What is a logo, and what is a brand?

“Branding” can sound like something only big companies need, or like a word agencies use to charge more. It doesn’t have to be either. For a small business, it comes down to a simple question: when someone sees your van, your website or your Google listing, do they recognise you, and do they get a good feeling about you?

This guide covers what a logo is, what a brand is, and the practical bits most people only find out about later.

What is a logo?

A logo is a sign that helps people recognise your business. It might be a drawing, a symbol, or just your name set out in a particular way. Its job is to be remembered and recognised, on a shop sign, a van, an invoice or a phone screen.

What a logo can’t do on its own is explain your business or win you customers. People choose you because of your work, your reviews and how you treat them. A good logo makes all of that easier to recognise and remember. A poor or inconsistent one makes you look less established than you are.

What is a brand?

Your brand is more than your logo. It’s everything people think and feel about your business. Some of it you can shape directly:

• How you look: your logo, a couple of colours and a typeface, used the same way everywhere
• How you sound: the way you write on your website, in emails and on social media. Friendly and down to earth, or calm and formal?
• What you stand for: the one or two things you want to be known for, like turning up when you say you will, or using local suppliers
• How it feels to deal with you: how quickly you reply, how clear your prices are, how you handle a problem

The last two matter most, and no designer can fake them. But the first two help people notice and remember the good work you’re already doing.

Consistency is most of the work

You don’t need an expensive brand to look professional. You need to look like the same business everywhere people see you: on your website, Google listing, social media, van, signs, invoices and business cards.

A common problem is a slightly different logo in every place, a different shade of green on the van and the website, and a social media profile photo that’s cut off at the edges. Each one is small, but together they make a business look less organised than it really is.

What to get from a designer

If you’re paying for a logo, make sure you get the files you’ll need later, not just a picture to put on your website. Ask for:

• A version for print and signs that can be made any size without going blurry (often an SVG, EPS or PDF file)
• Versions for screens, with a see-through background (PNG files)
• A one-colour version, for things like embroidery, stamps or a dark background
• A square version, for social media and your Google listing
• A note of your colours and typefaces, so whoever makes your next sign or leaflet gets them right

That square version matters more than people expect. Google lets you add a logo to your Business Profile, and its photo guidelines recommend images 720 pixels tall and wide, so a long, thin logo will be shrunk or cropped.

Also make sure you own the logo once you’ve paid for it, and that it’s original rather than a template someone else could be using too.

Check nobody else owns your name

Before you spend money on signs and a van wrap, it’s worth a quick check. A trade mark can include words, logos and colours, and you may not be able to use or register yours if it’s the same as, or similar to, another business’s trade mark for the same kind of work.

You can check for free using the government’s trade mark search. If you decide to register your own, GOV.UK says it costs at least £205 and usually takes around 3 to 4 months.

Where to start

If you’re starting out or tidying up, a sensible order is:

1. Be clear about what you do and who for, in one sentence
2. Get a simple logo that still works small and in one colour
3. Pick two or three colours and one or two typefaces, and stick to them
4. Decide how you want to sound, and write that way everywhere
5. Update the places customers see most: your Google listing, website and van

You don’t have to do everything at once. Getting the first three right, and using them consistently, will do more than a big rebrand you can’t keep up.

If you’d like help, our logo package gives you a logo, your colours and typefaces, and every file in the list above. The brand package adds what you stand for and how you sound, and puts it all to work. For anything more involved, like several locations or packaging, it’s one of our bigger projects.