Your Customers Prefer Simple Logos

Here’s how you grab their attention

When people talk about what makes a great logo, the conversation can often include those well-known brands. You know McDonald’s Golden arches, Nike’s swoosh, and Apple’s…well, apple. These logos are instantly recognizable, set trends, and most importantly: they’re simple. But you’re not a global corporation. You’re a community organization looking to rebrand. Or an economic development trying to rally stakeholders. You’re a small business just starting out. Do you still need a simple logo? 

Absolutely. Here’s why. 

Over the last decade, brands have been simplifying their logos. In October of 2023, Siegel+Gale, a global brand firm known for their simple designs, released their World’s Simplest Brands: Tenth Edition.*

Out of the 15,000 people surveyed, 64% would pay more if the brand had a simpler experience. 

That’s 9,600 people shaking their cash-filled fists, begging for you to take more of their money if you’ll just simplify your branding. 

At Illuminated Marketing, our process begins when you fill out a creative brief, answering insight-rich questions about your business, like: 

• If your brand were a person, what would their personality be like? 

• What feelings are you trying to evoke in your ideal client, and why? 

• What core services or values should your brand represent? 

You’ll also share elements of your current brand identity, such as colors, fonts, and mood boards, to help us create your logo. 

Once we have that important information, we put pen to paper and start to research and sketch ideas using something called a morphological matrix. A morphological matrix is a tool used to take a complex problem and break it down into smaller parts. When coming up with your logo, we use your brand's objectives to help fill out this matrix.

Curious how this works? Let’s use a past client of ours, WaterWays | SEM, as an example.

As background, WaterWays helps watershed organizations, environmental agencies, teachers, learners, and outdoor enthusiasts across the Great Lakes Basin support better data-driven stewardship of our priceless waterways.

For this matrix, you’ll see we listed “citizen science and waterways,” “stewardship and teaching,” “outdoor enthusiasts and watershed organizations,” and “experienced data-driven solutions” as their objectives. We use the first row for word and letter combinations. 

WaterWays’ Morphological Matrix

In an internal review, we decided that the sketch in the last column, fourth down, was worth refining in Adobe Illustrator. We put together a logo presentation to share with the client, and lead the conversation with these key questions: 

• Does the logo work for your industry and accurately represent your organization?

• Does it stand out? 

• Will it be recognizable to your intended audience?

• Does it have a streamlined and cohesive design?

• Can it work at all required scales?

• Is it legible when very small? 

• Does it work in black-and-white?

But “Do you like it?” isn’t one of our questions. That’s because liking a design isn’t a requirement for a good logo. The questions above are what we want you to consider. 

After reviewing design options, we show the logo in black and white first. There’s a method to our madness: if a logo doesn’t work in grayscale, it won’t work in color.

The first draft of the WaterWays logo

After viewing the design options, our client had feedback for their logo. They wanted to see a version where the tip of the GPS point was more narrow, and a version where the kayaker is paddling towards a GPS point. After we edited the logo, we scheduled a meeting to present the revisions, which you’ll see below:

Revised logo options

The logo with the thinner GPS point was chosen and, along with a brand style guide, the client received a full logo package. At Illuminated Marketing, our logo package includes:

• Every logo (wordmarks, symbols, etc.) in both grayscale and color

• Every format (from PNGs to the original Illustrator file)

• Both RGB files (for screens) and CMYK files (for print)

The final logo, taken from the WaterWays brand style guide

In today’s crowded, phone-first world, being complex is a liability. Logos must be immediately recognizable, versatile across all formats, and timeless enough to avoid redesign. Whether you’re a small business, a community organization, or an economic development corporation, a simple logo gives you a sturdy foundation for building awareness and trust. 

If you’d like help distilling your organization’s story into a clear, memorable logo, Illuminated Marketing is here to help.

* Siegel+Gale World’s Simplest Brands: Tenth Edition: https://www.siegelgale.com/grocery-giants-lidl-and-whole-foods-market-are-two-of-the-worlds-simplest-brands/