A logo is the visible result of a much bigger exercise in strategy, research and creative thinking. So what does it take to turn a business’s purpose into an identity that lasts?
A logo has a deceptively simple job. It needs to distil an organisation, its purpose and what it wants to represent into a visual mark that can work just as well on a business card as it does on the side of a building.
Before the creative work begins, there needs to be a clear understanding of what the business stands for, what it wants to become and how its identity can communicate that ambition.
That distinction matters because a brand identity is not the same thing as an advertising campaign. A campaign can be built around a particular audience, message or commercial objective. An identity has to provide a consistent expression of the organisation across all of them.
Brand identity designer Richard Henderson, whose work includes Telstra, AustralianSuper, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Tennis Australia, the Australian Football league (AFL) and Crown Sydney, told B&T that the process begins with getting to the heart of a company’s purpose.
“What makes an identity last is that you’ve actually honed in and narrowed what a company’s purpose is about,” he said.
For Henderson, that also means looking beyond organisations as they exists today. The work involves understanding where leadership wants to take the business and developing an identity that helps express that direction.
He described the process as taking a company from where it is now to where its board and CEO want it to be in the future. The identity becomes a visual expression of that ambition, giving the organisation something its people can understand and rally behind.
That sense of purpose also helps explain why an identity needs to do more than look distinctive. It has to give people a way to recognise and understand the organisation in an increasingly crowded visual environment.
“You need to have a recognisable icon that says, ‘Okay, I know, I know where I am.’ It’s a bit like being at sea in a storm. You want to know where the lighthouse is,” said Henderson.
The challenge is condensing all of that thinking into something simple enough to be recognised at a glance, but flexible enough to work across different formats and applications.
“You’ve got to encapsulate an idea in a shape or form or letters that can be read on a postage stamp and on the side of a building,” he said.
It is a significant brief for a relatively small piece of design. But Henderson argued that the mark cannot be separated from the organisation behind it. A logo might be the most visible part of an identity, but its meaning depends on whether the business lives up to what it represents.
“Identity work is inherently human. It’s about people. You’ve got to have a story, and that story’s got to have a truth. The CEO and the board and everyone else in the management team have to walk that truth.”
That is also why a rebrand needs a more substantial reason than a desire for something new. Changing a logo without addressing what the organisation stands for risks leaving the underlying problem untouched.
“Unless you’ve got a story about the change, it’s just a superficial paint job. Someone just feels they want a different model car.”
For Henderson, a change in identity should be connected to a genuine shift in the business, its direction or the way it wants to be understood. Without that rationale, the exercise risks becoming cosmetic rather than a meaningful change.
The distinction between identity and advertising becomes important here too. While campaigns can change with the seasons, audiences and commercial priorities, the underlying brand needs to provide continuity.
“A campaign can’t tell you about a company. A campaign can only be for a certain point in time, for a certain demographic. Identity has to stand for everything,” Henderson said.
That longer-term role raises another question for an industry increasingly experimenting with artificial intelligence: where does the technology fit into the process of creating a brand?
Henderson can see a place for AI in the thinking and the research that informs the work, but draws a line at using it to create the final identity.
“AI is the best thing ever for thinking. But for creation, forget it. It can’t create what a curve feels like. It can’t create a balance.”
His distinction comes back to the human judgement involved in turning a business’s purpose into a visual idea. Research and technology can help explore possibilities, but the final design still needs to communicate something meaningful about the organisation.
Ultimately, a lasting identity is not simply a logo that looks good or stands out. It is the a clear understanding of what a business is, what it wants to become and whether it is prepared to live up to the story its branding tells.
Henderson exhibited a collection of his work, featuring major brand logo designs alongside the stories behind their creation. The exhibition opened at 4pm on 7 November and will run until 12 December at the Australian Cultural Arts Exchange, 82 Wellington Street, Collingwood.
