What makes a good logo? Discover the secrets of exceptional logo design

Personal taste is an inevitable factor in the conversation, but to understand what makes a good logo, you have to find a way to think about it objectively.

A logo is not communication. It’s identification.

A logo doesn’t have to say what the company does; the Audi logo is not a car, the Xerox logo is not a printer, the Apple logo is not a computer. The logo’s job is to identify, not explain.

A logo is a simple and functional signpost to help people find and identify a business. It is like an empty vessel, the meaning can be attached to it over time, with its consistent use and by following through on brand promise.

Paul Rand, one of the world’s greatest designers states that:

“A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon, a street sign. A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies. A logo is rarely a description of a business. A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolises, not the other way around. A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it represents is more important than what it looks like. The subject matter of a logo can be almost anything.”

Paul Rand, Design, Form and Chaos

The fact is, a good logo should be three things: appropriate, simple and memorable. When you strike the balance of these things, you have a good logo.

Logos should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for a children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font and colour scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a law firm.

Simple logos are easily recognised, incredibly memorable, and versatile. They are displayed across various mediums in many different sizes and must be producible in both print and digital formats. The K.I.S.S. Principle of design, which translates to: Keep It Simple, Stupid; was elaborated in 1960 by Kelly Johnson. The principle states that simplicity should be a key goal in design, and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.

Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo.

Sometimes a new logo even if it’s good, can feel empty, without meaning. First impressions can be misleading, it’s important not to place too much emphasis on the initial impression of a new logo. In fact, many logos are not love at first sight.

A good logo, a good trademark, gains meaning and power over time. They take time to develop and grow on us.

In the book Identity: Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, Alexandra Lange describes how the partners present a new logo to a client: they prepare a presentation that guides the client through a visual journey, from old marks, to half measures, to the shiny new things. This helps the client to visualise the mark in a context and fall in love with it.

When the brand design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv presented the new logo for Conservation International, they literally said, ‘It’s not us. It doesn’t mean anything.’ After many months of negotiation, the studio decided to make a short video showing the logo in the wild, superimposed over footage of all the different places the organisation wanted to protect. They loved it. The logo started to have meaning and became the symbol of the company.

Logos will not live on a blank white screen.To sell a good logo, it must be presented in the best possible way, showcasing how it would work in various contexts related to its business. This is a good way to test whether the logo is simple enough while still serving as an effective identifier for the business.