No Logo: The Art of Creating a Brand Without A Brand
&Work
As a designer, how many times have you heard the following:
“Can you make the logo bigger?”
This is an absolute classic of a client request that we designers are all too familiar with.
The 20th Century saw the rise of the logo as the absolute in terms of brand identification and many of the finest logo designs have risen to become iconic symbols in the global conscious. So much so that many people are able to more accurately identify or recreate their favourite logos than they are recognise species of animal or plants in the natural world!
Today the internet is awash with ‘inspiration’ posts online such as ’55 creative logos with hidden symbolism’, or ‘100 best logos that use negative space’ etc. While these are all very clever, it sometimes feels like there is too much weight put on the logo ahead of the other elements which combine to build up an overall brand identity.
As a design agency who specialise in working with impact driven organisations we’re finding this to be particularly relevant to many of our clients, especially those involved in creating pre-competitive collaborations and coalitions between numerous brands. And this has caused us to think again about the importance of the logo in defining a brand ethos and aesthetic.
So what do we mean by this?
Well an increasingly common brief we get today is…
“We’re forming a coalition of companies and need a brand creating for the collateral that will need to be produced as we organise our events and campaign literature. But as yet it doesn’t have a name, so we can’t design a logo.”
When a brief like this comes in, it really makes you consider what it is that creates a brand identity, and how significant (or insignificant) a logo can be as part of it.
A brand itself is not just the visual brand-ing. A brand is the emotional connection you create. It’s your strategy, it’s the way you speak and communicate, it’s your people, your ethics, and your offering.
The visual side of branding has to reflect, support, and in some cases create or enhance this emotional relationship. The choice of colour, typeface, imagery and graphics all have an evocative quality which when combined build up a certain impression, and this goes far beyond just the logo.
How your visual brand makes people feel and react is key and branding relies heavily on established visual cues and associations which help position a brand in a certain way, allowing us to make subconscious assumptions about that company.
So providing you have a clear brand essence and core values, how important is that logo?
In reality, your logotype or logomark is the asset which gets used to represent you most regularly, so of course it is of importance. It’s the anchor point of a brand, and should fit seamlessly with all the elements that surround it to build up the bigger picture.
But that’s not to say it can’t work without it.
A test of a strong brand is to see if you can identify it without the logo. Take the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle, the check pattern of Burberry, the “Just Do It” slogan of Nike… these iconic elements which are established through consistent use over time become synonymous with the brand, with no logo in sight.
So, those ‘no-logo’ projects for our client’s? Do they work as brands? Absolutely! A brand doesn’t need a logo to function and communicate its message — the choice of imagery, typeface, graphic styling or tone of voice in the copy can do that just as effectively. Had we also designed a logo for these projects, it’s hard to imagine it would have performed any better, purely through its addition.
So next time your client asks you to make the logo bigger, remember, you don’t necessarily need a ‘mark’ to make a mark!
Lucy x
