Logo Versus Brand – What Is The Difference?

Granted, yes, a logo design is part of your company’s corporate identity. However, the logo itself is not dependent on your company’s brand alone. So logo versus brand, what is the difference and when exactly does a logo become part of a brand? In order to answer this question, first let’s determine what the difference is between a logo and a brand.

What is a logo? In order to fully understand what a logo is, we must first identify the reasoning behind it and what its main purpose is. Several different aspects go into the design process of a logo. It must aim high to make it immediately recognizable while also inspiring admiration, trust, loyalty, in addition to an implied superiority. A logo is not used to sell, it is used to identify.

Paul Rand, one of the world’s greatest designers states that “a logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon, a street sign. A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies. A logo is rarely a description of a business. A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around. A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it represents is more important than what it looks like. The subject matter of a logo can be almost anything.”

What is a brand? The best way to describe a brand is to look at it as a collection of perceptions that customers and prospective clients have about your business. Although you do not have control over these perceptions, it doesn’t mean that you have no control over your brand. Controlling your customer’s idea of your brand can be defined by designing striking and impactful graphics that will convey your message. Using these same graphics on a consistent basis throughout the design of all of your marketing materials will help portray the right idea about your brand to your customers and clients.

What Aspects of Your Brand Do You Have Total Control Over?

Your Story – What are you trying to say about your business? Figuring out who you are, what you do, what makes you unique and separates you from everyone else, and who are your best clients? And then combining all of that information into an easy, straight-forward, and understandable story of your brand.

Your Logo – Your logo should be designed in a way that identifies your brand while also maintaining an attractiveness to your target customers and clients.

Your Visual Vocabulary – Your logo is only one piece of your visual communication tools. Visual Vocabulary is a combination of various other visual aspects. These may include but are not limited to background colors, palettes, and patterns. Others may include header designs, stock photos, borders, special treatments for buttons and special offers, product images, and font styles. In essence, Visual Vocabulary provides you with more tools to create stunning designs for your brand.

Specific Marketing Material – This includes business cards, letterhead, stationary, brochures, website, blog, and social media design such as your Twitter background and Facebook Timeline Cover. Each of these materials should maintain a consistent look and feel while also complementing each other.

So in conclusion, a brand is so much more than just a logo. It is the uniform way of telling your company’s story through unique and consistent design. This story will then stick in your client’s minds and their comments and buzz about your company will reinforce their perception about you, and the ideas that you want them to have about your business.

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