Through the evolutions of logos, by the world’s largest corporations and conglomerates, you can tell these guys really emphasis on their logo with zero expense spared. As the consensus is, when a person looks at a logo, it should immediately represent the company and the nature of its business without further clarification. Therefore a standout logo is one that is quintessential in the marketing of a company, especially a newly-formed one.

Take the swoosh of a sports apparel brand for example, or a jumping puma or even of a bitten apple, these logos have become significant hallmarks of branding that have represented the company almost instantly without so much of a description. Not even one word; like Nike, Puma or Apple – achieving such recognition is certainly the Holy Grail as business identities go.

And you wonder why these Multinational Corporations spend millions on their logos – here’s a stat, you know that rebranded BP logo – that sunflower-like design that’s has a somewhat similar outline to our  Malaysian flag? BP spent over £100 million pounds introducing it. Some spend less though, like hundreds of thousands, but simply just to change the font, or the colour of it.

But how hard is it for a business to pick a good logo, and how important is it at the end of the day?

Holiday Romance.

If you are presented with a draft of the potential logo for your company which is immediately likeable and represents your value, you might want to take a step back, a long hard look and ponder it, perhaps even bin it and start over, said a Sagi Haviv, a prominent graphic designer from Chermayeff & Geismer & Haviv (GCH) in the Big Apple. It’s claimed that a good logo, a good trademark is one that gains it meaning and recognition over time.

The company has been responsible for some of the most recognizable logos of American businesses in the last 50 years, namely National Geographic, NBC and Harper Collins. It wasn’t all jolly and merry though, it was claimed that client’s had to be persuaded extensively into accepting their now world-famous logos. It has to always be reminded that it’s never a love at first sight type of situation when it comes to logos.

According to Haviv, there are 3 important elements to a well-recognised business logo; appropriateness for the nature of the business, memorable, simple and most importantly, authentic.

GAP’s Predicament.

The move to change a company’s logo is no simple transition, as GAP may have experienced. A few years ago, they took the leap of faith of switching from upper case to lower case letters and oddly, a small blue square behind the letter “p”. To their horror, the new face of GAP was received with a huge public uproar and dissent which GAP immediately scrapped as the company hadn’t realise that the original logo was well-loved by its audience.

Simplicity is key when it comes to all things logos. A good logo will successfully express a company’s values and reputation – it is also how people see and recognize you, and it helps differentiate from your rivals. That being said, no matter how impressive a logo looks, it will only be as successful as the company’s ability to gain trust.

“A logo will not allow a company to build a reputable brand on its own”.