Business logos have always intrigued me from a design
perspective and in this week’s reading touches on the invention of the
corporate trademark. After WWII, as the industrial revolution was in full
swing, the global market expanded rapidly and corporations found themselves
needing to reach the multilingual world. This called for memorable icon for
each business that was recognizable by people of many nationalities. Meggs
mentions the Columbian Broadcasting System (CBS) its corporate initiative to
expand business through design. Their art director for near 20 years, William
Golden is responsible for the icon CBS “eye” pictograph (below), which has promoted
this television network in some form or another since 1951. This
is exactly why logos interest me, how this simple image and its affiliated
company can be embedded in people’s conscience based on its design.
One of my first experiences in realizing how the design of a
logo could impact its connection to a business and thereby create effective
advertising is when a friend pointed out that the space between the E and the x
in the FedEx logo (bellow) formed an arrow. I realized the some genius decided
to push these letters in a simple sans serif font until they’re touching you
could emphasize this shipping company’s speed and efficiency. I’ll admit it
takes a little imagination to come up with that meaning for an arrow, but I don’t
think I’ve used UPS ever since.
Another trademark that stands out to me—probably because I’m
a cyclist—and uses the same concept of playful typeface is The Tour de France
advertisement (bellow). At first glance it looks like the designer created a
nice calligraphy style font that appears brushed with a big yellow dot in the
background, presumably the sun because the tour is in the summer. This gives
the trademark an elegant appeal that I would remember without the twist. A
closer look reveals that the o-u-r, with the addition of two strategically out-of-placed dots, and the sun is actually a peddling racer.
Now I will always recall this version of the tour’s logo even if it changes throughout
the years.
My family has always been car buffs and like true patriots
we have had many Fords. The blue Ford oval is not just an effective and
memorable corporate graphic, but has become a century old symbol for America
engineering and manufacturing worldwide. Below is a compilation image of the Ford
oval throughout the years. The first emblem is definitely stands out as
different from the others, with its Victorian style frame and lack of color,
but it was oval shaped. The second one is from 1912 and its basic form of a
cursive typeface with a large F surround with a thick oval frame is seen from
here on. In 1928 we see the blue added with white font and frame. In about 1961
the logo became a little sleeker with an elongated effect but really no major
changes. The most recent version of the Ford oval simply adds some shading,
which is indicative of our digital graphic design era.
Image sources:
(in order of appearance)
http://www.pharis-video.com/p2199.htm
(2) http://now.msn.com/corporate-logos-with-hidden-messages-photo-gallery
http://www.muscularmustangs.com/database2/fordlogo.php
