A logo is not a picture

One of the biggest misconceptions I come across is the belief that a logo has to tell the entire story of a business. I’ve seen it countless times over the course of my career. Founders and business owners asking far too much of a single logo. They want it to explain everything. Every product. Every service. Every value. Every part of the journey. The problem is, that’s not what a logo is designed to do.

A logo has one job… To identify. And that’s it.

Think about the logos you recognise instantly. The Nike swoosh doesn’t explain trainers. The Apple logo doesn’t tell you about computers or phones. The McDonald’s arches don’t describe burgers. They identify.

The story comes afterwards through your products, your service, your marketing, your reputation and every interaction people have with your brand. This is why I always say a logo should be designed as a symbol, not a picture.

Over the years I’ve watched founders unintentionally art direct their own logos into oblivion. They ask for more detail, more meaning, more references and more explanation until the poor designer is left trying to squeeze an entire business plan into one tiny graphic. The result is almost always the same… Too much detail. Too many ideas. Too much visual noise.

Instead of creating something memorable, the logo becomes difficult to read, difficult to scale and difficult to understand. Someone seeing it for the first time has to work too hard to figure out what they’re looking at. Good logos shouldn’t require interpretation. I know this because, for many years, I was the designer sitting on the other side of the table.

Like many designers early in their careers, I spent years doing exactly what clients asked for. I’d explain why something wouldn’t work, suggest a better route and then watch those recommendations disappear as another element was added to the artwork. After all, the customer is always right… Right?

Not in this case. Over more than twenty years, I’ve learned that the best branding projects happen when clients stop trying to design the logo themselves and start trusting the person they’ve hired to do it. If someone already knew how to create an effective identity system, they probably wouldn’t need to hire a brand designer in the first place. The challenge is that founders are naturally close to their own businesses. They know every detail, every service and every ambition. It’s understandable that they want all of that represented.

A brand designer sees something different.

They step back. They look at the bigger picture. They consider your market, your audience, your positioning, your values, your mission and your commercial goals before they ever start sketching ideas. The logo becomes one part of a much bigger identity system, built on a clear strategy rather than a collection of visual ideas. That’s why branding is never just about creating a logo. It’s about creating something your business can grow into.

So if your designer is pushing back, asking difficult questions or challenging your thinking, don’t see it as resistance. See it as expertise. And if you’re tempted to tell them exactly what to draw, take your hands off the steering wheel for a moment. You hired them for a reason. Let them lead.

If that sounds like the kind of branding process you’re looking for, you know where I am.