For centuries, emblems, signatures and huge variety of marks have been in use for identifying organizations. Affluent Greeks used molded stamps to sign documents. These stamps bore pictures of animals. Symbols like Swastika expressed variety of meanings across cultures. But this symbol of good fortune and well being got a bad name and elicited an intense reaction from viewers after Nazi party adopted it in Germany. In fact, many traditional symbols have attained different meanings centuries later due to interaction of cultures. All such symbols were in fact logos of their times, used by rulers, traders and others to express ownership over a concept, culture, product etc.
However, the industrial revolution gave a new purpose to logos in 20th century. A direct consequence of huge industrial production and plethora of business owners entering markets was enormous rise in competition amongst manufacturers. They needed aggressive marketing to reach out to masses, as they had to sell more to earn more profit. Therefore, success of their business depended a lot on creating an identity for their products as part of their marketing strategies. For this purpose, use of logos spread widely across all businesses and industries.
Describing the intense scenario of competition and marketing, Philip B. Meggs and Alston W Purvis in their book Meggs' History of Graphic Design has points out the intense scenario of competition and marketing in the starting decades of 20th century. According to the authors, '' The national and multinational scope of many corporations made it difficult for them to maintain a cohesive image, but by unifying all communications from a given organization into a consistent design system, such an image could be projected, and the design system enlisted to help accomplish specific corporate goals."
A brief history and evolution of logo design in the form of interactive infographic from Designhill will quickly take you through the journey. The infographic –
The History and Evolution of Logo Design– from the leading graphic design marketplace comes loaded with visual examples of logos from eras ranging from Victorian age to modern times. Plenty of information about evolution of the logos makes this interactive piece a highly useful infographic for logo designers.
Here are representative examples of some of the impressive logos that were the result of competition driven marketing during the twentieth century. These logos show initial developments in the evolution process of modern logos.
Wiener Werkstatte logo In 1903, the Wiener Werkstatte was founded in Vienna as a marketing enterprise. Following are the logos that this enterprise adopted to create a corporate identity.
Rose logo of Werkstatte is in the middle in the above picture. Notice also use of standard elements such as square, circle and decorative motif for designing these logos and monogram.
Now, see how Werkstatte molded cupboard key head into its rose logo shape here in the picture below.
During second half of the twentieth century, logo designing reached to artistic and aesthetic heights. Legendary logo designers like Paul Rand, Milton Glaser and Alan Fletcher created corporate logos with such mastery that the designs became part of everyday culture. For example, IBM logo raised logo design by Paul Rand raised standards. A great
collection of logos from legendary graphic designers by David Airey is a useful study in this regard.
Influence of visual media The second half of the twentieth century also saw fast emergence of television as a promising visual medium. Television was suddenly everywhere. Business owners saw opportunities in this medium. The legendary MTV logo was the product of its time when television was ruling the minds of people.
All images from smashdesign.com
The MTV logo gave a new dimension to corporate identity. The logo design was created to suit the new language of television. The new design broke all traditional notions about rules of logo use. The logo had elements of speed and animation. For the first time, the MTV logo showed that a logo can be shattered, redesigned, reshaped, demolished and even erased as this logo went through all these phases on regular intervals. Its owners were presenting this trademark in their own different shapes instead of a static form.
Influence of the brand era In the twenty first century, brand building has attained center stage in marketing plans. Old ways of creating brands are no more relevant today. Now, brands have become bigger than products. Companies lay emphasis on influencing consumers' minds by imposing on them a larger than life brand image of business. In the present day marketing, brand-building exercise matters rather than the products.
Consequently, in the present brand era,
logo designs are being created to help in branding a company. Today, merely designing a logo is not enough for logo designers. The designers are keeping cultural aspects of graphic designs also in mind while creating logos for clients. After all, culture plays a crucial role in branding a business. But rather than being something static, culture is changing around us rapidly.
This means that logo designers have to be on their toes to notice the culture changes happening in different societies. These changes must find expression in logos.
At present, logo designing is going through the phase of brand identity design and it is thriving. Logos are giving brands a visual persona.
Source : articlesbase.com
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