Social Media Strategy & Engagement Marketing by Karl Long

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Apr 20, 2006

When A Company Logo Warms Your Heart

It’s rare for a company logo to stop me in my tracks, but when I noticed this in the top left of the screen I just had to write a note of appreciation.

It’s so good it made me all tingle-y and not many corporate logo’s do that for me.

It’s just another example of why it’s important to have a framework for your brand, a framework that enables creativity. Most corporate branding tomes don’t allow for any creativity. I for one would love to hear what some serious corporate branding people think about this approach.

6 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Steve Portigal

    This is not a huge point, but maybe worth a quick mention that you importantly distinguish between the company’s logo and their brand. Their brand is fixed (even if that includes variable slots), their logo is variable.

    There’s maybe something about the fact that we all know the “real” logo, and these variations are just that, variations - the real logo is something we can all picture in our heads.

    Apr 20th, 2006

  2. karl long

    Very true Steve, and a point worth highlighting. Look at most “brand” guidlines and it is all about how to use the logo and it leaves little room for creativity. In many ways the Brand-Nazi was a reaction to how abused company logos can be in the hands of non-designers. I saw Lee Green (Director, Corporate Identity & Design for IBM) give a talk once and one slide demonstrated how IBM’s logo had been modified by different groups and partners for various events, partnerships, new products etc. Needless to say it was an absolute horror of graphic design abuse, so corporations had to create stringent guidlines and controls. Mind you the treatment of the IBM with the “eye bee m” by Paul Rand is another great example of creativity with a company logo that works so well.

    eye bee m

    Apr 20th, 2006

  3. Joe Pemberton

    It likely warmed your heart because you already have an affinity for Google. If a brand you merely put up (say Kinko’s or Denny’s) did the same thing you may not have that same reaction.

    It is interesting to see a trend toward more flexible brand marks. Consider the Tivo guy and the Cingular “jack” as marks that take on a more active, playful role. Google included of course.

    Apr 21st, 2006

  4. karl long

    Hmmm, I admit i “like” google, but if i think back to the instant I saw it, it struck me as artwork before it struck me as a logo. In fact I don’t think it sank in that it was a logo in the first few miliseconds, it was quite viseral.

    Agreed re. the other logo’s you’ve mentioned. The other interesting thing about tivo is how it’s user interface and audio clues have become as much of it’s brand, and kind of pop culturesque. I think a coupel of sitcoms have invluded tivo jokes, simpsons I remember.

    Apr 21st, 2006

  5. Tim Whelan

    ts true creativity can add a new zip and zag to logos that seem to have gotten a little tired. This artistic trend has its plus side in that it recreates a brand identification path as well as opens identity targets in new market segments.

    Changing the brand logo does another unique item on the brand and that it alters the perception of the brand promise and its unique identity. This may or may not be so good and certainly may cause a confused market to abandon the band because of the lack of clarity in the message. Then too it will bring on new market share because of a new identity that is created through the new perception. After all as you look at the familiar Google and the one portrayed above the visual and emotional messages are certainly different.

    My main concern is if you spent the last 5 years building the brand identity and promise why would you want to gamble with concept creativity and ruin what you worked so hard to establish? Of course if for some reason like customer abandonment, social disasters etc where your brand has taken a hard hit a little creativity maybe what is in order to reestablish your business identity.

    This really plays havoc with customer experience development and customer expectations. This is especially true for experiences outside of the brand influence. Such practices of creating new creative plays off the existing brand logo can be some what devastating. The brand and the logo are the same and carry certain triggers to customer perception that go beyond the brand.

    Apr 22nd, 2006

  6. Dau

    The family of this artist insisted that google pull it from the web site.

    Apr 24th, 2006

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