logos appear to be blatantly obvious as to what they’re representing (e.g. Apple, McDonald’s golden arches), others seem to have a bit of a tale behind their seemingly irrelevant logo.
Take Starbucks for example. We all know there is a green and white drawing of a mermaid but what does that have to do with coffee? The story behind the two tailed mermaid or the ‘Siren’ is that it was created as nod to the company’s origin of the seaside town of Seattle.
How about the three pronged peace sign? What’s that got to do with peace? You may be interested to know that the peace sign was initially created as a self portrait when the designer, Gerald Holtom, threw his hands up in despair which immediately reminded him of a Goya painting ‘Peasant Before a Firing Squad’. He drew a circle around the image to formalise it and Vula! One of the most iconic logos in history was born.
When designing a logo for your business it always good to think outside the box. More often than not the name of your business will do the explaining of what service you are providing which in turn allows you to have a bit of creative fun with your logo.
Obviously there are many aspects to think about when it comes to a logo design, but the one aspect we enjoy here the most at Shared Marketing is when there is a story behind the design.
Some tips to think about if you are looking at branding or re-branding your business with a new logo:
Where is your business based?
Is there something iconic in your town or city that you could incorporate into your logo? Eg If your business is based in Sydney can you incorporate a famous Sydney landmark somehow into the logo.
Is your business a family business?
Is there a picture or story that is unique to your family that can be used as inspiration for the logo.
What colours do you think about when you think of your business?
This is important as the colours of your logo will set the tone for everything to do with your business, your website, your business cards, your vehicle, etc.
Is there a picture, person or story that inspired you to get into business?
Is there a pivotal point in your life that you can recall which made you decide to go into business for yourself and what influenced the decision.
Is there an existing business that you admire and like the look and feel of?
Although you are not wanting to copy a logo from an existing business, there may be something about an existing logo that appeals to you which can help give you some direction on how you want your business to look.
While all of these ideas are very broad, it’s the thought behind them that can help you work towards the overall look and feel that you want your business logo to portray.
If you are looking at changing your logo or need to develop a brand for your new business, contact us today.