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Your logo isn’t just a big part of your company’s identity, it might be the only part of your brand most people come into contact with. And while there are entire professions devoted to figuring out the best one for each company, there are still some basics that we think make a big difference for any company’s logo.
Here are four things that make a logo great:
1. It needs no introduction
2. It has a great story
3. It’s square
4. It makes you do a double-take
5. Check it out: Disney meets sports logos
1. It needs no introduction
The whole point of a logo is to have an immediately recognizable symbol of your business — something that says a lot about your company with one glance, no words needed. The Target logo, for example, doesn’t need the word “Target” underneath it. You see the bold, red circles, and you think of a target. Just like when you see a yellow and red seashell, you think of Shell.
The lesson: Great logos have images that represent the company in more ways than one — not just in a literal sense, but as a graphic that can represent the brand on its own.
2. It has a great story
Logos with stories become word of mouth triggers for a bigger message about the company. For example, Virgin recently published a blog post on the origin of their irreverent hand-written logo. There are stories that it was just a signature scribbled by a designer on a napkin, or that someone spraypainted a stenciled version on hardwood, and that’s how it evolved to have cleaner lines.
The lesson: Stories like these have a greater significance to Virgin’s branding. The logo starts conversations about the company’s punkish past and disruptive personality.
Learn more: Virgin
3. It’s square
This is a simple, tactical one, but it’s true. Imagine all of the ways logos are used — they’re put on T-shirts, hats, billboards, scrunched into a Twitter avatar, and crammed into conference agendas. When you squish them into all sorts of situations, the longer, skinnier ones can become too small.
The lesson: Square logos seem to stand up better to all of the real-world scenarios they get put through.
4. It makes you do a double-take
You probably already know about the hidden arrow in FedEx’s logo. But did you know BMW’s blue and white checkered circle represents a moving propeller from their history in aviation? Or that there’s a hidden bear in Toblerone’s mountain logo because they’re made in the “City of Bears?”
The lesson: Everyone likes logos with those hidden meanings. Adweek featured an entire post on them. They’re clever, easy conversation starters that people love to talk about.
5. Check it out: Disney meets sports logos
This artist mashes up two of America’s favorite things: Disney and football. Check out what Simba would look like as a Detroit Lion or Baloo as a Chicago Bear.
Check it out: Instagram