How A Bad Logo Can Ruin A Good First Impression (Or, Your Logo Makes Me Barf)

Brad Blackman / Apr 9th / Comments

A healthcare organization’s logo represents a critical first impression, since that is often the first aspect of that brand that a patient experiences. A logo is perhaps a brand’s most visible and memorable element, at least at first. After interacting with any business, healthcare or otherwise, all the attributes of that organization are then assigned to the logo, which may or may not reinforce what that visual mark says.

In short, a logo is a great opportunity to present what your healthcare organization is all about before people even engage with it, which is why so many organizations invest so much time and energy in creating a mark.

Appearance matters

A logo says a lot about how seriously you take yourself. If your personal appearance is sloppy, you will be perceived as a sloppy and disorganized person. The same goes for your logo. If you walked into a bank where the tellers were wearing clown suits and the sign out front looked like it was drawn by a child, you’d probably come to the conclusion that the bank was a joke, right? From the start, you want your organization to appear polished, professional, and appropriate to the brand it represents.

Some guiding principles

It’s easy to make fun of bad logos (like on the website Your Logo Makes Me Barf), but it is harder to create a logo that is heads and shoulders above the rest. Here are a few principles that can be applied to create a memorable logo:

• Be Unique
  This is probably one of the most difficult principles to achieve since there are so many logos in the world that it’s hard to not do something similar to something else out there. However, uniqueness is commonly reached simply by means of creative spelling and custom (or customized) typography/lettering.
• Avoid Clichés and Fads
  How many dental logos have you seen that show a giant molar? Or chiropractor logo with a picture of a spine? In the same city? Sure, familiarity and frequent use are what give a cliché its power, but once a certain metaphor is seen too many times, it loses its effectiveness. Consider this: how many logos from the ’90s have you seen that have incorporated an oval or a swoosh (or both)? Today, a lot of current logos tend toward bright colors, overlapping shapes, and rounded or futuristic forms. A logo needs to appear contemporary without dating itself too quickly.
• Be Appropriate
  So many healthcare logos look inappropriate to the brands they stand for, appearing too childish or casual compared with the service provided. If a logo is inconsistent with a given brand, or it appears trivial, inappropriate, or otherwise unprofessional, people will suspect and avoid it from the start.
• Keep It Simple
  For practical reasons, a logo needs to be simple so it can be easily reproduced in one color and at large and small sizes. While the web and improvements in printing technologies have somewhat obviated the need for one-color logos, if a logo doesn’t work in only one color, it’s probably not a very good logo. Furthermore, this is also important from an accessibility standpoint, as people with poor vision or colorblindness may not be able to make out what a logo is intended to show if the forms and colors are tricky.
• Be Clever, But Don’t Make Me Think Too Hard
  Expanding on the “keep it simple” principle, a logo shouldn’t try too hard to convey a complex image. If a GI clinic includes an intricate diagram of a colon in its logo, they’re asking too much of it. Furthermore, if a logo is complicated and can’t be “read” instantly, it’s not doing its job.

I’d say all of the following are guilty of violating at least one of the above principles, wouldn’t you?

Your brand

How well does your logo work with your brand? How many opportunities is it costing your business?