3 Things Your Logo Should Never Include
Last week we posted a note about what your logo should say. Because logos can’t possibly tell a customer everything about a product or business, you should choose a simple concept when you develop yours. You can read that post here.
There are a few things your logo should never include—and yet, we get requests from business owners almost every day to add these things anyway. So in the interest of helping you get the best logo for your business, here’s a simple list of things to leave out of your logo.
#1. The legal phrases Inc., Corp, LLP or LLC. We understand why some customers want to put these legal abbreviations in their logos. They just incorporated their business or formed their partnership. They are excited. Their business is now “for real”. And they want everyone to know it. (We even had one customer tell us his lawyer said he needed to include the LLC in his logo. The lawyer was wrong.) Before you do it, think about the familiar logos of successful companies you see every day. We would bet that none of them include these legal terms. Coca-cola or Pepsi? Nope. Ford or Mercedes? Again, no. Delta Airlines, Marriott Hotels, Avis Car Rentals? No, no, and no. Legal abbreviations are for legal documents and disclaimers in small print. They just mess up logos and confuse your customers. It’s best to leave them off.
#2. Tag lines. This one is a little tricky because so many people are used to seeing tag lines used with logos that they assume their logo must have one. The right tag line can help with your marketing if it’s used correctly. But it doesn’t belong in your logo. Tag lines change. And if you’ve included your tag line in your logo, you’ll need to update signs, business cards, and anything else you’ve printed with your logo, any time you change your tagline. And, adding elements like tag lines to a logo make them more complex and thus more difficult for your customers to remember. Again, think of the logos you see every day. Do they include tag lines? Almost never. Tag lines are for advertisements and marketing materials, not logos.
#3. Addresses, Phone Numbers, and Websites. You might have just signed to ten-year lease on your location, and you have no plans to change your cell phone provider, but trust us, these things change more than you think. If your logo includes your phone number, you’ll have to update it some day. But more importantly, these elements just add clutter to your logo—and remember, the best logos represent a simple idea associated with your product or business. A logo that includes an icon, a business name, a tag line, a phone number, and a web address will look cluttered. The more your customer has to take in when he sees your logo, the less they will remember.
March 26th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
The problem is, people get caught in the “more bang for your buck” mindset, so they think that that the more elements they have in their logo, the better, when actually the opposite is true. For example, today I worked on a logo for a governmental bureau that inspects ships and issues compliance certificates. They wanted to include a reference to:
Panama (the company origin)
a world map or globe
a ship
a legal scale
a ship’s wheel
a ship’s anchor
a ship’s propeller (the ship, wheel and anchor didn’t get the idea of a ship across, I guess)
March 26th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
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March 26th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
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April 7th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
[...] few days ago, we wrote about three things you should never include in your logo. You can read that entry here. Of course, there are more than three things to avoid when you are [...]
May 15th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I do not understand why people ask to add tag lines in their logos and you pointed it out correctly that tag lines are for marketing. Good post, people should pay atention to this information
July 24th, 2010 at 8:10 am
hey.
Your blog makes interesting reading. I use a tagline along with the logo for my business simply because, my business has a name which is hard to pronounce so the tagline which is simple and easy to remember actually improves the recall for the name.
Keep up the good work
August 25th, 2010 at 10:15 am
My friend is asking me to make a logo for her online business. She included the word Inc. to be on her logo because that was supposed to be the name of her business. When I read about your rule #1 and I told her about it, she decided not to include it.
February 8th, 2011 at 8:16 am
hey.
Your blog makes interesting reading. I use a tagline along with the logo for my business simply because, my business has a name which is hard to pronounce so the tagline which is simple and easy to remember actually improves the recall for the name.
Keep up the good work
March 9th, 2011 at 10:50 am
Great insight. Simplicity should be the focus.
April 27th, 2011 at 10:26 am
I’ve talked many clients out of including Ltd. (Limited Liability in New Zealand) in their logos. Funny enough, I’ve included the tagline “Graphic Design Limited”, because our company name “Inkworx” is associated with tattooing, which was never even considered when coming up with the company name. It definitely pays to spend a bit extra time considering a decent name to brand.
June 9th, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Very useful post and i’m agreed with all 3 above mentioned points, i saw in my professional experience mostly people only concentrate on logo design and it’s innovation but they didn’t focus on Tag line that is also very important to deliver their message to their prospects/targeted audience…
September 29th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Nice article. I get this request quite often. Client oftentimes wants to show too many things at once, not so much in a logo, usually more in a web design.
As for the logos, it is true, simple logos are often best as they are instantly recognizable and memorable. They also don´t age with time as can more complex versions. Depends on what business is about. Cheers!
September 29th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Really good post, I agree fully with both points 1 & 3, however I disagree that #2 should be left out.
October 27th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
I find it funny that this article shoots down tag lines…but at the top right above the article where it says “Want to see more?” there are a few logos next to it, and one of them has a tag line.
December 19th, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Tag lines mean everything. bcs nowadays designers design complex 3D logos and weird blobs, piles, spots etc so u MUST ad tag line that the wholeness is somehow explained:D
February 27th, 2013 at 1:25 pm
You’re right, anon, we should use out non-taglined version of the logo for that banner. It’s unreadable. Thanks for pointing that out.