a logotype is the name of a company, product, or service, and is an essential part of commerce—even the u.s. government has logos to identify its hundreds of agencies and departments. logos are seen in academia and sports, in tv and the music industry; logos are everywhere.

A good logo must be equally legible in small and large sizes. Ideally the image should be strong and simple and easily reproduced on different materials.

Instead of the ambiguous word "logo," some corporate identity consultants choose to distinguish between the corporate signature, which includes a name and a graphic shape (sometimes called a mark), and the name by itself, the logotype. An accompanying graphic may be a symbol, an illustration (whether literal or abstract), an initial, or a monogram, which implies that the letters are connected or joined in some manner: IBM is a logo made up of separate initials, and GE is a monogram. Rarely is a graphic shape used by itself, except for decoration. In almost all instances, the name accompanies the mark for positive identification; some logos are designed so that the name is embedded in a symbol or mark.

All businesses benefit from having a logo as a simple means of identification, from the local handyman to multi-national conglomerates. Any product, inexpensive or costly, is enhanced by an identifying logo that is unique, not plain type, but styled in a manner that offers a degree of individuality, which can be trademarked and federally registered to prevent its being copied, an important point.

A logo should be appropriate and suggest quality. It should be distinctive and legible. There are several ways to achieve these goals. You can set the name surrounded with a distinctive shape; arrange it in an individual manner; change its width; make its letters bolder or more delicate; introduce refinements and adjustments to individual letters to make them unique but still legible; or hand-draw the name as I do. Some corporate identity programs require a proprietary font based on the logo for subsidiary names. But all of these approaches require a knowledge of letterforms to tailor the logo appropriately.

The overriding rule of logo design is: a strong off-beat image has a shorter life than a more discreet one; a well-designed logo should have a minimum life-span of fifteen years. There are exceptions, because some products are introduced to ride the crest of a fashion wave and are quickly changed when the fad recedes.

General time-honored rules govern appropriateness. A font style may be identified with a product or a company logo when it is used repetitively. A product or service that is targeted for women may require a light and refined approach, either in style of the name, its color or surrounding elements. Cosmetics logos are minimal and understated and so are products that promote refinement, precision, luxury, and the epicure. Food products frequently make use of casual scripts, which are friendly, accessible, and pleasing to the eye—not sophisticated, but drawn with a down-home touch. Opposed to this are products directed to men and the corporate workplace, transportation, sports and grooming products, which demand a bold, no-nonsense, assertive image. The multi-million-dollar entertainment industry has marketing rules of its own, and readily embraces the avant-garde.

Logo designers show multiple design directions to a client because there is no single answer for a specific logo. The client may want slight modifications of its existing logo to gently update the design without losing its all-important name recognition. Or the client or its marketing group may favor a particular direction and request designs shown in that scheme. These may not agree with the designer's ideas and intentions. What is important in a multifaceted presentation is the variety, which can point to the most appropriate, legible, and distinctive solution. Some designs may reinforce a favored direction; many designs are chosen for emotional reasons. Always submit designs that will meet the job's requirement. Otherwise, an unknowledgeable client will perversely choose the wrong design. More often than not, clients request changes that combine one or more designs; the designer doesn't always win.

A successful logo is based on an understanding of letterform structure, spacing and proportion, legibility, and reproduction techniques.

Doyald Young teaches lettering, logotype design and the fundamentals of typography at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He has designed fonts and logos for a wide array of international clients including The Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Bushnell, California Institute of Technology, John Deere, Max Factor, General Electric Company, The Grammy Awards, k.d. lang, Bette Midler, Prince, Prudential Insurance Company, Vidal Sassoon, The Tony Awards, and University of California at Los Angeles, as well as corporate logos for International Design Associates, and Mari Makinami, Design Resource, Tokyo.