The Importance of Symbols in Branding
Have you ever immediately recognized a brand just by looking at its logo alone? That’s brand recondition at its peak! Utilizing symbols is one of the most powerful things you can do for your brand, as it enhances its potential for instant recall and association. This is doubly true when your brand’s symbols connect to concepts and objects in the real world. After all, some of the greatest works of visual art, pieces of music, or impressive examples of architecture, all found their style by exploring something they found inspiring and distilling it into something that could be understood deeply and recognized by all, regardless of language.
Symbolism in Branding!
The same can be true for your brand! Many different brands have taken inspiration from something in their surroundings or interests and developed it into their own. One of the classic examples takes inspiration from the Greek classics.
The immensely popular Nike clothing brand wanted to be a brand that provides athletes and sporting enthusiasts with the gear they need to come out on top of the competition and look good doing it.
So they took inspiration from the idea of what Nike stood for. She was an attendant of Athena, much like how the clothing brand assists athletes in their mission to come out on top, Nike would do the same for Athena, together achieving victory with their combined prowess.
Finding Your Symbol!
Now what about the swoosh? Before the shoe brand Nike had its namesake, it was called Blue Ribbon Sports. They started as an importer of Japanese shoes, but found that they had the capital and presence in the market to manufacture their own shoes line.
Nike sought to rebrand to better represent themselves as a new force in the shoe market. At the time, standard practice in the shoe industry was to have a unique “stripe” on their shoe to represent speed and motion, like some of the sports cars of the era. For example, Adidas’ three stripe signature, was well known and can be seen on their shoes today. Nike they wanted to have something that would differentiate them from the crowd, something “stripe-like" but recognizable as it’s own unique version. To accomplish this, they hired Caroyln Davidson, who after many iterations, and a mandate to come up with something that conveys motion, came up with their signature swoosh, inspired by the wings of the goddess Nike.
From then on, they rebranded as “Nike inc.”, which has grown into one of the most iconic and most recognizable sporting brands in the world.
Be like a Sponge!
It's important to find inspiration in the things you see around you and be able to convey a message succinctly and as universally as you can. Set some goals for what you want your brand to represent and take inspiration from your environment and the ideas of others.
It’s important to understand your brand's goals deeply and be able to look at your inspirations and draw what you find to be the most important from them. Break it down into its base parts and be able to understand what is important about its design and incorporate that into your own unique vision.
Just as Nike’s founders had to look to outside help to discover their new brand identity and the “Swoosh” that came with it, your business could always use a fresh pair of eyes and helping hands to build up your brand, brick by brick, graphic by graphic, symbol by symbol.
You can source inspiration from anywhere, the world is full of opportunity for remixing and incorporation into your brand identity.
Look at what you’re excited about! Anything that keeps your attention could be worked into your brand’s identity! For example, Big Bite Branding was inspired by our love for good food!
Look at your peers! Soundboarding ideas off of them can help shift perspectives and let you see a new angle on something perfect for your brand. Nike would not have been what it was if it was only up to the CEO’s branding expertise, by having the foresight to outsource some of the design to a trusted associate, the brand has become the titan that it is today.
Look at what's popular! See something getting popular? Sometimes it’s good to follow the trends, or at least recognize them and see what value it can have in your own business! But don’t go too far! You want your logo and brand to be as timeless as possible.
Look around you! Sometimes just stopping to think can help inspiration strike!
Finally, Look out for and don’t be afraid to reach out to experts! Sometimes you need expertise from someone outside of your niche, people that can look at your business and use their unique skill set to build your brand up. Experts like, i don’t know, those at Big Bite Branding?
Conclusion
At Big Bite Branding, we believe that everyone has taken their own bite out of a slice of life, everyone views the world from a unique lens and it’s important to consider how something is viewed from multiple different angles.
Don't be afraid to take inspiration from the world around you. Keep in mind, you don’t need to do this all on your own, recruiting the help of others can be essential in multiplying your growth potential, and Big Bite Branding is here to help.