What You Actually Need Out of a Logo

Rethink what you know about logos

I owe logos a bit of an apology. Last week, I was a little mean to them. Sorry, homies.

This week, I want to give logos some credit because they’re hard workers. But I think we’re expecting too much from these lil guys.

A question you might be asking yourself (or the internet) is, “What makes a good logo"?

The answer is… well, there is no one right answer. You can read every book ever written about logo design and still not arrive at one answer. No one can account for taste across the board, and time changes all things. What worked in 1998 doesn’t work now. What works now won’t work 10 years from now. Some brands that are worth millions have terrible logos. Some brands that are completely unknown have incredibly beautiful logos. Sometimes a good logo doesn’t make a difference, and sometimes a horrible one doesn’t do any damage. Designers often know it when they see it, but there are endless disagreements about defining “good”, so that doesn’t matter, either. There’s no real metric for “good” that applies to all situations.

And here’s my hot take:

Your logo doesn’t matter as much as you think it does.

The branding world is changing and morphing constantly in response to new technology and a rapidly changing world. Logos aren’t what they used to be. Brand designers are starting to realize this. Brands need to be cohesive and adaptable, and a good logo nowadays is less about being iconic and more about adaptability and ease of use.

Here’s the thing: your logo will probably never become an “iconic” logo like the Nike swoosh. So stop thinking about it like that. What makes the Nike logo “good” and “iconic” is a strong brand identity and fame. What makes a logo effective for a normal person who runs a business is a different story.

All that to say, I think “what makes a good logo” is utterly the wrong question.

The right question is, “What do you need out of a logo?”

Most folks don’t fully understand the true function of a logo because few have taken the time to explain it clearly. We all know logos represent brands, but it can be difficult to describe what that means in concrete terms. The problem we run into there is we start putting too much emphasis on the logo itself.

So, what is the job of a logo, really?

What a Logo Is and Isn’t

Most people who start businesses jump straight to “I need a logo” without considering what it is they’re trying to achieve. Branding needs to be aligned with goals. So, what’s the goal of of a logo? Your logo serves a very specific purpose (what it’s meant to do), appear in specific contexts (where you’ll put it), and have a finite scope of function (how much it can do). Being unclear on what a logo is actually for leads you down a windy road of random decisions.

As always, to explain this largely abstract idea, I’ll use a metaphor:

Your logo is like your signature. A signature has these three characteristics in common with a logo:

Purpose — It’s meant to mark, not to explain.
Context – It rarely appears in isolation, it’s always a part of something larger.
Scope — It doesn’t represent the totality of who you are, it’s just a symbol of your presence.

Let’s break this down a little more…

PURPOSE of a logo

Whether your signature looks just like your name in print is completely irrelevant. My signature is just my first and last initials and the letters aren’t even particularly legible. It doesn’t explain anything because that’s not the purpose of a signature. It’s just a way of saying, “I was here” or “I made this” or “I agree to this”. 

Similarly, your logo isn’t meant to explain what you do. It’s meant to mark your presence. Being really literal with your logo has no inherent value. If anything, it’s generic and redundant. I worked in the coffee biz for ten years. Do you know how many cafe and roaster logos I’ve seen that feature a coffee bean or a coffee cup? HUNDREDS. Do you know how many of those I can recall the actual names of? NONE. Why? Because it’s generic. A coffee cup tells you nothing about a business other than “we make coffee”. There’s nothing in the logo that differentiates that coffee shop from any of the five other cafes in the neighborhood. No one will remember it.

Also, chances are the business name has some variation of “cafe” or “coffee” in it already, so a coffee logo is redundant. That’s a wasted opportunity to add something unique or unexpected that would help people remember the image and associate it with the business. Unless you have a clear, strategic reason behind using a literal image in your logo, don’t bother. You can go ahead delete that idea from your brainstorm list.

CONTEXT of a logo

Your signature will basically always appear in a larger context. If you’re a painter, for example, your signature would appear in the corner of a painting as a way of taking credit for your work. Or, you’d use it to sign a document, affirming your consent in an agreement. Unless you’re famous, you’re probably not just signing your name on random things.

Like your signature, your logo will rarely just be floating in space, devoid of context. It will almost always live in some sort of branded space. That could be your website, some printed stationary, packaging, your social media page. All of these spaces will contain other elements of your brand that reinforce the logo as part of the whole. Because a logo is almost never isolated, it’s pointless to think of it as a complete object. Instead, think of it as a piece of the brand. Your logo is only as good as the brand as a whole. 

In fact, you’re better off with a “meh” logo and a clear, cohesive, and strategic brand identity, than you are with a killer logo and no strategy or strong identity. In brand design, context is everything.

SCOPE of a logo

Signatures are not autobiographies or statements of any kind. They’re simple and straightforward. Most signatures have a little personal flair that you choose to add, or that reflect your natural hand movements. Other than that, it’s fairly uncomplicated.

Same goes with a logo. It’s not meant to encompass your whole brand, it’s meant to concisely represent you. It’s tempting to want your logo show the full expression of your business, but that’s not its job*. Logos can’t do that much heavy lifting. The more information and ideas you try to jam into a logo image, the less effective the design will be. You’ll lose scalability and it will be confusing.

Your logo simply needs to quickly convey a sense of your personality and attitude aligned with the rest of your brand. Like a signature, it also doesn’t have to be earth-shatteringly original to be effective. It just has to be identifiable as yours.

This is the job of your brand identity*, of which the logo is just one piece.

A Good Logo Will Be Based on Your Business Goals

While logos can be powerful, it’s important to know what their limits are.

Not to throw shade on my industry (well, maybe a little), but I see a lot of “a brand is not just a logo” type content out there without any real explanation. The branding industry has largely ignored the nitty-gritty of this topic because it’s a tricky to parse out in easy-to-digest content.

The deeper “why” behind this idea isn’t to undersell the value of a quality logo. It’s to emphasize the value of a strategic brand identity. Logos by themselves can’t achieve this. But, logo design sells, so that’s what a lot of folks sell.

The downside of this is that the broader public tends to expect more out of a logo than it can really do by itself. The reality is, a brand is a system of constant reinforcement that increases in value over time through clarity and consistency. The more dynamic brands become (and that’s happening rapidly as our world changes), the less important logos are as static objects.