The design of logos and how they interact with the consumer is very interesting to me. One reason I want to go back to school eventually is to do research into how stuff like that is processed in the brain and find practical uses for that knowledge. Since marketing and business in general is a science of application, theory alone is not enough.
I have this fantasy of sorts where 30-40 people are connected to EEGs and are exposed to a series of concepts like I laid out as a goal for the logo (and by extension, the other brand elements). Key words that you want the logo to induce in people at first sight.
The software begins to show them design elements and looks for positive/negative cognitive responses. Get a baseline for their brain activity by exposing them to elements and key words that we know should and should not have high correlations with each other.For instance a perfect Square and the keyword is Organic. That'll get a lot of negative responses. Once you have a baseline of brain activity you send out graphical elements, colors, a mix of the two(check for interaction effects) accompanied by words.
What I'd hope could be done would be a database of elements and colors with statistically significant (you know, significant for a sample of under 50, which isn't much but it's proof of concept) correlations with a range of concepts.
At a higher level of design I'd like to see what would happen if an evolutionary algorithm was applied to the task of logo design. You have an idea of what you want, maybe based on the correlated database of elements, maybe the intuition of a design artist. The software passes designs around the test group rapidly and tweaks them looking for a best-fit response.
I doubt you'll get magic results as it's just correlating and modifying but you might be able to take a good logo that fits the requirements of a given client and tweaks it to register with the consumer at a higher rate by using an evidence based approach.
Or I could find that my ideas are complete bullshit and that in itself is progress for the field, knowing what doesn't work.
/end caffeine induced rant.