A logo design is not good just because you think it looks "beautiful".
I admit, that's a bold statement. However, by the end of this blog article, you will agree with this statement.
Okay, if a logo design doesn't have to look "beautiful", what does it have to do then? A logo design must generate a certain gut feeling, an emotion, function flexibly in a wide variety of applications and - most importantly - have maximum recognition value. None of this has anything to do with personal taste.
When we develop a brand design, three to five logo designs are always included, all of which go in totally different directions, but of course all of them are based on the briefing (our client’s requirements). After a couple of feedback rounds with the customer, one logo design is finalized at the end.
And this has nothing to do with personal taste?
Let us give you a little insight into the everyday life of a part-time psychologist ... um ... a design agency.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BRAND DESIGNER
Enquiry from the customer: "We drew a logo ourselves - see the photo in the attachment. Of course, we know that it doesn't look professional, we can't use this as a logo. That's why we get in touch with you for a brand design with logo, website and so on. We work in a sensitive business, our brand simply has to look professional, everything has to be consistent and fit together. A consistent brand identity, so to speak."
There is a meeting for the briefing in which the requirements and special aspects of the brand are discussed in detail. Two weeks later, several logo designs are delivered to the customer.
Customer: "We really like the logo designs very much. My team and I are really excited and overwhelmed, honestly. I didn't think it could be this good. It is exactly what we were looking for! Now we are contemplating between version A and B. I will let you know what it will be in the next few days."
3 days later.
Customer: "My Feng Shui consultant likes A, but she doesn't like B and C at all. She would make a mixture of D and A."
1 day later.
Customer: "I have now also asked my secretary, she likes B and C, but A and D she doesn’t like. She would do a mix of B and C. And my nephew doesn't like any of the logos. However, he could imagine version D if it looked a bit more like B and you should still take the right swirl from C with it."
2 days later.
Customer: "I agree with my Feng Shui consultant, we take logo version A."
4 days later.
Customer: "The opinion of my Feng Shui consultant is no longer important. We also no longer need the sub-logos for the individual outlets."
Another meeting takes place to consult the customer, explaining the logo drafts again in detail based on their requirements (briefing) and to give the customer clarity. The briefing is suddenly changed. Things that were important requirements for the brand in the original briefing have now been removed and new requirements have been added. In addition, the feeling that should be conveyed with the logo in the first place, should now be something different than before.
2 weeks later, new logo design drafts are delivered.
Customer: "I like E and F best. But it doesn't match my secretary's taste. We drew something on paper, I'll send it to you as an attachment. Can you use that?"
The customer's drawn draft is very similar to the original draft that the customer sent to the designer as part of their enquiry. The designer explains to the customer the limitations and poor functionality of the design as well as the lack of recognition value.
Customer: "It shouldn't look professional on purpose. A consistent brand is not important to me at all."
What reads like a soap opera here is (thank God seldom, but every now and then) a reality in the everyday life of a brand designer or a design agency.
Sure, a logo design development is not a quick act that takes just a few hours. Logo design is complex and nevertheless focused on a very clear goal: to perfectly present the message of a brand, with maximum recognition value and at the same time optimal flexibility in various use cases.
As you can see from the example above, however, the usefulness of the logo to convey a brand message defined in the briefing is completely ignored by some people. Ego and “personal taste” are put above the brand message.
If there is also indecision (a negative trait for every entrepreneur), the result is an unnecessarily long design process and an extremely expensive brand design that costs way too much money. Not to mention the hurdles and problems that the customer puts in their own way in the medium and long run.
Brand designers are indeed now and then like psychologists who sometimes have to protect their customers from themselves - in the interests of the customer and their company.
A logo design has to fulfill a task. This task is to present a brand in a recognizable, professional and consistent way. The task is not to meet the CEO’s personal taste.
