It’s an innocent enough request, and one the vast majority of designers will have encountered many times. The design process is ultimately a conversation; a client knows their business better than anyone and designers have the experience to know how best to market that business, but there’s a reason designers often push back on this request to ‘make the logo bigger’. Sometimes making the logo bigger can hurt your communications and wider brand.
Is it really about you?
A bigger logo won’t fix a brand. It won’t make a brand extraordinary. There is no direct association between the size of a logo and the effectiveness of communication. While brand recognition is incredibly important to any communication, other aspects are also very important. Striking a good balance between all of these is the overall goal of promoting a brand.
Is brand ego, and possibly naivety, the reason behind this request? While pride in your brand is admirable, it can send the wrong message to your audience. Your communications are not created to serve you, but rather to serve the demands of your audience.
Talk, don’t shout
Consider this, is the logo the most important element? Is it more important than what you are offering? No one is actually buying your logo, so why does it need to be the most significant element on the page?
The very first thing your audience wants to know from any communication is; what does it mean for them? How does it affect them? What is the benefit to them? None of these questions relies upon the logo.
Between the logo, headline, content, and calls-to-action there are a lot of elements at play. A designer’s role is to achieve the best balance between all of these elements to form cohesive communications. By placing too much emphasis on one element you can easily overshadow the others, resulting in poor communication.
Develop a relationship
A request to make the logo bigger is often due to the pride a client feels for their brand. This is an admirable trait, but it is important to approach the situation from the perspective of your audience. They are overwhelmed with visual communication every day of their lives, and increasing the logo size is only going to contribute to this noise.
Focusing on developing a relationship and satisfying your customers’ demands will create trust between your brand and your audience that will ultimately lead to loyalty and repeat custom.
The logo is not the brand
Your logo is important from a recognition perspective, but focusing on the content and needs of your audience is going to result in the most effective communications. It is not the logo that will bring customers back, it is the content, the service, and the trust that you establish. Your logo should be noticeable, and memorable, but without being dominant. It is a very important aspect, but just remember it is only one of many elements and not the entirety of your brand.
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