As we clamber back out of lockdown and try to ramp up to Scott Morrison’s hoped-for V-shaped recovery, law firms will be on the lookout for any edge they can get.
Some might well take the opportunity to re-brand, and a good logo can be a real asset in that process – but get it wrong and things can go south, as we have seen recently with the new ‘Australia Unlimited’ (AU) logo.
Although initially rumoured to be a replacement for the green and gold ‘Made in Australia’ kangaroo, this is (thankfully) not the case; the new logo is to help AU achieve its mission of promoting “Our world-class entrepreneurs, researchers, exporters, educators, designers, artists, administrators and humanitarians”.1
The old logo for AU was formed by two boomerangs, which made sense as there are few things as Australian as a boomerang. The new image is an abstract representation of the golden wattle, our national floral emblem which, while native to our country, probably doesn’t shout ‘Australia!’ to the rest of the world.
It hardly helps that the new emblem bears an unfortunate resemblance to the COVID-19 and also has the scientific abbreviation for gold (also AU) smack-dab in the middle, making it seem much like a mining company logo.
The logo was chosen by a panel of esteemed (or at least rich) Australians, all of whom have experienced decent success in the corporate world, although not through marketing. For many this invokes the old maxim of a camel being a horse designed by a committee, and in this case a committee of people who are not designers.
Firms seeking a logo to increase their profile in a post-COVID world would do well to avoid the committee process, and engage the services of a professional designer. There are many eager young designers and marketers who are able to help firms create meaningful and eye-catching logos, and for well less than the $10 million expended by the committee working on the AU symbol.
A good logo can be a great asset to a firm, but it is best left to the experts – as the esteemed panel on the AU logo have shown.
Note
1 Quote from Australia Unlimited ’s LinkedIn page.
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