Before starting any custom design project, we first help our clients articulate their core values and key messages. In some cases, that results in our clients wanting to reevaluate their company logo.

A great logo is not designed merely to look pretty; it is a symbol of your values and what you stand for. A good logo designer may spend dozens of hours understanding your beliefs, values and messaging before ever starting to put ideas down on paper.

Simon Sinek said it well in his book, Start with Why:

Symbols help us make tangible that which is intangible. And the only reason symbols have meaning is because we infuse them with meaning. That meaning lives in our minds, not in the item itself. Only when the purpose, cause or belief is clear can a symbol command great power.

Most companies have logos, but few have been able to convert those logos into meaningful symbols. Because most companies are bad at communicating what they believe, so it follows that most logos are devoid of any meaning. At best they serve as icons to identify a company and its products. A symbol cannot have any deep meaning until we know WHY it exists in terms bigger than simply to identify the company. Without clarity of WHY, a logo is just a logo….

Most companies have logos, but few have been able to convert those logos into meaningful symbols. Because most companies are bad at communicating what they believe, so it follows that most logos are devoid of any meaning. At best they serve as icons to identify a company and its products. A symbol cannot have any deep meaning until we know WHY it exists in terms bigger than simply to identify the company. Without clarity of WHY, a logo is just a logo….

Take a moment to reconnect with what your logo was designed to mean. Perhaps that will put an extra sparkle in your day!

To your success!

In chapter 4 of his book Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer describes recent brain research investigating the link between self-control and creativity. It turns out there is a part of our brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC) that is responsible for self-control: keeping us from stealing candy from the store, or from blurting out something that we’ll later regret. However, this part of the brain is frequently in the way of artistic creativity. In fact, many successful musicians and performers, especially those doing improv or jazz, have to train themselves to turn this part of their brain off during a performance.

Lehrer also cites two cases of people who developed frontotemporal dimentia, a debilitating (and ultimately fatal) degenerative brain disease that causes breakdown of the DL-PFC. The interesting thing was that in both cases, as their inhibitions vanished, both became incredibly gifted artists in a short period of time. The lesson? That we all have the potential for tremendous creative talent. It’s just that most of us learn to keep that part of ourselves repressed by the time we’re adults. We’re so afraid of doing something wrong that we lock our creative side away.

Pablo Picasso had it right: “Every child is born an artist. The real trick in life is to remain an artist.”

What creativity would you release if you had no fear of failure? What could you accomplish if you “let it all hang out”?

Steve Johnsen is a marketing strategist, a business coach, and the Founder of Cloud Mountain Marketing. He is also the author of the Amazon #1 best-seller, 5 Easy Steps to Make Your Website Your #1 Employee.