Avoid This Common Logo Design Mistake: Making It Too Literal

Avoid this logo design mistake for future brand success.

If you're creating a logo, or having one created for you, one of the biggest mistakes we see is trying to have the product, service, or industry 100 percent reflected in the mark.

The dog and the leash

Example: the business is a dog walking service, so let's put a dog and a leash in it.

Every industry has its version of this. The dentist gets a tooth. The realtor gets a roofline. The coffee shop gets a coffee cup. The lawyer gets scales. Drive down any commercial street and you can play bingo with them. Each one made sense in the meeting. Together, they all cancel each other out, because a customer can't remember which tooth belonged to which dentist.

Now, that's not to say you can't execute this method in an elegant way. There are great examples out there, the US Open and YouTube come to mind, and niching has its benefits.

However, there's an alternative way to go about it. A way that'll lay a much better foundation for brand building.

Think abstract, think story

You want your logo to be memorable, relevant, and specific to the business. Sometimes that means thinking a little abstract or conceptual.

• Apple uses an apple, but they don't sell apples. They sell technology.
• McDonald's uses their Golden Arches, not burgers and fries.
• Starbucks uses its iconic twin tailed siren of the sea, not a coffee bean.

There's history and a reason behind each of those. There's a story. Don't be afraid to let your logo or brand identity take inspiration from the story.

And notice what the literal version gives up. The dog walking logo can only ever say "dog walking." It can't grow into boarding, or training, or a second location, without the mark arguing with the business. It can't be premium, or playful, or trusted, because a clip art dog doesn't carry any of that. It just labels the category and stops. The abstract mark has room for the story to move in. The literal one is a name tag.

Run the street test

Here's how to catch yourself doing it. Picture your logo in a lineup with five competitors, which around Orlando is just called looking at a strip mall. If every mark in the lineup shows the same object, yours included, you're all wearing the same uniform. Nobody remembers a uniform.

Then ask the second question: if you removed the industry object from your logo, would anything be left? An idea, a personality, a story? If nothing's left, the logo was the object, and the object belongs to everyone in your industry. It was never really yours.

The design company test

Some of the most successful brands out there use visuals that have a deeper meaning than face value. Imagine if all the graphic design companies just used pens and paint palettes as an identity system. Or at this point, would it be a computer, keyboard, and mouse? But wait, wouldn't that mean we're a tech company?

Literal describes a category. Meaning describes a business. One of those can be owned. It's a rule in our logo design work, and it sits next to two related ideas: making your logo unique and knowing where you sit among the five common logo styles.

Thinking about your own logo? Book a free consult with Alchemy Design in Orlando and get an honest read on where it stands.