Too often, when I’m hired to build a brand, the client wants the logo to show what they do. This is a complete misunderstanding of what a logo is for.
A logo is just an identifier. Its job is to be simple and distinctive, nothing more. Meaning comes from context.
Put the same logo on a shoe and it reads as a sports brand. Put it on a gold watch and it reads as luxury. The logo hasn’t changed, the context has.
This applies to the entire brand system. Colours, fonts, and layouts should meet the expectations of the industry you operate in. The content, copy and imagery, does the real work of communicating what you stand for.
The logo simply identifies that content or product as yours.
Over time, once people are familiar with your brand, the logo becomes shorthand for what you represent. At that point it can exist out of context and still carry meaning. But it only earns that power after everything else has done the work.
