Today marks ‘National Simplicity Day’, a day created in honour of Henry David Thoreau, an advocate of and author on living simply. The day is an opportunity to step away from our technology-fuelled lives, to experience a simple time of peace and quiet, of truly being in the moment.
The approach to the day had us reflecting on the concept of simplicity, and how that translates into the creative world of design.
All too often, we are given briefs for a logo design that needs to to shoe-horn in every aspect of a company’s identity and values, but what we encourage the client to approve in reality is something much simpler, which we think is important for various reasons:
Impact
A simple logo design is much easier to recognise and remember. Although there are some great logos out there that play with negative space and clever puns, most of the top brands have kept it simple.
Lifespan
Unless you want to be getting your logo and identity re-designed every few years, simplicity is key to longevity. By avoiding ‘fashion trends’ and creating a simple, unifying message, you will see your logo stand the test of time.
Versatility
From a large-scale logo on a billboard to the tiniest of thumbnails on a mobile device, your logo should be equally as effective across all potential applications – and keeping it simple helps to make this work.
Reaction
A complex design can send out mixed messages about your brand, as people can interpret them in different ways. The main purpose of the logo is to send a brand message to its target audience, and simplicity of the logo design is desirable in achieving this.
We found this quiz on Business Insider: how many of the brands could you guess from elements of the logo? https://www.businessinsider.com/logo-quiz-can-you-identify-these-brands-when-their-names-are-stripped-out-2012-7?r=US&IR=T#nestle-4
If you would like to adopt a simpler approach to your branding, get in touch with us today to see how we can bring your brand to life in the right way.
