Let’s play the Name That Logo Game...

way too easy right? It’s because every one of these visual identities are composed of special features that are instantly recognizable to people. Whether it’s through the red and white of the Coca-Cola word mark or it’s the golden arches of the McDonald’s ‘M’ , these logos have their own exclusive character that helps make them instantly recognizable, creating a unique identity.

Logos should portray the business in a positive light and embody their mission, through simple text, a symbol or a combination of the two.

A few essential features a logo should contain are significance, timelessness, and scalability.

Significance of the logo to your business is vital because  by having characteristics of the business projected through the logo gives it meaningfulness.  Embodying this will allow the business to stand out from others and make it memorable to audiences.

Being able to create a logo that can stand the test of time is difficult yet extremely beneficial to a business.  Very few designs continually survive the torrential trend storms, coming out remaining unnaffected and still feeling fresh. One of which is the Target logo, (see below) that has remained relatively the same since the beginning. The red and white rings will forever be associated with Target.  Because of the simplicity and purity this logo will remain unchanged for decades.

A logo should look equally strong both in full size and when shrunk down. This is significant for different applications of the mark. Clearly, the same size logo won’t fit on both a business card and a billboard. Therefore the ability to be scaled down without losing legibility or sharpness is extremely vital.  Again, target is a great example for why scalability is effective when achieved. The small version looks just as strong as the full sized version.

Whenever we think about a company’s identity the first thing that comes to mind is the logo. The whole essence of a business is reflected through it’s logo.  It is the single most important way of identifying the business, on signage, business cards, letter heads, and in advertising.

Answers: (top: Shell, Rolling Stones, Verizon, Ebay, Coca-Cola. Bottom: McDonalds, At&t, NBA, Dominoes, Apple, Starbucks, Toyota, Target, Subway)

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