What makes a great wordmark?

What makes a great wordmark? What's the purpose of one? Should it be a staple in your visual identity or should it be left as an afterthought?

First things first, what's a wordmark?

A wordmark or logotype is usually a distinct text-only typographic treatment of the name of a company, or product name used for purposes of identification and branding.

Usually logotypes receive a custom treatment from an existing typeface or are created completly from scratch.

What makes a great wordmark?

Before diving into the section, you can read What makes a great logo? since this article is specific to wordmarks which is a subset of a type of logos.

So what's the special sauce? What makes a great wordmark? When it comes representing a certain brand, product or company, the wordmark has to be distinctive while being congruent into the context of the brand strategy set before hand.

There are many ways of bringing distinctiveness into the table, sometimes it's through a special composition, sometimes it's a ligature, sometimes a special combination of letters, sometimes a graphic element implemented into the wordmark and sometimes it's a unique lettering style.

Definetly not a Google Font

When you choose a free font to represent your brand, other competitors or even non-competitors can. Your customers will associate that with your brand.

Can you create a high quality wordmark with Google Fonts though?

I don't believe you can. If you decide to use a font to represent your brand atleast aim for a distinctive and appropriate one, preferably from an established type foundry or type designer. This is harder than it sounds in practice since fonts are designed in a system and a set of constraints.

The advantage of mastering lettering and applying it in the domain of brand identity is unparalleled. It's like a super power, you have so many possibilities. You can literaly create anything and you have so much control over since you are starting from scratch.

The Halo Effect

There is so much to learn from previous successful brands. Nowadays new brands can emulate the behaviors of previous successful brands. Customers already associate successful, trustworthy and leading brands

If Nike is considered as a high brand and you want to be considered the same, what's stopping from leveraging design, typography

Tailored logotype

Custom wordmarks are key first seed in brand identity design. Through unique and detailed typography, it's becomes easier to create brand awareness. A tailored logotype is invaluable for brand recognition and customer relation since it's sets the tone for the rest of the brand identity (colors and typography).