The MUSIC of Great Logos

Freedom…

Many of us entrepreneurs, in our excitement over our newfound independence, often want to express our newly liberated tastes in our logo design. In our exuberance, we might try to include all of our favorite colors, graphic elements, and even an elaborate thousand-word story into our logos.

It’s perfectly natural. Finally emancipated from someone else’s ideas about what looks good, we want to proclaim our own. Our logos often become repositories for all of that previously pent-up creative energy.

Responsibility…

But in reality, we have to step back and take a wider, more long-term look at the function of a logo. Because the elements that go into designing a great small business logo — including the graphics and illustrations, typefaces, and colors—should not be based on our tastes.

In fact, in trying to include everything we adore into our logos — every image, every font, every color that expresses our personal fancies — entrepreneurs risk seriously cluttering up not just a logo, but the core message of a brand.

The truth is that a logo is a tool to communicate your brand message. An effective logo will capture, in a single, eye-catching design, everything about your brand: your brand story, your brand values, and your ideal client or customer. A successful small business logo does much more than look good — it enhances and reinforces a brand message. And, most importantly, it speaks directly to your target client-base.

MUSIC…

When designing your logo, then, what is key? Communication, not decoration. Brand, not taste. And audience, audience, audience.

Your logo must communicate your brand in a way that resonates clearly and powerfully with people, like good music. And logos have five key traits which we can remember with the acronym, MUSIC: they are memorable, unique, simple, interesting, and classical. Each of these traits is geared toward communicating your brand without clutter and speaking — or singing! — directly to your audience:

1. MEMORABLE: Great logos are recognizable and make sense, creating both an “I’ve seen your before” trigger and a positive association in the mind of your audience, like the songs we grew up with.
2. UNIQUE: Great logos are unique and stand out from the crowd, awakening audiences to what’s special about you. Study what your competition is doing well, and not so well, in their branding and logo design, and differentiate yourself.
3. SIMPLE: The best logos are simple. They communicate your brand clearly. Your audience must be able to read and understand your logo at all sizes, large and small, and in color and black and white. It has to be like a catchy tune.
4. INTERESTING: Great logos excite the attention of a brand’s prospects, clients, and audience. A visually attractive, emotionally appealing, and thought-provoking logo will engage your audience longer and strengthen their interest in your brand.
5. CLASSIC: The best songs never sound dated. That’s why we call them classics. So be careful not to incorporate fads and hot trends into your logo. If your logo is memorable, unique, simple, and interesting, and you focus on designing a logo that speaks to your ideal client, your small business logo should last the lifetime of your business, with maybe only a tweak or two here and there.

Greatness!
Together, all five of these characteristics amount to great logos that do what they are supposed to do — communicate your core brand message clearly and directly to your ideal client in a way that is unique, exciting, enduring, and unforgettable.

That is the kind of MUSIC that the greatest logos play.