Is Your Logo Still Working For You?

Any design agency will tell you that your business’s logo is important to your brand’s success. It needs to be instantly recognisable, and it may need to evolve as your business grows.  

Our own logo design agency here in Coventry is part of our wider web design company – and we benefit from all the elements of our service to create brand designs that speak to every aspect of a business. A brand’s visual identity is the combination of its many various graphic elements – such as colour palette, typography, imagery style … and, of course, that logo.  

A good logo appeals to a business’s audience; it communicates a business’s values and personalities; and it seems fresh and vibrant. Achieving all of these requires work. In doing so, the logo becomes inseparable from the business and fundamental to how a firm is recognised by the public at large.

It can however be too easy for a business to take its logo, and its success, for granted.  When did you last check whether yours is still working for you?  

Pay Your Logo Careful Attention

The truth is, like everything else, a particular logo has a shelf life. Businesses should always be assessing and reassessing their branding materials to ensure they continue to deliver. Yet many businesses will confess that it’s been some time since they last looked seriously at the most important element of their visual identity.

Logos build trust and create brand recognition, appearing across every business touch point. Every logo is a valuable asset – and so it needs as much care as any other. There are three key questions we’d suggest any business asks of their logo (and their logo design agency). We recommend that our own clients here at our brand design agency in Coventry do so on a pretty regular basis.

1. Does your logo effectively represent who you are now? 

We all change over time – and businesses are no exception. Perhaps your logo was fit for purpose and conveyed your brand identity when it was first created … but have you moved apart in the years since?

It’s worth keeping an eye on this. Task a logo design agency with the work, or do it yourself – but make sure it’s done. If your logo is to have maximum impact, it needs to reflect as closely as possible the values and identity of your business. That takes thought and planning – and constant review.

How do you do business now? Who are your audiences today? Has your company evolved – have your clients’ tastes? Your logo will need changes to reflect any and all of these shifts. This doesn’t always require complete redesign – but tiny tweaks can go a long way to updating your identity while retaining all that brand loyalty.

Regularly returning to your logo design in this way will help you stay fresh and keep connected with your clients.

2. Does your logo quickly grab attention or is it a little complex?

Ask any brand design agency and they’ll agree: one of the key characteristics of a good logo is that it grabs attention quickly. It does this through deceptive simplicity, packing a lot of information into an elegant design. 

Colours, shapes, typography and so on all communicate various moods and associations – a good logo design agency knows how to craft these to maximum effect.

But the danger is that a logo becomes overly complex. Perhaps it is tinkered with over time, or maybe as a business’s customers and audiences change over time the logo drifts away from their sensibilities. Either way, you need to look closely at your logo and ask: is this simple enough?

Consider: does your logo make an instant impact? Is it still visually appealing? And, most importantly: does it send the right message, using the right aesthetic language?

3. How easy is it to deploy?   

A business’s logo is the most replicated element of its whole visual identity. It will appear across more or less every marketing channel a business uses: on websites and social media platforms, in letterheads and flyers, on tiny email signatures and huge billboards. Its simplicity is its strength here – versatility is essential.

Does your logo work at all sizes and orientations? Does it work at different resolutions? How small can it go and be recognisable? How big can it be and still look beautiful? Is it an older design? If so, does it work across even the most modern digital channel?

ImagePlus began life here in Coventry as a web design company – we understand digital. Our designers  always take the approach that a good logo needs to work not just in print but on screen. Today, your logo may well have more digital impressions than you’ll ever send out headed letters.

Consider your logo from every angle: on flyers and signage, on mobile phones and huge plasma screens. How will it work in an app? How might it look on a storefront? The trick of brand design is creating an identity for a business that works wherever that business goes.

Crucially, a logo that does not look good – that has aged a little, or no longer reflects the firm it represents – cannot do its job. A logo is the encapsulation of a business and its values, a means of attracting new customers and reminding returning ones of why they love your brand. If it’s no longer quite doing … well, the business … then it needs a refresh.

What To Do With An Old Logo

If your logo needs a rethink, you should go to a logo design agency and discuss your needs. Our own HQ here in Coventry offers brand design agency services that run the gamut – and great logo design really does encompass the entirety of your business and identity. Think of a logo as your business distilled to its visual essence. The goal is to create an identity that instantly reflects your business.

We can also help create different versions of your logo so they work perfectly across the myriad formats and resolutions now required. There have never been more marketing channels, and that’s fantastic – there are so many ways to reach the market today. But that places additional strains on your logo, since it’s the one element that needs to work across all of them.

For example, we often find that, when customers ask for a new website, it can lead to them looking at their logo and realising that it’s no longer right for their needs. Because we’re experts in design and digital, we can carry out an audit to help you understand whether your visual identity is still doing its job – and what might need to be done to improve it.

In other words, don’t take your logo for granted: take it seriously instead. Whether it needs a facelift after years of service or a complete new look and feel for the future, find a logo design agency to help. In fact, why not take a look at our brand work with Pertemps and drop us a line if you like what you see…

Give your logo some love. It’ll pay you back.