The Difference Between a Logo and Brand

What’s the difference between a logo and a brand? A logo is a single brand element. An easily recognizable visual mark that's used to represent a company or commercial product.

A brand, on the other hand, is many elements—tangible and intangible—working together to create a cohesive and recognizable image in the minds of customers.

Put another way, if a logo is a signpost in the ground, the brand is what’s written on that signpost.

To that end, without brand, a logo has no real meaning. It’s simply visual shorthand that represents a company or product.

If we want a meaningful logo, we need brand. And if we want a meaningful brand, we need to ask meaningful and fundamental questions; what does the brand do, how does it do it, who does it do it for, and why does it do it.