Once your company's brand has developed enough visual presence, you may not need any words at all to tell onlookers who you are and what you stand for. While extensive use of a brand or product name may be helpful at first, eventually the colors, backgrounds or other visual elements could be enough to remind customers of either a particular product or the company as a whole. Facebook and Twitter, for example, have very distinct shades of blue associated with them.
Another case of a brand enduring when it takes its name away comes from Coca-Cola. As one of the most visible commercial brands on the planet, there's little doubting that most consumers are familiar with what the design on a can of Coke looks like. Recently, the soda company tried a special campaign that removed the name of the beverage from limited edition cans sold in the Middle East.
While the main focus of this initiative is about "removing labels" in the political sense and promoting peace among different people, the temporary reworking is also important from a branding perspective. Margaret Rhodes comments on this aspect of the campaign in Wired.
"Corporate logos are evolving to become simpler and flatter, and doing it faster," Rhodes writes. "Coca-Cola's enduring look can go simpler without sacrificing design identity; that ribbon is enough to let us know what's in store," she adds.
It might not be time for your business to try something this ambitious yet with your marketing, but well-crafted images and logos can set the stage for something of this nature later on. Working with professional designers, your business can start with graphics and logos appropriate for vinyl signs and move onto something that evolves with your business.