Graphic Design

Image is everything

The Types of Logos

Author: Michael Lambert

Whether your company is a start-up, medium-sized, or a large corporation, you will eventually confront the issue of your company's self-image. How are you perceived by your customers? How are you perceived by the general public? How does your company come across to potential customers? How do you compare to your competition?
The answer lies within any marketing materials that represent your company, ranging from your business cards to a promotional brochure to a nationally broadcast commercial. Above all, you might need a logo with sophistication, elegance, and impact. A graphic designer can help you with a solution for your logo.
Essentially, all logos can be organized in four separate categories: glyph, alpha-glyph, alphanumeric or a combination thereof.
What exactly the logo for you will be depends upon a myriad of factors too numerous to list here. Again, a professional designer who is experienced should be hired for the logo design process.

Glyphs

A glyph, or symbol, icon, pictograph, etc., is a graphic representation of your company, such as logos for Shell, Apple, and American Greetings (the rose). Glyphs are not generally used for logos, but as communication devices, such as the recycle logo, all Olympic event icons, and instructional devices, like a broken wine glass on a box to signify the contents in the box is fragile.
Glyphs, by themselves, are the least used types of logos, but, if done correctly, can provide the most impact and establish a sophisticated, intellectual corporate identity. Creating a glyph for a logo requires experience and talent and, if done by a non-professional, might look amateurish, unattractive and may even take away from your company's credibility. BEWARE!!!!

Alpha-Glyphs

An alpha-glyph is similar to a glyph, but uses a letter or letters from the name of a company in a graphical way to convey what the company does. Sometimes a letter designed in a particular style may be sufficient.
Many auto makers use these types of logos, such as Honda, Accura, Mazda, and Hyundai. One of the most popular and recognized logos in the history of the 20th century is this type of logo: IBM. Other examples of this type include GM, Adobe Systems, Moen, and America On-Line.
This type of logo is the second least-used logo, and, as with a glyph, if done correctly, can greatly raise the image of your company. However, it also shares a glyph's downfall: if done haphazardly, alpha-glyphs can appear unprofessional and might provoke laughter rather than sales.

Alphanumeric

This type of mark is the most widely-used logo and we are bombarded with them wherever we go on practically whatever we see. An alphanumeric logo is the name of your company or brand spelled out, literally, but the treatment of the typography is usually unique unto the name itself and can therefore be trademarked and be treated as a logo.
To name a mere fraction of all the examples that exist in the world: Kellogg's, FedEx, Microsoft, Sony, Ford, and the list goes on and on.
This is the "safe" logo and the easiest to create (by an amateur's standards). A designer, though, will spend as much time tweaking an alphanumeric logo as he or she will with a glyph or alphaglyph. Letter-spacing, color, font choice, word relationships and other factors play into the creation of an alphanumeric logo.

Combination

There may come a point in time where two or more agencies are creating marketing materials for you, which is always an alarming situation for consistency's sake. The glorious gift and unfortunate side-effect of creativity is that no two designers will create the same-looking piece, even if both were given the same copy, images and parameters. Therefore, if no standards are established for your logos and marketing communications, much wasted time and money will be spent in order to get those two competing agencies to see "eye to eye."
This is why thick books have been created for large companies that outline their logo standards for everything from business cards and letterheads, to packaging, brochures, catalogs and signage. Briefly, these identity standard booklets preserve the logo in its original beautiful form, by citing examples of proper usage and "illegal" usage, such as incorrect color, improper spacing or placement, or inconsistent size of the company name with respect to the glyph or alpha glyph. These standards will hopefully safeguard the use of the logo by itself or in a layout, thereby improving consistency, credibility, and outside perception.

Do you need a logo?

Not everyone does. Sure, one can put one's company in bold-faced type, all capitals and be done with it. But if you do that, ask yourself:
Does this logo set me apart from my competition?
Is it memorable?
Does it convey a sense of style and intelligence?
Do I need to stand out or can I rely on new business purely from word-of-mouth?
Some questions I ask a client are:
Who is your market?
Who is your competition?
How do you market yourself now?
How do you intend to market yourself in the future?
Do you plan to grow as a business?
These are questions you should also ask yourself, not only when considering a new logo, but when creating anything related to your business, whether it is your business plan or a capabilities brochure.
So, as you can see, logos and marketing materials are an integral part of your business, and their focus should not be any different than your overall business and marketing strategy. Bottom line, if you have a niche market, a logo may not be necessary, but if your competition is fierce, such as being in a retail market, a good logo and identity strategy may make or break your product. Even if you run a one-person operation, your image can APPEAR to be a 100 or 1000 person company if your identity strategy is consistent and on-target.
Image is credibility. Image is customer relationships. Image is perception, opinion and environment. Image is respect. Image is power. Image is everything.