What's in a Logo?

What does your logo convey to the consumer? Is its representative of something bigger? Is this apparent to the consumer, or simply to the insider?  Your brand is your promise to the consumer, and your  logo is a signal of this. If consumers don’t notice, what is the point of over-complicating a logo with, for example, a visual metaphor of your mission statement ? I think a lot of companies put a bit too much emphasis on logos as part of their branding strategy.

The logo is a small piece of a much bigger picture: the brand. The key to a strong brand is not a strong logo, but a strong promise to stand behind a strong product. If nothing else, your logo should in some way convey this promise.

I do believe periodic updates to the logo are necessary, especially if the position of the brand has changed. I have encountered this with my internship at the Viking Union, as the marketing committee has recently decided to redesign our logo. Our current design is over twenty years old, and while it is not as heavily used as other campus marks, it is still long overdue for an update. It will be interesting to see how the family of marks evolves in the coming weeks, as it is my first experience with managing a logo design effort.

With this redesign effort I hope to instill some branding standards as well. Creating some sense of consistency, whether it relates to placement of the logo or its color scheme is something that we have lacked in the past; now is a great time to fix it.