Logo or Corporate Identity…what’s the difference?

I’ve been doing quite a bit logo design lately…today while working on a logo for an investment company I thought to myself – “Do they really only need a logo or do they need an identity?” – no difference you say! I beg to differ. There are those graphic artists out there that say they are one in the same.  You can’t have a logo without an identity – others will say that the identity is build from the logo.  I think it’s a mish mash of both and I’ll tell you why. First let’s start with what a logo and a corporate identity are.  A logo is a iconic or lettermark representation of your company.  It is the one item that should make you stand out from your competition.  To create a great logo you need to have at least some form of inspiration and you also need to perform some research on the company and the industry that they are in.  A corporate identity is building not only the logo for the company but also putting together colors, re-usable symbols that can show up in marketing materials, collaberating on a tagline – building a solid image that define the company in more ways that just a symbol.  So how do you know which one you should be focusing on?   Great question…let’s look into that a bit further. The one thing that you really need to clarify before deciding on whether you need a logo or corporate identity is how big is your company going to be in 1-3 years.  This really is what sets apart the need from a logo to a corporate identity.  If you company is a small 1 – 2 person business chances are that you will not be setting out on large scale advertising campaigns.  You will most likely have an ad or two every couple of months in the local paper and may have a small 2 – 5 page website. If this sounds like you and your company – then I would suggest focussing on a logo.  A well done logo can still allow to work with a set of “corporate colors” for your advertising, it will still allow you to gain recognition – even if only on a small local scale – for you and your company image – it will even allow you to have brochures, business cards, postcards created using your company brand. If you have plans for large scale expansion of the company, either in the way of # of employees or a fleet of trucks on the road or even large multi-national incorporation – you need to be looking at building a corporate identity.  Now make sure you pay attention to this next statement – these will cost you upwards of $1000.00 (yes that is one thousand – and that’s on the low end).  Why so much?  I’m so glad you asked (I”m also glad you are still reading) – a corporate identity involved much more that simply putting together some imagery with some text and chossing colors that you think your company should have.  A corporate identity is setting the image – the path that you want your company to follow and the image that will attract clients to your business.  It puts forth a set of defined standards for not just your logo, but the lettering that will accompany future corresnpondence, colors that will become more than a part of your company they will become your company.  Think about companies like Mcdonalds – the Golden Arches every kid in the world knows this symbol, and don’t you dare pass by one on a road trip if your kids are awake. How about the Intel – bing bing bing bong – we all know the sound…starting to get the big picture.  A corporate identity package will involve focus group discussions on the colors used in the designs, the fonts, the placement of text – all factors that believe it or not can either attract clients to your company or sway them to your compeition.  So what have we learned today?  A corporate identity is not just a logo – it is a well thought out package of ideas that will assist you and your company with setting a market brand that clients will recognize.  A logo is a symbol that defines your company from its’ competition.  I’m going to go further in depth with this tomorrow by discussing the different corporate branding items that you may want to consider. 2009-09-25T04:47:59Z

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logo-or-corporate-identitywhats-the-difference

2009-10-04T06:29:03Z

2009-10-04T10:29:41Z

I’ve been doing quite a bit logo design lately…today while working on a logo for an investment company I thought to myself – “Do they really only need a logo or do they need an identity?”