Who Says A Professional Logo Design Must Be Meaningful?

The work of a logo is to create an identity for a particular brand to differentiate it from other similar brands. Besides shapes and symbols, colors play an important role in professional logo design because every color communicates some message to its viewers. However, selecting colors is quite challenging, for despite knowing everything about a company and selecting a color that best projects its purpose, viewers may translate the meaning in a completely different manner.

For instance, you can use green in a logo to show “growth”, but viewers may mistake the company/product for being eco-friendly. Green means both growth and nature and thus, creates confusion. Every color has multiple meanings and so, too much emphasis on color can result in target consumers never understanding the real brand message.

As a graphic designer, you should focus on designing a logo that has the potential to build a distinctive image. Of course, these must associate with a company’s products/services and be meaningful, but this is not always the sole ruling factor behind designing. For instance, can you describe the meaning of a half-eaten apple and its relation to hi-tech services? Does Apple’s logo associate with its products?

No.

In fact, it’s impossible to guess Apple’s products/services from their logo’s design, and yet, it is one of the most widely recognized logos in the world.

Point is, sometimes, a meaningless logo can make a brand successful. A logo does not always have to showcase brand history or products of a company. If it adds value and makes a company easily recognizable, it has served its purpose. Take for instance KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken…where’s the chicken in the logo? Ideally, you’d expect a chicken instead of Col. Sanders’ smiling face, wouldn’t you? The fact that you, or anyone else, don’t see a chicken…has it diminished brand value in any way?

Which brings us to the point…do consumers care?

May be not. Here’s why….consumers don’t really care what message or meaning logo designers are expressing through a logo. They will aim at developing meaningful logos, but if consumers don’t get it, they don’t get! Period. People use logos to identify brands. They don’t have the time or patience to decode your “meaningful” logo.

So, instead of designing a meaningful logo, try to design something that has a look that fits perfectly with your client’s brand image. If there is no branding strategy behind your design, even a flawless design will fail to appeal its audience. It’s the uniqueness of the logo that makes a brand popular, not the message behind it.

If you have started a company and want to create your brand logo, hire a company for affordable logo design services, but make sure you mention your aim – meaningfulness that one may or may not understand OR something catchy that will appeal to the multitude.

All the best!