Logo
Brand
Brand -
a sign of recognition since its inception has changed and developed along with culture and society.
The Old Norse word 'brandr', meaning to burn, is also a term for 'brand' (place of origin).
The first industrial farmers branded their cattle using a heat stamp to leave (burn) marks on the animal's skin. As a result of this practice, traders used different symbols or markings to distinguish their products.
The first brand agency, established in London in 1786, William Taylor sold advertising space to printing and newspaper companies. This was followed by the James White’s brand agency in 1800, and soon other agencies began to appear in the UK and eventually in the US. By the 1870s, registered trademarks were in full swing, and the United States Congress passed the Trademark Act in 1881 to determine brands as intellectual property.
The first clickable banner ad was introduced in 1993, Yahoo launched a year later. Google's powerful search engine was launched in 1998, and by 2006, search engine traffic reached 6.4 billion visits in a single month, and a new concept called search engine marketing was introduced.
As companies rushed to adapt their brands from traditional to digital platforms, another platform emerged: social media. Starting with Myspace and evolving to include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, these social media players gave “ordinary” people a global platform to become active participants in e-commerce and promote their goods and services. Cookies were developed to track and understand consumer behavior and online shopping became the norm.
Today, targeted brands are popular. Brand goals and values bind with social or environmental concerns, purposeful branding fosters a deep emotional connection with customers who share similar beliefs.
For example, TOMS shoes built their reputation on the “one-for-one" idea of giving one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased.
An authentic and compelling brand story is what consumers are looking for. Brand storytelling creates an emotional connection with customers. Brands can now interact with consumers in new and creative ways thanks to digital technology, it gives us more interesting and creative brand experiences.
Logo -
The logo was first used in the printing industry when printers used marks to differentiate their products.
The Aldine Press trademark, which included an anchor and a dolphin, is one of the earliest instances of visual branding. Companies began to use logos or symbols to distinguish their goods from those of their competitors. Customers who understood that they were buying products from a trusted source were more likely to trust brands with recognizable logos.
The Bass brand name and logo pioneered not only beer, but also corporate identity and logo design. It was the very first trademark to be registered under the UK Trademarks Registration Act of 1875. Attesting to the Bass logo's vital simplicity, the red triangle has been immortalized in several monumental modernist artworks, including several paintings and collages by Pablo Picasso; Edouard Manet's 1882 painting Bar at the Folies-Bergère.
Logo has the potential to be a very powerful brand. In fact, many companies are recognized more quickly by their logo than by their name. Logos are all around us, and well-known ones are easily recognized by almost every consumer. The successful logos we have today mostly consist of simple and easily recognizable logo marks that are effective at keeping in line with the respective brands.
The most prominent modern logo designer today is Paul Rand, who designed logos for IBM, ABC, Cummins Engine, Westinghouse, and UPS, among many others. Graphic designer Louis Danziger described him as a designer who ...... “Almost single-handedly convinced business that design is an effective tool. Everyone who was designing in the 1950s and 1960s owed a lot to Rand, who largely made our work possible. More than anyone else, he made the profession respectable. We went from being commercial artists to graphic designers mainly on his merits.
" A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around." – Paul Rand
While the purpose of a logo is to communicate, the purpose of a brand is to identify. A logo may be just a symbol of what it represents, but it also gives meaning to a brand because it symbolizes the values of that brand. A logo has meaning because it embodies the essence of the brand, and as long as the logo resonates with consumers, so will its meaning. Today, a proper logo is flexible in both design and application, and ideally can stand on its own. The simpler the logo, the easier it is to recognize it in today's world.
The Gucci logo is worth mentioning as an example. What you know today is far from the first logo designed by the brand.
When Guccio Gucci died in the 1950s, his son briefly replaced the brand's logo with an image of a knight standing on a shield. The knight held a set of suitcases and the logo, including Gucci lettering, a helm and rose, for added aesthetic appeal. During this time, Aldo Gucci also used the double G logo you recognise today in the brand’s luggage and small leather bags, and it became a trademark of the brand until the knight design was no longer visible and disappeared. Aldo Gucci thus paid tribute to the company's founder, perpetuating his father's name and preserving his family's legacy. It worked - the two interlocking letters are executed in a modern sans-serif font, creating one of the most recognizable fashion logos in the world :)
P.S.
Today, brands are changing and evolving as businesses use social media and digital marketing to connect with customers in new and creative ways. However, the basic principles of branding remain the same. By developing a distinctive and memorable brand that sets you apart from the competition, even small businesses and startups can also benefit from the added value of a well-presented graphic design brand.
The beginning of everything will be your L.O.G.O. - we can also help you create a new or improve an existing brand logo in our free time from studies :):):)
