Logo's and its appeal

Logo's are a big part of our life. It can advertizes who we are and what we associate with, as well as be an indicator of our standing within a certain niche. I am heavily into the cycling scene in Tokyo and the most important thing next to being a good cyclist is your image. At the bike shop that I work at many customers spend hours looking for items that "fit" their image, wether they are a hard core roadie, time trialist, fixie, or BMXer. People may find a brand that they like and begin to associate with this brand, buying up logos and wearing them like badges to show others who they ride for.
This is a short trailer for how Scott bicycles tries to put an image on it's brand.

 Another popular thing here is to be part of a team and sport your team name proudly. My company has a team, I am part of a team and most local bike shops will sponsor a team. Riding on the roads and cycling paths along the rivers, it is very common to see an individual or a group flying their team logos to show who they are. More well known teams carry a reputaion and sometimes wearing that logo will gain you more respect from other riders or an unofficial challenge depending on who you happen to meet on your ride.

Lance Armstrong -2009 Tour of California by puliarf -cc licensed

If you are in the cycling scene, Lance Armstrong is a name found everywhere. Many people know of him and his amazing story. 7 time Tour de France winner and a cancer survivor. After every one of his tour wins, you could see his team jerseys being sold at stores world wide. Who wouldn't want to be on the same team of their hero? A well know logo to cyclists and non-cyclists is Lance's "Livestrong". That logo has been put everywhere and people buy it not only to support cancer research but to show that they too live strong.

Besides the cycling world, logos are very important in all business. Bill Hanagan writes in his blog about the importance of logos for a webiste. He says it takes less then 1 second for people to deterime whether they will like something or not. Unfortunately that also how long it takes people to judge each other too sometimes. TinTin writes about how having a good team name can really improve the team morale as well as build a reputation for your team. A guy from my bike club "Tokyo Cycling Club" named Lawrence just loves to blog about anything and everything. He write what ever he feels and although he doesn't write about logos, he write about his rides. Recently I went on a ride with him and after a long hard ride with much more expirienced riders. He felt glad to be part of our club because he could learn so much. He talks about getting his team jersey soon so he can really feel like part of the club. A logo is so much more then just a name. It can be a symbol of the pride that we carry (or ride with).