It’s not easy coming up with the right logo. I know it. And if you have ever tried, you know it too.

Every once and awhile, one design emerges. It hits all the buttons and just resonates. It captures all the messages and meanings you hoped for but better than that; it conveys all those messages and meanings to your target market. It’s beautiful. It’s cool. It looks fantastic in print in black and color, on the website, on apparel, in video, in digital media, on the side of the trucks, even on the giveaway trinkets. 

If you allow me, let me put this pragmatic truth out there. A great product or service with a bad logo has a better chance of success than bad product or service with a great logo. Therefore, trying to come up with the perfect logo is a waste of time and money. If any enterprise’s success hangs on the wonderfulness of its logo, then failure is all but inevitable.  Still, generally speaking, there are characteristics that all great logos share.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will unpack all this. The perfect may come as an accident, but a good, useful logo is almost always intentional. Strong logos share these three features. They are distinctive, have great utility, and visual weight.