Why Can we Recognize a Logo Anywhere

The other day, I was watching a show when something caught my eye. There was a mug in the corner of the frame. Even though only about half of it was visible, and I neither watch sports nor live in New York, I instantly recognized that it was the New York Islanders logo. That got me thinking, how is it that I recognized a logo that I've seen so few times and just for a few seconds on screen?

The answer is simple, yet so complicated. In short, the Islanders spent probably millions of dollars to design the perfect, identifiable, and memorable logo. The long answer is a bit more complicated (duh). It revolves around association. The puck and stick in the Islanders' logo lets us know it's a hockey team. But how does its logo separate the Islanders from any other hockey team? What stands out to me is its colours. I've searched "NHL team logos" on DuckDuckGo images. I've found that no other team uses orange, white, and blue (Edmonton uses a similar pattern, but with the emphasis on blue, not orange). In fact, not a single other logo comes to mind that uses orange, white, and blue. Because of that, I have to associate those colours with the Islanders. And that's the number one requirement for a logo: uniqueness.

Another big thing for logos is versatility. A logo is found everywhere: business cards, billboards, shirts, products, you name it. This means that a logo shouldn't have too much detail. Take the Apple logo, all it is is a white apple with a apple with a bite out of it. If you see it super small or super large, you'll still know what it is. Plus, it looks good in black and white. Logos use this thing called vector graphics. It's a way of making pictures that uses lines instead of pixels. It's used because if you blow up an image big enough to fit in a giant billboard it won't look pixelated. Because logos are so versatile, it their simple designs and vector graphics, it makes them appear everywhere, which adds so much to making them memorable.

There are other things that logo makers do to get us to remember logos so well. These are the cheating ones. One common logo cheat is connecting it with emotions. Psychologists say that emotions are the best way for memory to work. If you watch an ad to help a third world country, they all connect their logo with emotions. There are pictures of cute little children, sad music, and a narrator with a motherly voice. Then it'll cut to the organization's logo- making the viewer associate the logo with sorrow. It's not just "help Africa" type thing, though. Casinos use this same technique. The only difference is that they're using happiness. Their ads show people overjoyed people striking rich. Once that happiness rubs off on you, they'll show you their logo. It's that simple!

To return to our original example, the New York Islanders' logo uses its colours to make it more appealing, but also stand out from the other NHL team. It's versatile. It has to be when it can be found on shirts, hats, even hockey rinks. And it defiantly connects with our emotions. Whenever the team scores, the logo can be seen everywhere. I'm not into hockey, but it seems to be a moment of great joy when a team scores. There is a lot to a logo, but colour, versatility, and emotion are the three that I wanted to share because they helped answer why did I recognize the mug from my show. Here's the logo I use. I hope you can recognize it too.