Articles

A logo is not your brand, nor is it your identity. Logo design, identity design and branding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for a business or product.

There has been some recent discussion on the web about this topic, about your logo not being your brand. Although this may be true, I haven’t seen any clarification of the differences between ‘brand’, ‘identity’ and ‘logo’. I wish to rectify this.

What is brand? – The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.
What is identity? – The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.
What is a logo? – A logo identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon.

To explain this in more detail, let’s start at the top – the brand.

Personal branding is by no means a new or light topic, but with the rise of social technologies, personal branding is as accessible as ever, meaning you have so much more opportunity, but also so much more competition.

For you to stand out amongst the noise, you must become a valued brand. That brand is ‘You’. Take a closer look at the start of personal branding and see how you can use it to start building your own personal brand. Brand You™.

What makes a good logo? A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic, simple in form and conveys an intended message.

There are five principles that you should follow to ensure that this is so…

An effective logo is (in no particular order):

• Simple
• Memorable
• Timeless
• Versatile
• Appropriate

How do you get the design you want? The perfect design you envision in your head? … The design brief is the answer.

Whether you are a designer or a client, an effective design brief is the single most critical factor in ensuring that a project is successful.

This article will tell you how to write an effective design brief that will be both beneficial to the client and the designer.

This article will be based from the client’s perspective.