What’s in a Logo? Why Make a Business Logo

Why should I bother trying to get a logo for my business? If you aren't familiar with business communication, why exactly a logo is worth its while may not be obvious. You might not see why you should spend your time, energy and money trying to create a logo for your takeaway, restaurant or real estate enterprise. As we've seen in “The 10 Commandments for a Perfect Logo Design,” top logo design typically LOOKS simple. Logo masterpieces can be sheer basic geometric forms. A centenary logo like Bass’s is just a red triangle, and a world famous logo such as Target’s is only two circular bands with a dot at the center. If you see things in this way, nothing can seem more futile than a corporate logo. 

But appearances are deceptive - more so when it comes to top logos. Ask any decent businessman, branding specialist, or graphic designer, or any an informed consumer, and they'll assure you a logo does matter. And the worth of those small, unpretentious objects far exceeds their down to earth looks. 

Actually, making logos look simple is done on purpose. Logo Designers spend their time trying to create logos that look simple and clean-cut, but are sublime from a creative stand point. Logo design legend Paul Rand insisted that a logo is designed to be simple for the consumer but is extremely complex for the designer. 

 Logos are 'little big things.' Despite their modest looks, they're amazing artistic creations whose value for business, consumers, and art-lovers is really beyond measure. Let’s see why.

Why Is It Important to Design a Logo for Your Business?

Three major facts should make any business owner consider getting the best possible professional logo for their brand or business. The first is that logos are essential for the survival and development of any enterprise. Secondly, logos greatly matter for consumers. And, last but not least, professionally made logos have the value of artworks.

Logos Are Vital for Business. 

The worth of great logos for business is immeasurable: a great logo is the jewel in the crown of an enterprise. The best corporate logos have contributed decisively in the rise of their companies from small businesses to massive multinational companies. They have also helped in making their corporations’ prestigious reputations and in keeping them in top positions. In strict business terms this means logos generate huge amounts of money for their enterprises. Great logos are literally gold mines for their corporations, and they are the guardian angels of their reputations.

It’s very easy to verify it. Just imagine what any great multinational (say Adidas or Gucci ) would be without its logo. Picture Adidas without the three bands, Puma without the leaping puma pictogram, or Nike without its swoosh. Wouldn’t they fade out? 

As a brand or company, if you have a great logo it would do all the necessary business activities for you while you personally will ‘go about your business.’ Provided you have one and place it somewhere, it will give you an identity, make you visible to your consumers, represent you, sell for you, authenticate your products for you, communicates on your behalf, advertise for you and much more. 

Moreover, it’ll do all of that tirelessly, day and night, all year long, in all weather conditions and more efficiently than the best salespeople can ever do in person. On a second thought, a logo is not just a jewel in in the crown of an enterprise: it’s the crown itself. 

Logos Matter for Consumers.

Logos matter for consumers as much as they do for businesses. Indeed the logos mean a lot for us as consumers: we use them as illuminators, guides and guarantees of quality. We decide what sort of commodity we’d buy and spot our products on the market based on bands and logos. For another thing, logos are a way in which we reinforce our senses of individual and social identity, and they are a means for us to communicate about ourselves with other people.

Logos have an informative and guiding role for consumers. On the marketplace we use them as millstones, just as we use obelisks and lighthouses in other settings. Despite the huge number of brands and the massive quantity of items present on our markets, we all the same manage to make it easily to what we want to buy thanks to the logos.

Logos thus help us to cope with our oversupplied markets; they are means by which we choose, exclude and spot our products. They inform us on quality and save us time and the embarrassment of choice. Logos are a facility that makes it possible for us to shop decently. 

Moreover, a logo is a means for us to strengthen our identities and communicate about who we are in society. We use brand logos for self-identification; that is, to reinforce and express our sense of who we are personally, socially, politically and culturally. 

Logos have the power of spells on consumers. Just think about how much the presence of a Sony logo, Samsung logo or Apple logo on our telephone or computer devices matters for us in all sorts of ways. For many of us, having a prestigious logo on our possessions provides a strong and inevitable feeling of satisfaction and pride.

Logos Are Artworks. 

Business is not just about money - far from it. Accordingly business logos have much more significance than being sheer lucrative objects. Great logos are artworks, and they give the business which they represent proximity with the higher world of the arts. 

Besides, some of the best brand logos have been designed by renowned artists. The iconic IBM logo is designed by eminent graphic artist Paul Rand. Likewise, the renowned logo of the Spanish brand of lollipop and other confectionery, Chupa Chups, has been created by the famous surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. In the manner of art in general, logos are beautiful, ground-breaking and thought-provoking objects. 

When we think of logos as works of art, one painting in particular comes to mind - René Magritte's “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” 

Like this great work of art, the best logos make us realize “the treachery of images.” Great logos stand for the fact that images betray. That is to say they symbolize the fact that an object is often not what it appears to be at first glance. 

11 Facts that Make Business Logos Essential

In summary, 11 facts make corporate logos crucial:

1. Logos communicate. Great company logos speak louder than a thousand marketing campaigns. If you have a perfect logo you don’t need to say that your business is present somewhere, or explain what your business is all about. Your precious little jewel will perfectly do it for you. Your logo will say these things and many more, and it will do it better than anyone or anything else.
2. Logos sell. They sell much more than the most talented salespeople. About anyone would like to have a Porsch, an IPhone or a Samsung smartphone, provided they have the money for it and are assured the brands are genuine. Bur how do we know they are genuine? How can we know it’s an IPhone, a Porsche or a Nike at all? Again the precious logo!
3. Logos represent. They do it better than any official business representative. If you place a logo somewhere, it will be there ‘talking’ to people all day long about your business. It is unthinkable for any enterprise to be a tiny bit so present in person.
4. Logos guide. Like obelisks for tourists and lighthouses for sailors logos play the role of landmarks for consumers. They help them to get their ideas organized, spot products, and find their ways through the flooded contemporary markets. It would be impossible for a consumer to make it out without the logos.
5. Logos authenticate. Logos are signatures. They are certificates of genuineness. If a swoosh logo is missing on a sportswear, it would be difficult for anyone to convince a consumer that it’s an Adidas or a Nike.
6. Logos guarantee. Consumers view a great logo as a warrantee of the fairness of a commercial transaction. For most consumers a great logo is understood as a guarantee of the quality and safety of what they buy. Great Logos assure us that what we buy is worth its money.
7. Logos are used as marks of prestige. In general, people are proud to have a prestigious logo on what they buy, mainly young people.
8. Logos indicate social class. Logos may indicate a consumer’s social class. They may be a clue that a product is expensive, or vice versa.  A person driving a car with the Ferrari or Lamborghini logo on it does not normally belong to the same social class as a person driving one with the Ford logo.
9. Logos tell ideology. Your choice of a given logo may indicate you’re anarchist, communist, or imperialist. For example the Lacoste logo is a symbol of aggressive imperialism. Conversely, not using a brand or avoiding items with logos can mean resistance to capitalism.
10. Logos identify. Besides identifying a brand, they may tell about a consumer's identity. Think of a person who drives a Mercedes Benz and another one driving a Ferrari. The first is more likely to be classic and mature, while the second is more likely to be young and sporty. We select products rather than others based on who we think we are and who we want other people to think we are.
11. Logos are artworks. Like all other works of art, professionally made logos are aesthetically very interesting. They are thought-provoking, defamiliarizing and sublime.