- A logo is one part of a brand, alongside positioning, audience, tone of voice, colour, type and the rules that hold them together.
- Design the logo after the positioning, so it can carry an idea instead of only looking nice.
- Recognition comes from repetition: people come to like what they see often[1].
- Brief a logo with the positioning, the audience and one idea it should express.
What people mean when they say "brand"
A logo is a mark: a name in a particular style, a symbol, or both. A brand is what people think and feel when they meet your company, and the set of decisions you make to shape that. The logo is the most visible of those decisions, which is why it gets mistaken for the whole thing.
| Part of the brand | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Positioning | Who is this for, and why is it the better choice? |
| Audience | Who exactly are we speaking to, and what do they believe? |
| Tone of voice | How do we sound in an ad, an error message, a pitch? |
| Colour and type | How do we look everywhere, not only in the logo? |
| Logo | How do people recognise and remember the name? |
| Brand book | How does anyone else apply all of this correctly? |
Why the order matters
Designers can only make a logo mean something if they know what it should mean. When the positioning comes first, the logo can carry a specific idea: a drop of water in the name of a hydration brand, a doorway in the mark of a rental platform, a calm serif for a health service. When the logo comes first, it is chosen on taste alone and often has to be redone once the company knows what it stands for.
A great logo with no brand around it
Picture a striking logo on a deck with five fonts, a website in different colours and social posts in a third style. People do not connect the three. The logo cannot do the job alone, because recognition comes from seeing the same things together, repeatedly. Psychologists call this the mere exposure effect: people tend to like what they have seen more often[1]. Repetition only works if what repeats is consistent.
How to brief a logo properly
- Start with one positioning sentence. Who the company is for and why it is better.
- Name the audience and where they will see the logo: an app icon, a pack on a shelf, a van, a pitch deck.
- Pick one idea the logo should express. One. A logo that tries to say five things says none.
- Give the colour and type direction from your brand, so the logo belongs to it.
- Ask for routes, not variations. Three genuinely different directions teach you more than ten versions of one.
For the main logo types and when each suits a startup, see wordmark, symbol or emblem.
What to do if you already have a logo
You do not need to throw it away. Write the positioning, tone, colours and type around it, and check whether the logo fits. If it does, you now have a brand. If it clearly does not, you know what the new logo needs to say.