
So, what kind of logo is right for me and my company?
There are a lot of things to consider when choosing a logo. Different styles of logos have different possibilities for generating revenue and driving your business in different directions. Take, for example, the Starbucks logo. This logo is an “illustrated logo”, meaning it depicts a person or thing, or something other than the words in the company name. And importantly it’s also a symmetrical design, so it can work beautifully as a t-shirt design and has a broader visual appeal because of the symmetry. Note: Not all logos need to be symmetrical though. – See the Nike Swoosh and Twitter bird logo marks.
The FedEx logo, which is a “letter-mark logo design” would make a great t-shirt design because it incorporates clever visual tricks with letterforms (it contains an arrow in the negative space between the E and the x). And then there’s the Nike logo, which combines a strong iconic “logo-mark” (the checkmark) with a “word-mark” design to create an identity that makes for a wide range of successful applications from t-shirt graphics to advertising and everything in between. Hootsuite, DC Shoes, Adidas, and Jaegermeister are all examples of logos that were designed specifically to work for merchandising.
These are some broad examples of logos with merchandising built into their purpose. It’s important for you as a business owner to decide what capabilities you want for your brand identity, starting with your logo. By understanding the manufacturing process limitations for merchandise, such as t-shirt printing and embroidery, you can make decisions about just how simple you need your logo to be. If your brand relies heavily on using products with your logo embridered onto them, it would be best to keep your logo design super simple, and preferably one colour, like the Nike swoosh or Adidas. Both these designs lend themselves to being embroidered without losing their shapes and iconic power.
And here are two very famous examples of companies that had very expensive logos, with multiple colours and high precision. They had to simplify their design in order to save manufacturing costs, and in doing so, they also made their logos even more iconic and memorable. The new simplified Instagram logo icon can be presented in solid black or whoite and still be effective.
The Starbucks logo received a lot of press and praise for its simplification. The designers focussed on what makes the logo appealing changing colours as well, giving it a much more modern and friendly appearance.
Of course some logos don’t lend themselves to merchandising at all. Take, for example, the famous original Baskin & Robins logo. This is not a logo that inspires you to wear it on a t-shirt and wear with pride, so they updated it to give it more flexibility and more appeal. Wendy’s is another logo that was not very flexible, so it was redesigned, making it simpler and more iconic.
Sometimes typography is enough. Below are some popular examples of wordmarks. These are logos that exist as words only and can exist and be effective on their own. This has the powerful effect of helping the public to remember the name itself, spelling and all.
And here we have a collection of some of the most famous logos, just to get you thinking about what it is you like and want in a logo.
