Imagine this. You see a logo for the first time and you are instantly mesmerized by it. It’s a beautiful mark, and a piece of art that you’d hang up on the wall above your bed. It tells the entire, compelling story of what the company is, and how it came to be. You immediately know what market space they’re in, and you can easily see how they position themselves. The perfect logo! …The perfect logo?

Here’s the problem: this logo will never exist. Why? Well firstly, a logo could never—and most definitely should never—do this. If you want your “logo” to be an 8x10" amalgamation of incoherent elements, you could try to tackle a few of these areas. If you think that a logo should jump out at you and tell a story when you see it for the first time, you’re thinking of it wrong. And you’re definitely not the only one who has this misconception.

So then, what makes a good logo?

To understand this, we must first understand what a logo is, what it should be, and how it should function.

What is a logo?

In the most concentrated form, a logo is an identifying mark. A logo is made up of text and/or symbols, and should be a recognizable mark that identifies a brand.

What should a logo do?

According to Sagi Haviv (a mastermind behind many of the beautiful marks that you see every day), a logo’s purpose is for identification — not communication. It should be the period at the end of the sentence. Not the sentence.

Contrary to popular belief, a logo doesn’t need to present a bold narrative, or cleverly play off of the industry or brand name. It’s pretty obvious that “John’s Woodworking” does woodworking, even without hiding a nail and saw within the mark. Inversely, there is a good chance that trying to be clever will end up muddling up the logo, and make it go against everything that it should be.

What should a logo be?

To further quote Sagi Haviv, a good logo should have 3 primary factors:

1. It must be appropriate. It should feel right for what it represents.
2. A logo must be distinctive and memorable.
3. A good logo must be simple. It should be easy to use and reproduce.

Here’s an exercise: think of the logo of one of any leading company. There is a good chance that you could reproduce a recognizable rendition of it within a few seconds, even without seeing it. This is because it’s memorable enough that you can think of it, simple enough that you can copy it, and distinctive enough that even your rough execution will be identifiable as their logo.

In essence…

A logo is an identifying mark. It should be distinctive, recognizable, and memorable. It shouldn’t be overly communicative or multilayered. A mark that is overtly expansive won’t be simple. A logo is just the tip of the branding iceberg, and it can only do so much. Pressuring a logo to do more than it needs to will only make it more complicated, and less effective.

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