What makes a logo, iconic?
Logo designing may look easy but it's the most challenging task which impacts the visual design. The logo is the face of the product.
In our daily lives, there are some brand names that we can tell just by seeing their logos. This shows that a logo is not a means of communication but an identification that tells, who we are rather than what we do.
Let me give you an example of Nike. The simple tick mark nowhere represents the shoes. Yet, we recognize it as a shoe brand.
Sagi Haviv is a partner and designer at Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. He has designed over 60 identity programs, including those for the US Open Tennis Championships, Conservation International, Harvard University Press, Discovery+, L.A. Reid’s Hitco Entertainment, and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum.
For more details, you can visit their official website.
https://www.cghnyc.com/about/sagi/
Recently I watched his interaction with Chris do, in which, he was explaining all about, how to design an iconic logo. According to Sagi, a logo should be a balance of simplicity and distinctiveness. It should also be appropriate in feeling but at the same time not too complicated and generic.
Can you tell the difference between the logos below?
The logo of health care above may look good but it is not an example of a good and iconic logo because it doesn't have the most important trait which is simplicity. The comparison with Nat Geo’s logo will suffice.
Simplicity is the hardest. People will often raise doubts about how a simple presentation of boxes and circles relates to some brand. But then we have Addidas, Microsoft, Pepsi, etc. they lived forever. That’s why Sagi says,
It’s never love at first sight
Take some time and think, what do you want, a logo that represents the company’s work or a logo that will give an identity to the product/company.
To explain this let's say if Adidas would have some shoe in its logo and after some years they start dealing in electronic appliances too, then how would a logo with a shoe justify the electronics market of Adidas. That means, it failed the test of time.
These points are for those clients or designers who think that a logo should communicate. You all should hear the famous story of Chase Manhattan’s logo by Sagi Haviv.
Well, I would like to conclude by saying that a logo should stand the test of time. Don’t run behind the trends, just make it perfect.
Symbols don’t make it clear what you do. It makes clear who they are. The less they say, the better. We have to understand what our clients are and it’s not necessary what they tell us
— Ivan Chermayeff
