04 logo characteristics

8/8/2019 04 Logo Characteristics

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/04-logo-characteristics 1/33

Graphics 2

What makes a good logo design?

µThe design should capture the essence of what the companyis about - to act as a flag, a standard where the standard-bearer is the physical medium on which the logo appears.

It is so important that the logo offers the world an insight intothe values of the company it represents.

You don¶t have to use green if you don¶t want to.¶ -

typical response to a query posted in a forum for graphic designers;

µI¶m designing a logo for an exclusive garden designer to go ona glossy brochure and on his tender portfolios as well asstationery.

I¶m thinking of avoiding green and fine lines altogether and instead use reds and browns with a Modern typeface - what doyou think?¶



What makes a good logo design?

Introduction

advice from marketing experts

advice from graphic designers

evidence from research

a look at a study and resulting guidelines from Henderson and Cote (1998) .



advice from marketers;

1. µcatch the eye¶; µgrab attention¶; µimmediate impact¶; µhold the viewer¶s gaze¶

2. µappealing to the eye¶; µenjoyable to look at¶; µaesthetically pleasing¶

3. µpositive image¶; µspeak well of the brand¶; µenhance the brand¶s reputation¶

4. µrepresent the business¶; µappropriate to the company¶s activities¶

5. µeasy to remember¶; µeasily recognisable¶; µhelp customers remember the brand¶

6. µstand the test of time¶; µhold its value¶; µremain fresh and relevant with age¶

7. µeasy to duplicate¶; µnot too expensive to print¶; µsuitable for a range of uses¶ .

tends to be a little vague, perhaps stating the obvious, not really enough to justify many specific design decisions;



quite a good effort at making it clear there are no µgoldenrules¶, that there¶s more to the process than slapping a fewcoloured polygons on the page and adding the company

name in a font no one¶s ever heard of« -

plenty of sites on the internet that have a jolly good attempt at explaining logodesign, for example;

http://www.thelogofactory.com/library/articles/what-makes-a-good-logo.html

advice from graphic designers;



some are good at explaining their own priorities, eg this from David Airey

http://www.davidairey.com/what-makes-a-good-logo/

³There are four critical elements that can be seen in every great logodesign:

It must be describable

It must be memorable

It must be effective without colour

It must be scalable i.e. effective when just an inch in size

Points 1 and 2 go hand in hand, because if you can¶t describe what alogo looks like then how will you be able to remember it?

Point 3 is important because colour is secondary to the shape. Addingcolour to your logo should be left to the very end of the process,because if the mark doesn¶t work in black only, no amount of colour will rescue the design.

Point 4 is vital for things such as office stationery (pens, pin badgesetc.). All those little things that people often forget about.´ -




more resources from David Airey;

http://www.logosdesigners.com/

Another of Airey¶s projects - here he has collected a list of influentialdesigners with information about their work -

http://www.logodesignlove.com/

Airey has assembled articles and resources dedicated to logo design, very usefuland a practical approach from a successful designer




from µR eally Good Logos Explained ¶«

The lettering here is very elegantly done.

The weights of the capitals are well

balanced to the lowercase, and the missing

dot and slices keep if from feeling too heavy

in any one spot.¶

µ«the use of a fine hand-executedillustration emphasizes the organic and

natural. The type is elegantly combined,

using the tail of the µy¶ as the i-dot and

interlinking the µO¶ and the µS¶ into a

monogram.¶

µThe illustration appears as though it waspulled from a classic botanical book. The

interlocking letterforms do not hinder overall

readability and their positioning creates a

well anchored pyramid shape that refuses

to budge.




Upaya Wellness Clinic

µThe hand shapes used here are friendly,

well drawn, and configured into a lotus

shape that takes advantage of negative

space to communicate more than one

message - or is it massage? The feeling isclan and modern without being cold¶

µHands and lotus flower elegantly combine

in this mark. The appreciation of the

symmetry of the negative interior space

shows attention to detail.¶




µThis is a nice use of negative space that

adds some fun to lettering. The missing µo¶

and µi¶ mess with your eyes and give the

mark character¶

µA nice use of positive negative space that

has a relevance to the product. Moreanimated bounce might help (although that

is somewhat of a cliché in snack lettering),

it looks somewhat formal as is. The white

line clipping the µc¶ indicates there may be

more invisible white elements to be found if

we looked more closely¶ µProportional thickness defines the ring of

the µo¶ and the circle around the dot - a sign

of the designer¶s control over every detail of

this tasty mark.¶



meaning«

stimulus codability term used by psychologists to describe

consensual interpretation of a stimulus; for our purposes the stimulus is an image

subjective familiarity highly codable images also tend to feel familiar

to the observer even if the image itself is new

meaning of the logo a familiar, highly codable image will tend to

remind people of the same thing;

µwhat does the owl mean?¶ .

Owls;

wisdom - Pallas, Minerva both had owls

vision - owls hunt at night, reputation for visual acuity

dignity - association from use of the image based on

the above and familiar images of owls sitting still



recognition and µmemorability¶«

customers may only have sight of the logo for a brief period walking down supermarket aisle, driving past billboard, flicking TV channels,

flicking through magazine

evidence from psychological studies suggests that the perception of images occurs more quickly than words in reading we recognise familiar words by shape rather then their constituent

letters recognition of an image can evoke memory of textual information

such as brand name and strapline/tagline

two levels of recognition remember having seen the logo before

subsequently recall the brand that owns the logo

making the logo easy to remember is a function of the design subsequent recall is largely due to marketing efforts

false recognition ± occurs when people believe they have seen thelogo when they have not obvious advantages for a new logo .



affect«

affect can be transferred by

association to the brand

public perception of the product may

be negative, even if not justified

eg Procter and Gamble µmoon and stars¶

logo, Joe Camel (Calfee (2000))

obviously the way people feel when

exposed to a logo will have a bearing

on purchase decisions, recognition

and subsequent development of a

µbrand community¶ .



surprisingly little from the academic community«

«probably a rich area for future research for those that are interested

some work that¶s relevant (reading list);

Aaker, Jennifer L, Dimensions of Brand Personality , Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Aug., 1997), pp.347-356

Bogart, Leo and Lehman, Charles, What Makes a Brand Name Familiar?, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 10, No.1 (Feb., 1973), pp. 17-22

Cobb-Walgren, Cathy J., Ruble, Cynthia A., Donthu, Naveen, Brand Equity, Brand Preference, and Purchase Intent ,Journal of Advertising, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 25-40

Erdem, Tulin and Swait, Joffre, Brand Equity as a Signaling Phenomenon, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 7,No. 2 (1998), pp. 131-157

Henderson, Pamela W. and Cote, Joseph A., Guidelines for Selecting or Modifying Logos, The Journal of Marketing,Vol. 62, No. 2 (Apr., 1998), pp. 14-30

Janiszewski, Chris and Meyvis, Tom, Effects of Brand Logo Complexity, R epetition, and Spacing on Processing Fluency Judgment , The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Jun., 2001), pp. 18-32

Muniz, Albert M. Jr. and O'Guinn, Thomas C., Brand Community , The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 27, No. 4(Mar., 2001), pp. 412-432

Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict E. M., Batra, Rajeev, Alden, Dana L., How Perceived Brand Globalness Creates Brand Value, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan., 2003), pp. 53-65 -

empirical research;



Henderson, Pamela W. and Cote, Joseph A., Guidelines for Selecting or

Modifying Logos, The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Apr., 1998), pp.

14-30

study to investigate how the design features of a logo would interact with

the following properties that are desirable in a good design;

Corr ect Recognition - how easily people recognise the logo after previously

being exposed to it

False Recognition - whether people believe they recognise it when in fact they

have not previously been exposed to it

Positive Affect - whether exposure to the logo results in positive or negative

feelings, emotions, moods Familiar Meaning - to what extent the logo invokes the same meaning as others

(µstimulus codability¶) or some subjective meaning (ie not tied to cultural norms) .

empirical research;



selection of dependent variables«



characteristic design features«

these were selected arbitrarily in consultation with texts andprofessional graphic designers;

example logos were prepared that exhibited each designfeature

subjects were surveyed on how each example logo scored on

a scale of the desired properties; Correct Recognition

False Recognition

Affect

Meaning

various controls were in place to avoid priming effects the results were correlated and analysed using a range of

statistical techniques to identify which features accounted for which variance .




Natural ± resemble common objects; µr epr esentative/abstract¶ ±

representative logos should enhancefamiliarity (obviously, because the logo isdesigned to resemble an object that isfamiliar to us), highly abstractrepresentations are difficult to recognise

µor ganic /geometric¶ ± organic refers tothe chaotic, random shapes that occur innature, and should be more meaningful;geometric shapes are not common innature, but may be familiar to us as part of our industrialised culture




Har mony ± symmetry and balance egGestalt principles µbalance¶ ± logos that manage to present

elements that µeven each other out¶ from sideto side or top to bottom; may refer toink/whitespace, size, complexity, colours

µsymmetr y¶ ± reflected along one or more axis ± Gestalt school maintains that symmetry isvery important for recognition and affect,elements of symmetry are very common innature; higher animals are symmetrical(although with variations) -




Elaborate ± richness, captureessence of something withsimplicity, eg heraldic marks µcomplexity¶ ± classic graphics advice is

that simplicity provides best affect,however psychology of arousal suggests

that there will be a u-shaped response;some complexity will enhance affect buttoo much will be detrimental

µactive¶ ± elements that suggest motionor flow

µdepth¶ ± perspective, 3 dimensionaleffects




Parallel ± lines or curves that run

together

Repetition ± repeat the same elements

Pr oportion ± eg golden ratio

Round ± curves, ellipses and circles as

opposed to sharp corners and angles -



selection of independent variables«



variance explained by design features«



from discussion and conclusion«

Corr ect Recognition is achieved by naturalness, but too much harmony isslightly detrimental to recognition

³ Moderate levels of harmony (the logo is not perfectly balanced or

symmetrical) also improve recognition. These departures from perfect

symmetry and balance (which are so common in design) appear to be

more memorable.´ the relationship between harmony and recognition is not linear - there is a

curve that peaks so that there is an optimal level of harmony - enough but

not too much

note that in nature, symmetry is not perfect, and a truly symmetrical

photograph of a face, for example, looks bizarre .




False Recognition occurs when logos are less distinctive, more general

³ characteristics include a lack of naturalness (less memorable than more

natural symbols), high harmony (very common in design and less

distinctive), and multiple parallel lines (which make symbols more difficult

to distinguish).´

³ In addition, false recognition is increased when the logo's proportion iscloser to a height of approximately 75%-80% of the width´

the µgolden ratio¶ or µgolden section¶ is about 68% aspect ratio. It occurs in

nature (snail shell) and has been copied by artists and architects for

thousands of years - very familiar to us .




Positive Affect is achieved with logos that are µmoderately elaborate¶.

³ The best way to ensure more affectively pleasing logos is to select

moderately elaborate designs (degree of elaborateness is a relative

concept, and logos tend to be fairly simple in design). Elaborateness is a

function of complexity, activity, and depth´

³ Slightly more elaborate logos should evoke more positive affectiveevaluations and will maintain viewer interest and liking over repeated

exposure´

³ Naturalness (representative and organic) also improves affect, though

the logo should not be excessively natural´ .




Familiar Meaning is achieved when there is high codability andsubjective familiarity is evoked - ie representations of commonobjects.

³After all, a logo with an unfamiliar meaning will not evokecommon associations across people.´

³ Familiar meaning can be maximized (without reducing

distinctiveness) by selecting a unique, but easily interpreted,design of a familiar object.´

³ Familiar meaning is increased by naturalness, as this captureshow representative and organic the logo is, and by having a proportion close to that of the golden section, as this is the most familiar proportion in design and nature.´ .



the right design for the right purpose«

Henderson and Cote identify three µclasses¶ of logo that might use theexperimental data to inform their design;

High-r ecognition logos ± designed to maximise customer recognition andsupport the efforts of marketing ± retail brands need to be easily recognised after prior exposure

need to recall the brand

should not be easily confused with other logos and their brands

Low-investment logos ± designed to look familiar even without the supportof marketing and brand exposure ± new / small business, limited budget need to capture a high level of false recognition

helpful if they are confused with other logos and brands

High-image logos ± designed to invoke positive affect on exposure, butrecognition not required ± business to business, holding companies, venture

capital need to capitalise on features that have broad appeal

need to avoid possible negative connotations

possibly need to be difficult to recognise eg DSGI



three types of logo that achieve different goals«



design guidelines for achieving goals«



Sources

Calfee, John E., The Historical Significance of Joe Camel , Journal of Public Policy & Marketing,Vol. 19, No. 2 (Fall, 2000), pp. 168-182

Aaker, Jennifer L, Dimensions of Brand Personality , Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 34, No. 3(Aug., 1997), pp. 347-356

Bogart, Leo and Lehman, Charles, What Makes a Brand Name Familiar?, Journal of MarketingResearch, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Feb., 1973), pp. 17-22

Cobb-Walgren, Cathy J., Ruble, Cynthia A., Donthu, Naveen, Brand Equity, Brand Preference,

and Purchase Intent , Journal of Advertising, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 25-40

Erdem, Tulin and Swait, Joffre, Brand Equity as a Signaling Phenomenon, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1998), pp. 131-157

Henderson, Pamela W. and Cote, Joseph A., Guidelines for Selecting or Modifying Logos, TheJournal of Marketing, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Apr., 1998), pp. 14-30

Janiszewski, Chris and Meyvis, Tom, Effects of Brand Logo Complexity, R epetition, and Spacing on Processing Fluency Judgment , The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Jun.,

2001), pp. 18-32 Muniz, Albert M. Jr. and O'Guinn, Thomas C., Brand Community , The Journal of Consumer

Research, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Mar., 2001), pp. 412-432

Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict E. M., Batra, Rajeev, Alden, Dana L., How Perceived Brand GlobalnessCreates Brand Value, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan., 2003), pp.53-65 .

04 logo characteristics

Documents