Remember those crazy websites of the 1990’s? When the world-wide web first launched? Every site launched was gunning for your attention with those crazy color schemes, wavy words, multiple text formats, and wonky layouts.  It was like walking through a packed mall and everyone in the world was trying to get your attention with neon signs and yelling through megaphones….

How did brands ever even reach consumers?

The internet has grow-up a lot since those wild west days of the dot com era, but there’s still a ton of lessons to be ascertained, and it all has to do with branding.

Every major company, even the Fortune 500 ones, started out as small companies with a vision. The fact is, we were all startups once, and not much has changed. Companies today face the same problems they did 10 or 20 years ago, and many of the worries about success all hinge on three things. Their brand, identity and logo.

Whether you realize it or not, forging your brand, your identity, color scheme, even logo all have an imperative effect on the longevity and success of your company.  Your emblem matters, and even though it’s not forever, your customers will know, recognize and even judge your company on what you initially put out there. And what you decide to show to the world (at first, or even down the road) should be unique, masterful, and different than any of your competitors. It should speak to your vision, your mantra, what you sell, and why you do what you do.

Companies have always been more than their mission statements. The best ones out there stand for something, the lesser modular ones at least exemplify what they do, and it’s all reflected and reinforced by their logo, color scheme, brand guidelines and identity. And even if the logo design and colors change over time, the successful ones never change much.

The primary takeaway here, is no matter where your company is, new startup, or established market leader, your brand is going evolve at some point, and it’s a trend that can be observed. Logo’s and companies evolve simply. The lesson is, less is more, especially with the most successful companies out there.

Take for instance, some of the world’s biggest companies of the 20^th century who have successfully evolved their brand: Mercedes, BMW, Kodak, Microsoft, Pepsi, Nike, Nokia, Ford, General Electric and even Apple. They’ve all started from square one, where they had their brand guidelines and stuck to it through the years, only evolving in miniscule ways, and never really starting over.

Taking note from the slideshow here, you can easily see, “Less is more.” Whether or not you think their logo was originally unique, these companies stuck with what they crafted the first time and evolved it over the course of 100+ years into a massively sleek, and recognizable logo.  Over time, these companies evolved their company logo, identity and color scheme in a straight line through the years, never turning their back on their beginnings, and each new generation of their logo mirrored the times, truly setting the tone for that generation.

In conclusion, your brand matters. Getting it right the first time counts. Your customers need to know you’re an individual, that you’ve done your research, that you’re carving your own niche and importantly represent a market segment that’s a clear cross-section of ‘what you do,’ and ‘why you do it.’

A logo doesn’t have to tell the whole story, it just needs to be the reason your company is picked off the shelve and the customer opens your book because they want to find out more.

Branding matters. Color schemes matter. Creativity and identity matter, and working with a team who understand your vision and are able to bring it to life has never been more imperative in today’s day and age. And before you even make a website, app, or the next big piece of technology, make sure your company emblem is properly forged.

If you’re looking for branding, logo, identity, web services and more, then reach out to us at Inphantry, because you deserve a team who can bring it all to life.

Shoot us a note at: base@inphantry.com and let’s initiate the conversation, or set up some time to chat with our new business manager: Cam King – cam@inphantry.com

To see some of our previous branding work, see what we did for Terracea and the Glam App.

P.S. If you want some bad examples of a branding, you can simply check here: http://www.businessinsider.com/15-worst-corporate-logo-fails-2012-1?op=1