This Mistake Is Killing Charity Logos

If there is one thing killing charity logos, it’s the buckaroo effect. 

It all starts with the charity founder, CMO or sometimes the intern asking this question: “How much meaning can we pack into this?”

“The logo needs to demonstrate our commitment to the city where we were founded, the different types of people we serve, a shout out to the founder’s cat, a symbol for each of our four main services,  and my favourite colour is turquoise.”

Thankfully the customer isn’t always right.

At Bara we often talk about SMART logos. They are Simple, Memorable, Appropriate, Resizable and Timeless.

So let’s talk about keeping it simple.

Complicated or unclear logos can be risky, confusing and limit a business's marketing efforts, while simple logos are more effective in building brand recognition, recall, and loyalty.

But shouldn’t the logo mean something? We totally understand the temptation to load meaning into the logo which represents your purposeful brand - there’s a story behind it, you want it to say something about your incredible vision for change and the way your audience feel about you, and maybe it helps describe some of your inspirational services. Is that too much to ask? Sadly, it might be.

But this is when we come to the bigger question: what is the purpose of a logo? We’ll always stick to our answer on this one. The purpose of a logo is identification, not explanation. 

And when you need to quickly identify something, a simple symbol beats a complicated infographic every time.

Designing a SMART logo

Complicated logos date quickly if they have too much information, they can limit the business if they’re too specific (this is especially true when it comes to naming your brand), and they can cause confusion with your audience as they may struggle to remember your brand when considering other options (this is known as brand recall). 

Simple logos have the opposite effect. They are much better positioned to last the test time of time (the ‘T’ in SMART), they  actually promote company growth due to their versatility and they are excellent for brand recall, with your audience being able to pick out your icon quickly and put it to memory (the ‘M’ in SMART). 

Oxfam’s famous green logo uses one bold colour, and combines the first two letters of the charity name to represent the ‘head and shoulders’ of a person, celebrating the many people working with the charity and those it serves. So there’s some meaning, but it’s hardly a mission statement.

The WWF Panda is immediately recognisable and simple, and their choice of a relevant mascot which doubles as a logo scores it top marks for recall potential. (It also helps that the other WWF changed its brand to Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment…)

And Mind might just be one of the best charity logos out there. One word, one colour, and a scribble. Yes, a scribble. Representing the problems of confusion and difficulty which the charity is tackling. So just one meaning, nothing more, and an effortlessly simple logo.

If you’re a purposeful brand considering having a new logo designed - by all means choose a concept with some meaning, but don’t put too much pressure on it. You’ll thank yourselves later.

Keep it simple!