Your logo is trying to say too much
A logo isn't the place to tell your story. It just has to be recognised, remembered and owned.
AI (artificial intelligence) just made my logo. Mountains. The word Maverick. That's it. And I don't hate it.
From me, that's a rave review. In 28 years in adventure travel I looked after 15 brands. That's more logos than bowls of two-minute noodles I've eaten at base camp, and most of them had the same problem. They tried to tell the whole story in a space the size of a postage stamp.
Everyone wants their bit in
It's human nature. Someone wants the services in there. Someone wants the location. Someone wants the founding year, the values, and a swoosh "to show we're dynamic". Every request makes sense on its own. Together they make a logo nobody can read and nobody remembers.
It's like packing for your first trek. First-timers pack for every possible scenario and carry it all up the mountain. People who've done it before carry less, and they actually enjoy the view.
A logo isn't your story
Here's my Maverick view: your logo's job is recognition, not explanation. It's a signpost, not a brochure.
Nike's tick doesn't show a shoe. Apple's apple says nothing about computers. Those marks mean something because of decades of products, ads and customer experience behind them. The meaning was earned, not drawn.
Here's the nerd bit: in 1971, Portland State University student Carolyn Davidson designed Nike's tick for US$35. It's now one of the most valuable marks on earth, and it's a single curved line.
A logo is a signpost, not a brochure.
The 16-pixel test
Your logo will spend a lot of its life tiny. In a browser tab as a favicon, the little icon next to your page title (often 16 × 16 pixels). As a social media profile picture. On an invoice. On the side of a ute.
So shrink yours to the size of your fingernail. Can you still tell what it is? If the tagline, the little map and the three overlapping circles have turned into a smudge, your logo is doing too much.
Then print it in black on white. If it falls apart without the colours and gradients, it was leaning on effects, not ideas.
Why it matters for a small business now
You don't have Nike's ad budget to teach people what a busy logo means. You get a glance. A thumb scrolling past on Instagram. A sign seen from the car on the Pacific Highway. Simple wins that glance.
And yes, AI can now draft a logo in minutes. It's quick, cheap and a great starting point. One safety tip: AI can drift close to marks that already exist, so do a reverse image search and check IP Australia's trade mark search before you print 500 business cards.
Say one thing, and say it well
Your brand is the whole experience: how you answer the phone, how you treat customers, what happens after the sale. Your logo is just the flag on the summit. People see it and know who's up there.
A logo doesn't tell your story. It reminds people of it.
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Every idea here is mine, sorted with Claude's help. Nothing scraped, nothing auto-generated.