“Recognition is what every company or organization wants” (Goodman, 90).
In Chapter 6 of Allison Goodman’s The 7 Essentials of Graphic Design, Goodman goes into depth about what it takes to come up with a good logo. As seen in the quote above, logos are crucial in establishing a name and having a successful brand. Logos are the visuals that a company’s market first witnesses.
For example, how many of these can you recognize?
These are all very companies that are well known and carry a reputation with them. These companies also exemplify how their logo has changed over the years and that is because there needed to be a change in how their brand was associated with their product. If a company’s logo looks out of date, then a poor connotation will sound the company without its audience being able to look at its products.
The central point of a logo is to have maximal effect by using minimal resources. A company wants to be identified and registered by their logo, so it’s crucial that the logo remains uniform in font, color scheme, and design all across different items it is marked on. Beyond the purpose of logos, Goodman highlights the artistic strategies that are implemented to create logos that logically make a mark.
Logos utilize abstract (hidden qualities), iconocize (simplify), or combine (different qualities) of visual elements to create a distinct and significant logo. A specific and unique quality about the company ought to be highlighted in the logo that will be the factor that is remembered by the company’s audience. This quality (such as the Red Cross “plus” sign that indicates emergency and compassion) should be hidden and simplified into the design. There should also be visual agreement among all aspects of the logo. When the logo is simplified from color to black and white, the logo should also be able to withstand the change and still be distinct. Another important factor to consider is how the logo looks from a distance away or if it is seen from very close. Will it still look appropriate if blown up on a billboard or shrunk into the size of a quarter on a business card? This can be seen below with the McDonalds logo:
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