18 Logos 1: Logos go large

18

LOGOS 1: LOGOS GO LARGE

Logos are a shorthand for a brand. They encapsulate in one visual symbol everything that the observer knows about that brand. This is one good reason why a brand can’t solely rely on its logo to establish its identity. Each customer’s opinion of a brand is based on his or her own experience of it: Price, quality, reliability, personality, the behaviour of the people who work for the organisation, all this and more. Logos save us time. When we spot one that we recognise, we can recall the things we know about the brand and make a decision based on past experience. When we spot a logo that is new to us, its design will help us to decide whether or not we want to fi nd out more.

A brand doesn’t have to have a logo, but if you want instant recognition, particularly if you are operating internationally where your customers speak different languages and use different alphabets, a logo can come in very handy.

The idea The McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, opened their fi rst restaurant in 1940. In 1953, Richard altered their architect’s design for their fi rst fast-food restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona and added two yellow arches, one at each end of the building. (This was against the architect’s wishes.) From the correct angle they formed the capital letter M. These became known as the Golden Arches. McDonald also used a double yellow arch in the form of a capital M with their name on all their signage and marketing materials.

The architectural arches are rarely used on McDonald’s buildings these days, but tho logo remains. McDonald’s corporate logo is now a yellow capital M without the McDonalds’ name.

Whether or not you choose to eat their food, you can be certain that wherever you see the Golden Arches it will taste exactly the same and be of a consistent standard, and that the restaurant will be clean. There are times when a confused tourist sees the Golden Arches appear on the horizon and feels delighted to see a familiar symbol in a strange land.

It has taken 70 years for McDonald’s logo to achieve its international status as one of the world’s most familiar symbols and theirs is an example of how keeping your branding constant, with small changes over the decades to bring it up to date, just keeps building and building.

In practice • The Golden Arches work because of their distinctive shape and colour. It’s bright and it’s simple. How will yours look when it’s two metres tall? • You will need planning permission for a logo large enough to be spotted from a distance. If your business is located along a quaint, historic high street you won’t get it. McDonald’s has adapted their logo to fi t local regulations, but in a way that is still recognisable, notably in Hampstead, London, where the entire shopfront had to be redesigned to fi t the surroundings, and in Sedona, Arizona, where the arches are turquoise. • Internationally, your symbol should mean what you intend it to mean. Check with localisation experts, and with people in their own markets, that it doesn’t signify something different.