Brand Identity Essentials

VARIATION31 Logo Flexibility

Inspired by the clever use of variation by media companies such as the music video network MTV, more and more organizations want to change things up with their graphic identities. Logos can be flexible as long as the message is consistent—and consistently recognizable to its intended audience.

Information drives the built-in flexibility within the Language Institute of Central Oregon mark, which uses different colors and icons to signify the organization’s different divisions. With the Ringling College of Art and Design, on the other hand, the variations provide little more than decorative interest. In both cases, the ability to change things up provides one of the more distinguishing characteristics of the marks. ...