I declare today as National Logo Appreciation Day!! Go out and appreciate your logo, your competitors logo, your car's logo, your favorite restaurant's logo, and every logo on every truck on your commute home.
You should have some appreciation for logos. They are very clever things that can do wonders or damage depending on how they are created and how they are used. (see last January's article on Logos)
If you have a logo you love, created in a suite of formats appropriate for many uses, and a graphics standard to follow, you are well on your way to making marketing magic just by being consistent. If you use the logo appropriately, it is hard to overuse it. Every piece of mail, print, email, website, promotional keychain and scratch pad is an opportunity to place your logo on it. In time, your logo should be shorthand for what you do and how you want to be thought of.
On the other hand, if you are using more than one logo, stretching the logo to fit a space, leaving it off emails, etc, using whatever color you like to print it in, or using a grainy jpg when you need a clean vector eps, you are doing serious harm to your brand. It will either not be remembered, or subliminally remembered as low-quality or sloppy shorthand. Better not to use a logo at all.
If you have been using a logo FOREVER and feel it is time for a change, I advise a slow and careful process of change. Analyze the branding and determine the reason for change. Sometimes an update is a great freshen-up, especially when timed with other changes (a new branch, a new offer, a press release). Sometimes, a whole new look is in order if the company has changed fundamentally or it is determined that the logo is sending the wrong message. But usually it is better to take small steps in branding changes so you don't lose any established visual branding.
Check to see if your overall look of brochures, website, letterhead, business cards, forms, and scratch pads enhance your logo or detract from it. All those things should be working together to strengthen one another.
Look at your logo and ask if it is sending the right message, being used to its fullest potential and successfully marketing your company. Appreciate the power of your logo to do both good and unintentional harm.
Carol Jones is a graphic designer and marketing specialist. Her company, JonesHouse, Inc., specializes in identity branding and efficient marketing plans for all size companies and organizations. Visit her at JonesHouseInc.com 
