Logo Design is a Waste of Space

Logo & Wordmarks – What’s the Difference?

At Distility, we design wordmarks, not logos. A logo is a graphic symbol which represents a brand. A wordmark is a text-only typographic representation which is built from the letters in the brand name.

Pepsi has a logo-driven design. Cola-Cola is a pure wordmark.

Three Reasons Why Wordmarks are Part of Pragmatic Brand Marketing.

We offer these arguments in favour of wordmark design:

Wordmarks are easier to legally protect,
Typical customers (not designers) can rarely recall anything other than billion dollar logos, and
Of the 2010 Fortune 100 corporate brand signatures, 64 are wordmarks.

Logo Design is a Waste — the Proof.

Logos are never used to brand movies. Only wordmarks. Search “Movie Posters” right now and you will see thousands of wordmarks and no logo designs. And if by some slim chance you see a movie poster with a logo… it is for a superhero movie.

So the question we ask of you, if you have a logo, or love to create them, is “Why would we ever recommend a logo design to a client?”

We’re honestly curious to know your thoughts. (And we have open minds.) Logos can be visually inspiring, and it is too bad that we can’t, in good conscience, recommend them to our clients.

others

Author: Distility Category: Branding Evaluation Tags: Branding, design, logos, wordmarks

Ruggiero

I would have to agree with you. As much as I love to brainstorm on a logo and design it, the truth of the matter is that a wordmark is just as effective. Also, in the last decade, for a nominal fee, logos can easily be purchased online!! Logo has lost its mojo.
TK

The reason because movies have no logos is because these brands live for a few months and then fade out. The reason superhero movies do have logos, is because superhero franchizes live long.

A logo works better in the long term, word mark in the short term. Having both is a compromise to bootstrap recognition of a logo during a company’s first years.So it comes to that: is the mark you’re creating about to die in a year, or last decades? Let that inform your choice.

http://distility.com Distility

TK, thanks for a seasoned comment. Your thought about the temporary nature of movie titles is a solid argument. But doesn’t 64% of the fortune 100 having wordmarks and not logos say something? And 99.9% of the brands in the market will never have the budget for symbol/logo ubiquity like an AT&T or Nike.