If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures. The classic static logo is important and often shapes your customer’s first impression. When it is done well, it passes on the most important information about the company at first sight. But you can go a step further.

With an animated logo, you can communicate much more information about your services in a few seconds. Customers can better identify with your company and understand what it is about. All this in about the same time as it takes to read the logo itself.

The better and quicker you can pass on a positive association with your brand to the customer, the greater your chances of them remembering your brand and choosing you. People are comfortable what they’re familiar with. Nobody wants to buy a pig in a poke.

However, a well-crafted animated logo is a broad concept. Let’s clarify and find out what questions need to be answered before moving on to the animation process itself.

The logo animation needs to reflect your company’s dynamics. This means that the pacing of the animation will be different for a massage parlor (that sells calmness, well-being and relaxation) compared to a company offering fast internet. In addition to dynamics, it is necessary to choose the right artistic style for this animation. A technology company can look futuristic, while a craft or antique store can’t. How do you want your business to be portrayed? Artistically, slowly, technically, or with precise accuracy? A playful transition or a serious reveal?

Next, we need to think about what emotions we want the animation to evoke in your clients. Do we want them to feel tense, surprised, relaxed, or amused? A well-chosen sound effect or music will very well support this desired feeling. The audio and video must match together, otherwise the result will seem incoherent, perhaps chaotic, to customers. Or, they won’t be able to form a clear idea about the company.

In short, the crucial part is the consistency of individual elements and here are some important questions:

1. What’s the ideal dynamics and speed of your animation? What do we sell to whom and how fast is this segment?
2. What stylization do we want to work with? What should the viewer know first when they hear of your business?
3. What feelings should the customer take away after getting familiar with your brand?

It’s also necessary to think about whether the focus of the animation will be just the logo itself, or whether to put it into context. If you have such a strong brand that you do not need to explain it to your target market, it may be a good step to focus more on emotions in animation and simply go in direction of building a love brand. Good for you! However, if your brand is not widely known and you’re not a household name in your target population, it may be the better move the put what your company does in the spotlight.

As for the length of the animation, it should not exceed 10 seconds, nor be shorter than 4 seconds. You need to keep it memorable. Remember that animation should never get annoying even after a few viewings. At the end, viewers will encounter it quite often once it accompanies most (if not all) of your brand’s videos.

And the last very important thing to think about: Will this be animation at the beginning of the videos or at the end? Will 2 different versions be needed? Or maybe something universal that works in both uses?

Don’t underestimate this question, as it will affect the whole look of the animation. There is a difference between an animation that serves as an invitation to the content of your video, and it being the final point.

What if you don’t have a logo yet? Join us and learn in the next article.

©2020 ~ Michal Sodek