The Challenges of Designing A “Symbol Only” Logo

When a client asks you to design a “symbol only” logo, designing it becomes more challenging than designing a logo using symbols and text. Here are few reasons that explain why designing a “symbol only” logo is a complicated process.

5. Not using the brand name or any other text in the logo design means designing the logo with a piece of graphic that may not be able to inform the target audience about the company or its business. For example, Apple. The half-eaten Apple hardly tells anything to its audience about the company. If it wasn’t for great advertising and many years of market presence, the logo would have faded into oblivion.
6. A logo must look unique. While you have only a few basic shapes to work with, you have to experiment with those shapes and come up with something unique that no other designer has designed before you. This can be challenging.
7. The symbol used in the logo should carry a single message which the target audience should be able to interpret easily. If potential customers misinterpret the design, or don’t get its meaning, the design will contribute little to boost the company’s brand identity.
8. 4.  A “symbol only” logo can put you through a number of copyright issues. It is possible the symbol you have used has already been used by some other company. For example, the logos of Scottish Arts Council and Quark are same, except for their colors. To make sure you don’t copy someone else’s design, you need to check all the patented logos.
9. To make a brand popular, you need to promote their logo. For example, Sony Ericsson’s logo hardly says anything about the company or products it sells, but the logo is easily the most recognizable in the market because of the successful advertising campaigns used to promote it. If your client doesn’t have a budget to market and promote a “symbol only” logo, ask him to steer clear of symbols for logo design

If you want to design a “symbol only” logo, you need to give a lot more attention to details to make sure the design does not match any other existing logo’s design. You should also promote the logo heavily to make your users familiar with your business.