We see logomarks everywhere, they are the first thing that comes to mind when we think of a brand. They are a key part of any brand design programme. There are many different ways to create a logo for a brand: you can stay very simple and use a wordmark like we looked at last week (e.g. Revolut), create a monogram or letterform to form a logo (e.g. The V&A), or go for a graphic, these can be pictorial (e.g. Apple), abstract (e.g. Pepsi Cola) or even a character (e.g. Mickey Mouse for Disney). Some logos will be tied to the name of the brand, or maybe a founder, while others will simply be a abstract graphic to give the feel or meaning a brand wishes to convey, a perfect example of this is the dynamism and forward movement implied by the Nike Swoosh.
Whatever method is used it needs to fit the brand, fit the brand’s values, be unique, be memorable, be easily identified from small to large scale, up close to at a distance, have a graphic quality and if possible be timeless. Timelessness is the ultimate in logomark design as the logomark becomes the symbol of a brand’s reputation, as well as a form of self-expression for the users of a brand’s product. Logomarks need to carefully considered and designed with a huge number of factors in mind.
We started this week’s class with a task; we were asked to create our initials and an animal out of three simple geometric shapes, a square, a circle and a triangle. Below is what I came up with:
This wasn’t an easy task for me with three letters in my initials, two of which are straight and sharp edged and one with a curve, they don’t lend themselves to being created out of simple geometric shapes. I chose a lion as my animal and was quite happy with the lion’s head I created, however as I had quite a bit of time left to complete the task I decided to try and create the body of lion as well and achieve a more realistic representation of a lion. When we all as a class placed our work on a Miro board it was clear this was the wrong approach with simplicity being the most effective way of completing the task.
The best initials were created by those with letters that lent themselves to being depicted by geometric shape and which contained similar shapes or shared shapes in the letters. As I mentioned unfortunately my initials don’t lend themselves to this, but I still felt I could do a better job, so I went back and made changes to create this:
For this version I reduced my initials to their most basic form, using two squares stacked and a triangle cut-out to form the “P”, this removed the issue with having a curve in only one letter. I was happy with my “M” from the first exercise, using negative space between the triangles to form the letter rather than building it from the shapes themselves. For the “A” I went as minimalist as possible two triangles, one cut from the other to give the shape. I feel this is a much better monogram than my first attempt, although it is somewhat harder to read I feel it is a good effort given less than ideal initial elements. That is design and I need to create the most creative and effective solution to each task, I won’t always get the best starting point, and this task showed me that sometimes you need to try something, leave it for a bit and then come back to it to achieve the best result. I also removed the lion’s body and just left the head which I was also much happier with as its more simplistic and has a more fun cartoonish effect, rather than attempting any realism.
We then moved onto the lecture itself, which looked at all the different kinds of logomarks available and there essential requirements. In the initials and animal task above we had already looked at the two main types of logomarks the monogram and the pictorial mark. These can of course be broken down further into more categories: For example, is the pictorial mark abstract or more realistic? As well as additional types of logo, combination (a wordmark or monogram combined with a logomark), an emblem (a logomark contained within a shape), dynamic logomarks ( those that allow an element within them to change for example to refer to a different department within the same overall brand) and characters (such as Mickey Mouse or the Michelin Man). All of these logomark types have their own use cases and there is no one perfect type of logo mark. For my bank brand I need to consider all of the possibilities and come up with a logo mark that most effectively represents my brand and its values.