“I don’t want to overemphasize logos in the world. I think basically if you act with intelligence and integrity and consistency, you’ll develop a “brand”, quote-unquote. And whether you’re a person, or a non-profit institution, a small organization, or a giant corporation, if you bring intelligence and integrity and consistency to what you’re doing and the product you’re making is helping people or worthwhile or desirable or making the world a better place, you could almost do anything and be okay.“

—Michael Bierut

A logo is a mysterious, powerful thing. But in part, it is precisely because of that mystery – we don’t truly understand how they work on the mind – we mistake it as a shortcut to building a brand. “If we just had a better logo! If we just picked the right color!” No, the hard part is the caveat Bierut underlines here, saying it twice – “if you act with intelligence and integrity and consistency” – that’s what creates the brand in people’s minds, that’s what invests the logo with its mysterious power. And that’s hard enough for a single person to do let alone a “giant corporation” made up of many thousands of people spread across the globe oftentimes with conflicting interests and incentives.