How We Remember What We See

I wanted to follow up last weeks entry with the topic, “How we remember what we see.” The reason this is important is that as you begin to apply your brand strategy you must have a mark (or logo) that is memorable, distinct, different and tells a story of who you are and what you do. This was an original article I did for MCP Actions last year that I think is perfect for this week. Feel free to send us an email or comment if you have any questions or thoughts.

The Order of Cognition: How We Remember Logos

First let’s define cognition: Cognition is the scientific term for “the process of thought.” Its usage varies in different ways in accord with different disciplines: For example, in psychology and cognitive science it refers to an information processing view of an individual’s psychological functions.

Why is this important? Our brains can only process and hold so much at a time, especially if our brains are trying to discern and remember visual information for long or short term periods… In other words, how can our brains “trim the fat”? So how does our brain trim that information? It does it through a process.

The Process of Cognition

The first step in the process of cognition is shape. Visual images can be remembered and recognized directly, while words have to be interpreted into meaning. Reading is not necessary to identify shapes, but identifying shapes is necessary to read. Since a shape makes a faster imprint on our memory, it is essential to first have a unique shape to your logo.

The second step in the process is color. Color can do many things from emotional trigger, behavioral influence to brand recognition. As each of the processes needs to be carefully chosen, color is one of the most important for each of the reasons I just mentioned. Another reason to carefully choose a color is differentiation in your brand. Just as Starbuck’s uses green as its signature color, Seattle’s Best uses red. If they strayed from their signature colors, their brand would stray and their customers’ would be confused. It is important to make visuals strong and quick.

The third step in the process is content. This step means the brain takes more time to process language than it does shape or color. So you can see from the examples to the right, what was a simple shape that had no relevance to you is now the most recognized financial services firm in the nation!

Let me try another approach with people since we are mostly photographers. How many times have we remembered a face, but fail to remember their name? We all have unique styles to our work that we see, but sometimes to the untrained eye, a potential client who is comparing photographers just sees a bunch of photos by more than one photographer. How then, do they see differentiation from one photographer to the next? All of a sudden brand becomes very important. Now let’s add another obstacle. Many photographers tend to migrate toward similar fonts and colors. So now we have many photos by many photographers with similar watermarks (fonts spelling photographers name) on their images. Do you see the dilemma that I am bringing attention to? The reason I say “bring attention to” is because it is not a created fictitious scenario. Brand, uniqueness and quality are not just characteristics of a successful brand, but requirements. Take a look at your brand. How can you apply these principles and processes?