What Makes an EFFECTIVE Logo?

To best answer this question, we have to decide what we are really wanting to accomplish.  Thus the wording of the question...Effectiveness!  Does your logo accomplish what it needs to?

In our last article, we examined the basic purpose of a logo:  To Identify your company and to distinguish it from all other companies.  But really, there is more to that story.  How ADAPTABLE is that logo?  Can it be usable in EVERY application?

For instance,  I have seen some really flashy logos that looked appealing on a billboard, as the owner spent excessive amounts of money to get it reproduced.  But how effective would that same logo be on the side of a pencil?...in a single color?  

What if you wanted to print that same complex logo in the phone book?  Do you really want to pay all of the color charges to make it look right?  What if you want to embroider it on a shirt?  All the money in the world cannot make that happen if it is too complex.  I would guess that MOST logos in use today could never be embroidered.  Either it would look completely different than other applications or it simply could not be done.

That is why a logo needs to be designed with all of those applications in mind.  A logo is NOT effective if you HAVE to change it to make it work in other applications.   Large or small – Black & White or full color – Complicated or simple application....Your logo should be just as effective...no matter how you use it!