I took my first job as an Art Director in 2005. After several unsuccessful attempts at explaining what that meant to my parents, I ultimately told them it was just a fancy name for a Graphic Designer. They grasped that concept quickly, and I’ve settled on that occupational description ever since.

Over the past twenty years, the title on my business card has changed from Creative Director to Owner, but I remain most comfortable referring to myself as a Graphic Designer. The title that I think describes what I do the best, though, is Communications Designer. When you break the words down by definition, “graphic” seems limited to visual references. As such, “graphic designer” has always felt somewhat redundant. “Communications,” on the other hand, includes that other important element that us designers work with — words.

There’s no element in the brand toolkit where words play a more important role than the logo. With a strong logotype, one or two words is all that’s required. Simple, right? It's only the most daunting task for any designer worth his or her salt.

Graphic Design, Defined
Paula Scher, partner at the global brand consultancy, Pentagram, defines Graphic Design as a language. “It has a vocabulary,” she says, “it has rules, it has structure.” While some of Scher’s graphic solutions are undoubtedly typographically loud, and seemingly complicated, there is always a clear hierarchy. Her posters for the Public Theatre exemplify her ability to create visually compelling solutions that appropriately match the  verbal tone of voice.

Look closely, and you’ll also notice that Scher always incorporates the brand’s logo in ways that seem like a natural fit with the visual language. Every other designer was taught to shove the brand’s logo in the lower right-hand corner. That’s where it lived, we were told, because that’s where people expect it. Scher, on the other hand, allows the words to tell the story first. She defined her own set of rules for graphic design and fittingly applies them.

"Graphic design is a language. It has a vocabulary, it has rules, it has a structure." - Paula Scher

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Logo Design Rules
In my research of typographic logos, I’ve come to realize that the wordmarks I gravitate towards, while different on so many graphic levels, tend to have a similar set of identifiable characteristics. The wordmarks that I think work best are somehow both functional and emotional.

Brands undoubtedly need their own language, as Scher suggests, but they also need to follow certain rules. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any visual order — brands would just contribute to a landscape of graphic anarchy. Can the expansive realm of logo design exist within a pre-determined set of rules? I’m glad you asked. In my own practice, evaluation of logo design necessitates measurement against five criteria for success: 

Simplicity: The graphic landscape is messy and complicated — Simple solutions will always stand out.

Memorability: Memorable designs make it easy for people to recall the brands they love.

Conceptuality: A logo based on an idea is more unique and easier to remember. 

Ownability: No other brand can set their name in the same typographic treatment and achieve the same level of appropriateness.

Timelessness: A brand that invests in a timeless wordmark won’t have to update their logo when a graphic trend goes out of style.

With these standards in place, the idea is to never present a regrettable logo option in the future. The same criteria were used to determine whether a logo should be included in my LinkedIn article, Make Your Wordmark Work: How bespoke typography and lettering and elevate your brand’s logo. Additional timeless logos will be highlighted across a series of LinkedIn carousel posts to support and reinforce the concepts of the article. 

Cutting through the Clutter
In the great Creator Economy, everybody is a designer. This is part of the reason that there’s so much clutter to cut through. Not every content creator is an able designer, and AI is currently only adding to the graphic problem. In some ways, it’s fitting that Adobe Illustrator’s workspace is set up with little rectangles called artboards. Art is subjective, which is how many creative professionals approach design today — All style and no substance. 

Luckily, graphic designers don’t have to look far to find potential problems to fix. That’s part of the reason I love what I do — just look at all that opportunity! If the definition of design should be based on vocabulary, though, then the role of the designer should be to help make sense of it all. Whether it’s with logo design or social media marketing, we need to help create order out of the chaotic communications landscape.