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Logo Notion by Steff Geissbuhler | HOW Design Conference Atlanta

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007

Steff Geisbuhler is one of the world’s leading designers of logos & corporate identity programs. Steff was awarded the AIGA Medal for lifetime achievement in Graphic Design in 2005. He’s created identities for clients as diverse as Barney’s New York, Merck, NBC, National Public Radio and Time Warner.

Steff’s presentation on logos broke down into six main categories:

  1. Appropriate
  2. Legible
  3. Memorable
  4. Flexible
  5. Consistent
  6. Lasting

Appropriate
You have to think about the ideas and activities of the particular organization. More importantly you have to consider where the logo is going. A logo that’s blown up on a billboard requires a different plan of attack than something that is going to be place on a letterhead.

Legible
Never show your design or logo in a stale state. Show the logo on the medium where it’s going to live. If you are designing a logo then show it to the client on a letterhead or business card. A logo on a blank piece of paper means nothing to the client.

Memorable
On one hand the design must be simple enough to be understood in an instant; on the other hand it needs to be recognizable and memorable.

Flexible
For the logo to exist for any period of time it needs to be ready to evolve in any way.

Consistent
Consistency through colors, typography and images are basic guidelines to achieve continuity.

Lasting
Ideally you want the logo or design to appear timeless and not trendy. “Nothing dulls faster than the cutting edge.”

A lot of these categories are all things we learned in design school but its funny how in the middle of meeting deadlines and keeping clients happy we tend to get side tracked. When Steff was showing a movie of many of the logos he’s done throughout the years you can’t help but think about how simple and effective they are.

“A successful mark is informed by a deep strategic understanding and is deliberately designed to provide a distinctive, memorable and appropriate visual expression of the organization it represents.”
- Steff Geissbuler


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