3 Reasons To Stop Judging The Logo
Is this a good logo?
Who the hell knows, and it’s almost certain that you don’t.
Not because you don’t have the knowledge. Maybe you are an experienced designer, and you can pick out all the details that make it “objectively bad”. Maybe you can pinpoint all the stupid decisions that were made in the design. Yeah, we all have those visceral reactions sometimes when something offends our delicate sensibilities.
And I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter.
3 Reasons To Stop Judging The Logo
Do you know the goals and requirements? I’m sorry, but were you at the meeting when this logo or branding was commissioned? Did you secretly listen in when the business explained to the agency what the goal for the branding was? Do you know the business’ KVP/UVP?
No? Then how can you make an informed judgement?
Maybe this logo hits all the value propositions of the client perfectly. You can’t know.
Do you know the market? Did you do some extensive vertical and horizontal audit for this industry? No, I don’t mean googling other companies for 30 seconds. Did you create a brand audit to evaluate positioning? Did you buy a Gartner report?
So you know nothing about the environment of the design, but will still happily judge it.
Do you know the result? Do you have access to the metrics for brand reach, recognition or retention? Did you hack into the business’ CMS and Analytics services? Have you spent some hard cash on analytics services to find out how this brand is performing in the market?
No? Then what do you know about how this design is working for the stakeholders?
Maybe this design is actually solving the business problem of the stakeholders. You don’t know.
In the end, and at best, you can judge the logo by its technical qualities. You can discern if the type is kerned, or if it’s legible at small sizes. Maybe you can figure out if the mark is properly aligned and the lock-up flexible enough.
You can’t even judge the color palette, or mark, because that would imply knowing the requirements and goals.
Technical execution is a tertiary concern at best. There are better and worse, sure, but it’s not a factor you can make an informed decision on.
So take a chill-pill and don’t judge the logo.
Just make better logos.
Originally published at Fortify.
