3 Tips On Making a Logo Work Everywhere

Here’s a logo I love.  Simple.  Clean.  Clever.  And, more importantly, you can squeeze every possible iota of usage out of it.

Kind of like most of us do with interns.  But I digress.

When some firms commission a logo design, they naturally tend to think of the places they’re used to seeing a logomark in action: a business card, on letterhead, maybe as a sign or environmental graphic.

But they should always bear in mind that the logo represents the organization, and should be able to travel everywhere the organization has a presence.  And, in some cases, it should create opportunities for the brand to extend even further.

ABOUT BRANDING SCALABILITY

When we talk about brand scalability, we usually mean in terms of how a core brand can extend across new categories, new ventures, new product lines.  But branding scalability is crucial, too: how well does your brand’s visual footprint scale up (or down) to the touchpoints at hand?

I don’t know the particulars of the IFIA, or whether they support any “industry responsibility” initiatives that give their brand special currency as a “seal of approval.”  But that’s the sort of opportunity many trade associations embrace.  And I’d be very surprised if the IFIA doesn’t do exactly those sorts of things, because this logo looks like it was designed from the ground up for exactly those sorts of usage extensions.

It’s that straightforward, and simple, flat, and color wouldn’t do a thing to improve it.  That makes it easy to universally reproduce — not only on a business card, but on a pallet, or a bumper wrap, or shipping materials, or a sticker.

DESIGN THAT WORKS FOR ALL OCCASIONS

Another example?  Here’s one practically everybody recognizes.  It’s become a marque that’s transcended its own product…it now implies quality, and is pervasive enough that for many consumers it may seem more like an industry standard than a hardware badge.

So don’t just consider where your new logo is already destined to appear: consider where it could conceivably not only extend your visibility, but even expand your stature and significance in ways that go beyond typical identity materials or signage.

So in creating or revising your brand mark, keep these three tips in mind:

1. Design from the “bottom up”: Where will it appear most?  Design so it functions perfectly in the places and uses where your audience, B2B or B2c, will view it most.  That might not be on a corporate letterhead, but on packaging or a device fascia.  Design accordingly.
2. Show your heart: The IFIA logo above, or the NACD logo at right, do great jobs of evoking what these organizations actually do, and get to the core of the brand’s value and function with wit and creativity, but are each simple and clear enough in execution to work at any touchpoint.
3. Create a viral logo: Whether you’re branding an organization, a trade group or a company or product, aim for a universality or broad applicability that encourages others to viralize your logo simply because it works so effectively and creatively.