The Logo & Image of the Company

A logotype (from the ancient Greek – λόγος – word + τύπος – print) – is a special outline of the full or shorter name of an organization or wares.

Logos, or more specifically, their equivalents derive from the ancient times. There is a widespread opinion that symbols, originally used to determine the belonging of different objects, go back to the times of the branding irons, which were used in the marking of skins and horns of the cattle in some respectable farms and enterprises, as well as in the temples of ancient Egypt. Afterwards, in ancient Greece and Roman Empire they turned into «manufacturers’ brands». It allowed selling off the production on the whole territory of the Empire, regardless of the place, where those goods were produced. And even nowadays trade marks have the same role as well.

The main intended purpose of the logo is authentication of the company on the market. That’s exactly why the logos appeared – to allow that customers can recognize and memorize the goods of different companies. Besides that, the company, which owns a bright, clear and recognizable logo, starts getting associated with high quality and high reliability.

Almost any firm has its own logo: the graphical trade mark, or the word mark, or both these elements. The logo is a graphic symbol of a certain company. The word trademark – represents the name of the company, being written in some special manner at that. In case when only the word trademark is used, it serves as this company’s logo all the way. But if it’s used together with a graphical trademark, then – it represents the component part.

A lot of large companies, such as «IBM» or «XEROX», traditionally renounce using symbols and images, paying high preference to their original word marks. Well, in their case, it really seems to be reasonable, because their activity got differentiated so, that a certain symbol could, probably, lead customers astray.

A good logo should carry the exact information about the company to customers; it must be unique (in the way to be associated with the given company) and suitable for using in any kind of advertising (for example, the graphic logo, overloaded with various elements, is likely to look fuzzy, if reduced under the size of a visit card).

If the existing logo fails satisfying the set goals, then, it would be better for the owner-company to correct or even substitute it. However, note – it may be that the clients could have already got used to the current trademark, and any changes might provoke displeasure. Then, the clients may also start thinking that the owner of that company was changed or even – that the new trademark belongs to some new company as well. Nevertheless, the new logo considerably changes the attitude of the customers to the owning company, that’s exactly why the new logo must produce better impression upon clients, than the former one.

As a successful example of suchlike changes, I’d like to mention the history of the diversicolored peacock – the logo of the NBS TV network. Their logotype was invented at the dawn of the color television. Thenadays the symbol of the iridescent bird, enjoying with its diverse colors the contemporary eyes, couldn’t but did better to reflect the state-of-the-art technology of that times, which was a trump card of the NBS. However, the time changed, and the color television rather came to normal, than being an exceptional miracle. And NBS decided that the peacock «went out of date». The idea of the nice bird was given up for a new one – the specific letter «N», which was made in an original and eccentric manner, showing the power and greatness of the corporation. But the contemporary society made a protest against it. NBS reacted with a lightning speed: it withdrew from use the «great N», which was associated with huge corporations, and updated the former peacock. And it has been successfully shining on the TV-screens till nowadays.

In so doing, a lot of huge corporations were getting convinced more and more, reaping the fruits of their own practice, that it’s rather much better to update the existing logo, than completely reject them and propose to the public a completely new trade mark solution. As for the typical examples – let it be to «XEROX» and «AT&T» (American Telephone and Telegraph Company). The word logo «XEROX» has been changing for many years – but so imperceptibly, that these changes have been passing unnoticed.

Finally, I’d admit that the logo takes the central place in the house stile and corporate identity. Even if a company is very powerful in its individualism, but its logo doesn’t correspond to it at the same time, people may just get mistaken or understood such an image incorrectly, and then – don’t count on their cooperation! The company logo, coupled with its name, still remain one of the most important investments to the business.