How to Tell a Story with a Logo

An organization’s logo offers the world an insight of who you are and what you do. It is what people use to remember your organization whenever they see it. As such, therefore, it should not just help in branding the organization, but also give a story and tell the world something more about the company without necessarily using words. A logo should, therefore, offer a clear and compelling story that will stick in the minds of your target audience for as long as possible. It is, however, regrettable that many organizations don’t understand how to tell a story with a logo.

In most of the cases, many organizations tend to do too much with their logo until they end up missing the core point entirely. Sometimes they use dull, regular and annoying visual images that have no relevance whatsoever to the group they are targeting. Many are the times when you have seen logos with people holding hands, forming a circle or simply a logo comprising of planet earth alone with no other thing.

This is not to allude that such logos are meaningless, but they are never effective in telling the story of the concerned company or organization. It is true that such logos may gain immense popularity due to the activities of that organization as well as their marketing efforts, but if you can’t tell a story with a logo, you will be missing more on the potential benefits you would have reaped from it.

Presented here are a few insights on how you can tell a story with a logo. It boils down to considering certain fundamental aspects of logo design that aimed at communicating directly to the target audience. Use these tip so that you create meaningful logos that will always tell a story to your audiences-:

Has to be unique

If you have the logo portraying the same concept and quality like every other logo around, you will not be able to tell a story with a logo. It is imperative that you be unique and stand out from the crowd so that people can notice your logo from the thousands that are also screaming for their attention. One way of being unique is to consider your industry and pick on the particular things that make you different from the others. Use such things to get inspirations that you can then incorporate in your logo to tell a story.

Use a designer who understands your core value

The other element to consider on how to tell a story with a logo is to use the services of a professional designer with the ability to understand the core values of your organization. It is easy to pick up any designer you meet, or probably the cheap ones, but you will never get the most out of their work if they don’t understand what you and your organization stands for. Remember that a logo can be aesthetically appealing, but if it lacks the ability to tell a story to make the audience relate to your business, then it will be just like another business emblem gracing the branding and marketing materials for the organization.

Use Shapes with meaning

Every design element in your logo should aim at passing a particular message to your audience. The use of shapes is thus a subtle way that most organization uses to tell a story with a logo. For instance, the following shapes will have various meanings as indicated below-:

• Lines – using vertical lines in design, such as pillars are an indication of strength, hence masculinity. Curved on the other hand shows femininity and can also be considered as calm and neutral.
• Squares and rectangles – indicates tradition and stability
• Triangles – these suggest power and science, hence their use in institution and hospital logos
• Circles – shows partnership, family, inclusivity, and endurance.

When these shapes are used correctly and in the right manner, you will be in position to effectively tell a story with a logo.

Color choice

The color choice is another element of design you can use to tell a story. Humans are emotive beings and colors are known to evoke different kinds of emotions in people. You can thus use colors in your logo to give an insight into the feelings you hold dear. For instance, you can use color to show energy, passion, aggression (red), productivity, friendliness, confidence (orange), wisdom, prestige, royalty (pink), security, earthiness (brown) amongst others.

Font Choice

There are different ways in which fonts can be used. The factors to consider when you want to use fonts to tell a story are the specific type of font chosen, the shape as well as the actual written message. Fonts can be used to pass different messages relating to aggression and masculinity, modernity, cleanliness, freshness, dependability and trustworthiness amongst others.