The irony in Shakespeare’s statement rings true, even in our century. “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare, himself, knew there was much in a name. As a matter of fact, the entire play, “Romeo and Juliet” is based on this theme. And while his central characters are screaming that there is no difference, we know better. In this article, we tend to describe five famous logo designs that tell a story.
Your logo is a part of your “name” online. It is important to the branding of your business. It tells people what your brand is about in the most subtle way. It speaks to the visitor on your page who wants to know whether they should spend time on your page or with your mobile app.
In today’s mobile market, it has become even more important that your logo is attractive, relevant to your business, and eye-catching.
But it needs to be more than that. It needs to tell a story. People love a good story in any form that they can find it. So if you can encapsulate your story in your logo, you are going to be that much more likely to capture the attention of your intended audience.
But how do you do this?
To help you plan your logo for your business, we scoured the web for logo designs that tell a story so that you can see some real examples of how a good logo looks that captures more than just a graphic or the name of your business.
1. Library Lovers Art Auction Logo
One great example of a logo that tells a story about a brand is the Library Lovers Arts Auction. As you can see from their logo, they have combined the idea of painting or art with the book theme representing the library. It was created for the Lancaster Public Library which takes both arts and reading very seriously and promotes the arts.
People would know immediately that the library cares about art when they see the brush strokes and paintbrush and that they are book-oriented from the books on the paintbrush. It may seem academic to know that a library would care about books but it’s pretty important these days. Most libraries only have a small sampling of real books now that everything is in digital media. So this sets this library apart in that way and lets people know that books and art are both equally important to them.
2. Starbucks Logo
Ever wonder what the green logo is all about on your Starbucks coffee cup? It’s a fictional character from the famous literary classic, “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville. The atmosphere of Starbucks also reminds one of reading and literature or even a Nantucket fishing village where locals gathered to discuss events and analyze life.
The character on the Starbucks cup was known as “Pequod,” the ship’s first mate in the story. But there are also allusions to the Greek sirens which are said to have lured sailors to their fate at sea in a moment of weakness.
So how has Starbucks managed to create a multi-million dollar business on a legendary character that people were supposed to avoid? Great marketing. And most people probably don’t know the story of the sirens. If they did, they would probably still drink the coffee, and die with a smile on their face.
3. McDonald’s Logo
Another logo that is globally popular (as is the chain it represents) is McDonald’s. With over $25.41 billion in annual revenue, the company could afford any logo they want. But they stuck with the simplicity of the “M” that represents their brand. The logo has changed over the years, but it still focuses on the basic familiar “M.”
In 2003, they made the logo be further enhanced by the saying, “I’m Lovin’ it!” to illustrate the “mmmm” sound that people make when eating delicious food.
To add to the drama and story, a famous rapper, Pusha T wrote the lyrics for the McDonald’s “Lovin it” logo that brought, even more, attention to it. “I’m Lovin’ it” has been argued to be grammatically incorrect and there are numerous forums set up for this topic. But this part is ridiculous! Even Shakespeare broke the rules of grammatical form when it proved a point or added to the style. Your logo can be whatever you want it to be!
4. Eat Innovations
Eat Innovations is a company that illustrates what they do right on their logo. There is a spoon that is perfectly aligned with the open part of the small “e” which illustrates the fact that they are a unique restaurant. The handle of the spoon fits neatly into the open part of the “a.” You can’t tell where they are located from the logo, but you do know they serve food. The logo almost resembles the act of feeding a baby that is hungry from a distance.
There is also a “speech balloon” that is located in the upper part of the “e.” This indicates either that it is a good place to talk and visit with friends or that they are open to comments about their food.
Either way, it tells a story and one that is intriguing enough to get people curious enough to stop in while in Newport Beach, California.
5. Friends of Jacksonville Animals
The logo for the Friends of Jacksonville Animals, is a classic example of a logo that tells a story. It features a hand’s open graphic that holds two pictures of animals in the palm of the hands. Their on site tag line helps emphasize the logo, “Helping hands helping animals.”
This friendly logo graphic helps people know that they are all about helping animals who cannot help themselves and empowers people to support their organization by adopting an animal or contributing to their cause.
Telling a Story with Your Logo
These five logos all tell a story about the origins and philosophy of the business behind it. They help people get a sense of what the business is about. The logos mentioned here also do well on the mobile platform because they are small enough to be captured as a mobile app. That’s important in our day and age when so many mobile customers are online and looking for businesses they want to visit.
Think of your logo as your only chance to make a great first impression. The graphic elements, fonts, and colors should all combine to form a unit that expresses the most basic tenets of your brand to the passerby who is seeing it for the first time.
With that in mind, you should try your best to create the best logo you can in case it is the only time someone sees it.
You should also spend some time marketing your logo by being present on social media, blogs, and even YouTube. By creating an entire marketing campaign that includes your logo, you will be able to permeate more of the web with your brand to the people that you need to get to.
But first, you need a good logo. If you already have one, ask yourself if you are getting the results that you want. You can even conduct experiments on your web page by going to Google Analytics and creating an experiment.
We can help by helping you analyze the effectiveness of your logo using some of these tools and some of our own. Additionally, we can redo your logo or create a new one from scratch. Your logo is too important to overlook.
Let our professionals at LogoDesignTeam.com create the perfect logo for your business that will tell a story about your business.
Make a list of the important things you want to say in your logo and share them with our creative staff. We know how to capture that in your logo so you can tell your story to the world.
Thinking ahead in terms of trends and time. We aim to create designs which will remain unique and iconic, in other words – timeless designs. You want it, we’ll give it to you. Give us a buzz here!
