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I had the opportunity to join Brian Zmijewski's Why Logos are Irrelevant panel at SxSW 2008 along with Christina Wodtke (LinkedIn), and Jeremy Britton (Zurb Inc.). While the panel title might suggest we advocated the death of all logos, the heart of the conversation was about the shifting value of logos in a world of infinite shelf space, digital identity, and the rapid iteration online products and services are afforded by low barriers to entry.

To set context appropriately, these points primary pertain to early stage Web products and services and tee up some interesting questions to consider when deciding to invest in a complete logo design project or not.

* In the wake of the industrial age, logos communicated trust and reliability to consumers. They were a key element of establishing brand and differentiation at the point of sale because most products were sold within limited shelf space (physical stores). The logo told you which produc