By Colin Heward (Senior Art Director)
If you work in marketing like I do, you’ve probably discussed logos at one time or another.
“What’s your favorite logo?” is a question I’ve been asked on more then one occasion, both by people inside and outside of the industry.
Logos are very personal, very subjective. What one person likes about a mark, a color, a font, another hates.
This is what makes designing logos so difficult — they’re visceral. A logo is supposed to be the representation of an organization. A logo’s job is to give off the same energy or vibe you would want when you describe the company it represents.
Or is it?
Let’s take the Cleveland Browns’ logo for instance. Or lack thereof. For over 40 years, the Cleveland Browns have had the plainest (some would say the laziest) logo in all of professional sports. Not a mark or a font to found. A color, a simple color, is what distinguishes the Browns from the other 31 NFL teams.
Recently, the Browns rebranded themselves with a design makeover. They changed their orange. Wait, what? You didn’t notice?!!
I suspect you’re not alone. I’m willing to bet 99.9% of people didn’t notice. They went from a PMS 172 to a PMS 2028. I can’t believe you didn’t notice!
That’s not to say color in and of itself isn’t a brand. It most certainly is.
Now, you probably thought I was going to mention Susan G. Komen and the color pink here, didn’t you? Nope. I was thinking of another brand near and dear to my heart.
A brand that actually lacks branding: Craigslist.org.
When people think of Craigslist they think of a classified ad site with listings for jobs, housing, fake poop and dangerously attractive young female playthings.
(That’s as of 2/1/16. The fake poop has since sold and the dangerously attractive young female plaything has since found her mate. I won’t say if I was involved in either sale.)
Since the site’s inception, those kids from the San Francisco Bay Area have remained true to their roots. I can’t think of another brand that uses less branding than Craigslist. They use 2 fonts – Helvetica and Times New Roman, I believe – a traditional classified grid, white, grey and that hex link color.
That’s it! They don’t even have a discrete logo mark. But I won’t say their lack of branding has really hurt them. On the contrary. Years ago, eBay purchased a 25% stake in the company.
Sometimes, a single logo can convey multiple messages or reinforce a singular message. I love those “aha” moments in logo design. My favorite logos tend to be the ones that use negative space.
Take the negative space arrow in the FedEx logo. This logo has won over 40 awards and is considered one of the best logo designs of the past 35 years.
The negative space arrow in FedEx is relatively well known.
But how about the extra kiss in Hershey’s Kisses logo? Turn your head to the left, and you’ll see that between the ‘K’ and ‘I’, there is a Hershey’s Kiss baked right in.
Based right here in my hometown of beautiful Canton, MA, is Baskin Robbins, known for their 31 flavors.
I was fortunate enough to pitch this client a few summers ago where we had Baskin Robbins ice cream machines placed all over the office for a month. I’ve got the extra weight to prove it!
They’ve taken that concept of 31 and infused it into their logo, reinforcing their brand promise of one flavor for each day of the month.
There are, of course, dozens of examples of interesting logo design. Something as basic and simple as a logo can carry a lot of meaning, sometimes multiple meanings. And sometimes zero meaning.
How many of you noticed the two ‘0’s in the word ‘L0G0s’ in the title of this story? See what I mean?
CONSIDER ALSO READING – “Colin, We Need A New Logo”
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