Brands: I’ll Be There For You
By Lindsey Marshall 1
2011 by Lindsey Marshall First paperback edition published in 2011 Published in the United States by Lulu Press, Inc. United States Telephone: www.lulu.com Design: Lindsey Marshall Layout & Production: Lindsey Marshall Cover Image: Lindsey Marshall
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Contents Introduction
Chapter 1
A Brand Routine Pg. 6
Pg. 4
Chapter 2 What About the Brand? Pg. 10 -Case Study: -Adam Blain, Teabag Studio -Rick Burrows, Teabag Studio Chapter 3 Eco-Brands Pg. 20 -Cocoonu -Divine -The Body Shop Chapter 4 Failed Rebrandings Pg. 34 -Gap -Tropicana -2012 London Olympics Chapter 5
Brand Evolutions
-Apple -Ford -Coca-Cola -Shell
Pg. 42
Directory
Pg. 54
Acknowledgements Pg. 56 3
Introduction 4
I have a lot of enthusiasm when it comes to designing a logo. I feel it’s important to make sure when creating a logo, that it is distinct and appropriate as well as interesting and fun. That’s what I keep in mind anyway! I like to ensure I enjoy the process of logo design, and push my ideas to their absolute maximum. This I believe, is what makes a successful logo. Logo v Logo features the work of various graphic designers who have influenced my work, and insired me on a personal level. I have previously been given the opportunity to visit design agencies, which have been highly benficial to me as well as my design practice. Working within a professional environment alongside designers gave me the first person insight I needed to see how these agencies actually work and progress into reputable companies. I was involved throughout the entire time I went on these placements, and treated as part of the team which gave me a lot of
confidence when it came to presenting my ideas. I attended meetings with clients, and there I also gave presentations; an experience I was lucky and happy to be part of. This book will look at logos from an eco-friendly perspective; from the amount of brands we unconciously see each day, to the design reusable that creates something new. My goal is to allow you to look deeper into this particulr design practice, and to share the excitement and love I have for logo design.
-Lindsey Marshall 5
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A Brand Routine There’s no denying it, from the minute we wake up, like it or not, we’re surrounded by brands. We can easily see upto 1000 different brands a day, and quite often a whole lot more depending on what our day consists of. A brand routine illustrates a typical day shown here, from morning to evening.
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What About The Brand?
What can have a brand? In short, anything: products, services, organizations, places and people. Even you. A brand is a promise of satisfaction. It is a sign, a metaphore operating as an unwritten contract between a manufacturer and a consumer, a seller and a buyer, a performer and an audience, an environment and those who inhabit it, an event and those who experience it.
Corporations created brands as a way of increasing sales outside their immediate place of production.
a valuable, emotional bond between the producer and customer. Brands reinforce loyalty by using a consistent, recognizable image everywhere the customer is likely to encounter them. Customers always believe a branded item is worth more than a generic one, even though the two may be similar. Experience tells us there’s usually a correlation between the quality of packaging and the quality of what’s inside. We’re more likely to try a new product by someone we trust, so we look for clues and hints in the packaging: the style of illustration, the typography, and the place of origin.
It is important for producers to focus on what the customer thinks, and respond to that. This is what makes branding a two-way process. When we buy brands, we take part in their story: great brands reassure us as to what an important role we play in their great story. At the heart of every branding effort there has to be a kernel of truth. The beauty of great branding lies in its ability to identify that truth, tell its story, make it look good, and build it into
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Teabag Studios 0113 350 28 64 Unit 13 Carlton Mills Leeds LS12 2QG hello@teabagstudios.com www.teabagstudios.com
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Case Study: Teabag Studios Speaking to the industry is an important part of the learning process. I spoke to a few of the designers at Teabag Studios, to see what their views and opinions were on certain areas of branding.
Adam Blain Creative Director
What is a creative director? A creative director is responsible for the quality of the final creative work produced within the studio. What is a logo? A logo is a an identity that is created to represent an organisation. What makes a successful logo design? I think a successful logo design is hard to measure. Simple, timeless, memorable and versatile across different mediums. A logo that ad-dears to these rules has a strong chance of creating a successful brand. How do you know how much to charge for a logo design? Who decides? There are several factors which determine the cost: 1) the level and depth of research required to understand the market. 2) number of revisions.
3) whether or not the client requires a brand guideline document. When designing a logo, do you have any specific stages or rules you follow? No matter what size of branding project we always go through a set route. Do you prefer working with type, image or both when designing a logo; or do you have no preference? I personally start with type as it is first of all important to create a logo that will stand alone and represent the organisation. As we develop a logo then we start thinking about the imagery as this helps position the logo and begins the foundation of creating a brand. Are there any specific existing logos you particularly like? Why? I like brands that are timeless and simple but have something clever worked into them. The FedEx.
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FedEx Express
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FedEx Express
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Teabag Studios 0113 350 28 64 Unit 13 Carlton Mills Leeds LS12 2QG hello@teabagstudios.com www.teabagstudios.com
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Case Study: Teabag Studios
Rick Burrows Senior Designer
What is a logo? A Logo is a design symbolizing ones organization. It is a design that is used by an organization for its letterhead, advertising material, and signs etc What makes a successful logo design? A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic, simple in form and conveys an intended message. How do you know how much to charge for a logo design? Who decides? Dependant on the client / business and how complex the logo needs to be. The designer can estimate on time to design how ever this can change with each client or business. When designing a logo, do you have any specific stages or rules you follow? Has to reflect the organization. Has to be legible.
Do you prefer working with type, image or both when designing a logo; or do you have no preference? Both. Some of the best logos created combine both. Gives you more freedom when designing. No preference all in all. Are there any specific existing logos you particularly like? Why? Nike - simple, effective. evolved to just the ‘Tick’ which has been established worldwide for years. Do you think time has had an affect on how logos are designed? How? Time as in deadline or time as in logos designed over the years? In which yes and no. There are many logos that reflect the year they were created however on the same hand there are logos that are future proof and can be developed. e.g. Apple Mac.
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Nike
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Nike
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Eco-Brands
It’s only once I’m in the middle of a brief do I realise I’m working to eco-friendly specifications. It seems to come “naturally” to me. It’s interesting to look at logos that have to communicate the values and beliefs behind the company it represents. In a sense, it’s something else to look out for and take note of when analysing the logos.
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Cocoonu Organic Luxurious, ethical 100% cashmere, organic bath and body range and eco-friendly jewellery sources from around the world. The Cocoonu logo is extremely simple, yet very effective. It clearly represents the values the company stand for with ease.The colours are very organic and natural which already acts as a symbol for their beliefs, and how it’s positioned together with the ‘organic’ type backs it up further.
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Divine The story of Divine starts back in 1993 with the birth of Kuapa Kokoo, a pioneering cocoa farmers’ cooperative in Ghana, dedicated to producing high quality cocoa, and running a democratic organisation with the farmer’s interests at heart. In 1997 Kuapa Kokoo made the bold move into the UK chocolate industry and The Day Chocolate Company was launched. Day Chocolate’s mission is to bring a delicious Fairtrade chocolate alternative to as many chocolate lovers as possible, and in so doing both raising awareness of the need
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for fairer trade with developing countries, and growing a market to ensure more cocoa is bought at the Fairtrade price. Divine, launched by Day Chocolate in 1998, is a delicious Fairtrade chocolate created to give chocolate lovers the opportunity to indulge in their favourite treat and support a fairer system of trade at the same time. The colour used alongside the swirly typeface emphasise just how ‘divine’ this chocolate actually is. Image has been
used as part of the type, so illustrate how the product should come across and taste. Something as simple as this makes all the difference, and it’s it that extra push towards what the product is representing.
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Divine advertisements, emphasising their fair trade beliefs.
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The Body Shop “We believe there is only one way to beautiful, nature’s way. We’ve believed this for years and still do. We constantly seek out wonderful natural ingredients from all four corners of the globe, and we bring you products bursting with effectiveness to enhance your natural beauty and express your unique personality. And whilst we’re doing this, we always strive to protect this beautiful planet and the people who depend on it. We don’t do it this way because it’s fashionable. We do it because, to us, it’s the only way.” The logo is a fantastic representation of the values the company believe in: Support Community Fair Trade, Defend Human Rights, Against Animal Testing, Activate Self-Esteem, and Protect Our Planet.
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Creative advertisements for The Body Shop.
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‘Protect our Plant’, and ‘Against Animal Testing’.
This ad was part of the ‘Love your body’ campaign, whose underlying proposition was to challenge and stimulate public debate on female self-esteem and to position The Body Shop’s ethical policy in this context.
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Failed Rebrandings A brand identity, name, and logo is a company’s public face. So you’d think companies would be really careful in figuring out how to revamp that image. Sadly, a good number of recent rebranding attempts seemed to just crash and burn.
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David Airey, Senior Designer at Pentagram. “What I dislike about the story coming from Gap is how it seems that they’re expecting their target audience to create design ideas for free. The whole idea of spec work shows a complete lack of respect from Gap, as well as doing the potential design outcome a huge disservice. Designers should always be fairly compensated for their skills.” Jason Santa Maria - New York design studio Mighty / Creative Director at Typekit. “The biggest thing about it is that it’s nameless and
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faceless. The Gap has a logo and for whatever reason it’s an acceptable logo that was passive enough that nobody really cared about it. But using Helvetica in such a bland way has incited rage. Helvetica, while not a bad font, is an absurdly ubiquitous font; probably a quarter of the world’s fonts are Helvetica. And gradient is somewhat detested. It’s kind of like combining a bunch of zombie elements that are all bad. Or throwing together three different flavors of vanilla, hoping you’re going to get chocolate somehow.”
“A child created using a clip-art gallery.” Paul Keister, Executive Creative Director at Goodness Manufacturing. “This big change has reminded me of one thing and that is, the old logo wasn’t the greatest and needed to change. I think I just got
desensitized by it over the years and looked past it whenever I dashed in to get a last minute meeting shirt. So, to the new logo. Overall, it’s a miss. It looks like something for a responsible banking institution or pharmaceutical company and not for a fashion brand. It’s the small, blue square that’s creating this result for me. I would love to see the multiple revisions leading up to the new Gap logo. I can only imagine there were some brave and solid explorations. But with each meeting, over the course of its (2 year?) development, it got whittled down.”
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Tropicana Unfortunately, the company underestimated how attached their customers had become to the old design. When it rolled out its new cartons in January 2009, the consumer backlash was immediate and powerful. The New York Times reports that “some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”
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A New York Times story reported that due to consumer backlash, Tropicana was scrapping their new packaging/logo and returning to their classic packaging.
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2012 London Olympics If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that you shouldn’t mess around too much with a classic. And there are few things more classic than the Olympics. But the organizers behind London’s 2012 logo wanted to inject a little modernity into the branding of their Games. As their website puts it, “Our emblem is simple, distinct, bold and buzzing with energy.... It feels young in spirit... Not afraid to shake things up, to challenge the accepted. To change things.” ABC News reports that the logo, which cost $800,000 to create, was generally deemed as childish, ridiculous, ugly, and in no way representative of London or the Games. Visually, “it’s really hard to understand what they’re trying to say,” Method’s Alicia Bergin commented.
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BrandsEvolutions As we already know, logos are the identities that are fundamental to building a brand and communicating with the target audience. Many well-known corporate brands change their logo to archive the perfect identification because identity’s creation is not an occasional activity, but a permanent one. Looking back, it’s interesting to see how company identities have developed into what they are today. It could be seen as part of a recyling process; using what you’ve got to create something different whilst keeping pieces of similarity. Here, I will look at a small selection of logos that have gone through stages of development.
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Apple Inc. (1) 1976 Apple’s first logo, Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. (2) 1976-1998 Almost immediately the logo was replaced by Rob Janoff’s “rainbow Apple”, the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. Janoff presented Jobs with several different monochromatic themes for the “bitten” logo, and Jobs immediately took a liking to it. While Jobs liked the logo, he insisted it be in color to humanize the company. The colored stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible, and to represent the fact the monitor could reproduce images in color.
(3) 1998 In 1998, with the roll-out of the new iMac, Apple discontinued the rainbow theme and began to use monochromatic themes, nearly identical in shape to its previous rainbow incarnation, on various products, packaging and advertising. An Aqua-themed version of the monochrome logo was used from 2001–2003, and a Glass-themed version has been used since 2003.
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The modern and unique design enables the Apple logo to standout the rest of the motifs to signify the quality standards it produces. The simple features of Apple logo appear clear in its design and depiction. The rainbow colors are now omitted from the Apple logo, instead it comprises of a silvery chrome polished apple. It appears as shiny and elegant in its layout, looking both stylish and modern.
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Current Logo
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Current Logo
(1) 1903 Henry Ford’s third company, founded in 1902, was called Ford & Malcomson, Ltd. This is the company name in the first logo of 1903. (2) 1909 The 1909 logo, which has a similar font as today’s logo was borrowed from Childe Harold Wills, who had made this font for his business card. (3) 1912 In 1912, the Ford logo was given a complete makeover, as compared to the earlier simplistic design. (4) 1927 When a car was launched in 1927, called Model A, the famous blue oval was introduced in the logo. This was the shape and color, on which all future Ford logos have been made. (Current Logo) 2003 The company has experimented with different shape going from ellipse to circle, and even a diamond like shape in 1957.
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Ford The 1976 logo was essentially, the last major change in the symbol, and is very similar to their current logo. Finally, in 2003, the company released a new logo, which came to be known as “Centennial Blue Oval”. Ford is one of a few brands that have lasted the test of time and still maintain it’s values and personality. The last logo of Ford was updated at the celebrations of its 100th birthday in 2003. The new logo is known as the Centennial Blue Oval and remains respectfully loyal to C. Harold Will’s (the first designer of the Ford logo) original design. No changes were made in the font style of the logo. It maintains the same classy and funky look as ever. The new Ford logo seems to be working well for the company as it has become one of the most recognized car logos in the world.
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The Coca-Cola logo, like the brand itself, is recognized globally. The characteristic design with a white swirl and a cursive style revives the youth spirit.
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(1) 1886 Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name and chose the logo’s distinctive cursive script. (2) 1940s A clear interpretation of the logo with minor revisions was finally introduced to the public in 1940s.
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(3) 1960s The Arden Square logo was unveiled to the world. In this red box, the familiar Coca-Cola script was underlined with the iconic white ‘wave’ known as the ‘Dynamic Ribbon Device’, which is still used to this day. Find out more about the meaning behind this famous white twist here.
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Current Logo
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(4) 2000s With the introduction of the ‘Coca-Cola... Real’ campaign, the logo’s ‘white wave’ was enhanced with a shock of yellow and some floating bubbles. (Current Logo) 2009 A simple, yet bold design. From ‘The Pause That Refreshes’ via ‘The Real Thing’, to the simple ‘Enjoy’, exceptional campaigns and classic design have helped Coca-Cola establish itself as one of the world’s leading brands. Coke and Santa Claus (with a ‘Coke’-red tunic) are linked in the minds of many people in the West. Coke’s branding is an exercise in how it should be done. The basic logo has changed little in a century, yet the context of the logo has been subtly updated over the years. A Coca-Cola can remains forever a Coca-Cola can, but the
21st-century version is bright, reflective and contemporary, while retaining all its definitive elements: the logo and the Coke red. the Coke bottle was one of the original iconic packaging designs: a strategy imitated by dozens of companies, to varying degrees of success, ever since it first appeared.
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(1) 1901 The first logo was a mussel shell, but by 1904 a scallop shell had been introduced as a visual manifestation of the corporate and brand name. (2) 1909 This is one of the last black and white logos that resembled a real pecten shell. (3) 1930 This is the last black and whtie logo for the company. (4) 1948 The coloures yellow and red were introduced to the logo, with white typeography. These made it stand out a lot more. (5) 1955 The logo started to give off more of a cartoon feel, since it was simplified and vectored. (6) 1995 A thicker outline which made it a lot more simple and clear. The type was moved underneath the logo instead of inside it. (Current Logo) 1999 This is the current logo used for Shell. Very similar to 1995’s logo, Since first appearing in the early 1900s, the Shell logo has moved from a realistic rendering of a pecten, or scallop shell, to today’s bold shape with distinctive colours.
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Current Logo
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Directory 54
Pg.7, 8, 9 Canon Samsung Dove Sainsburys Aquafresh Carex Atmosphere Zone Simple Nicky Clarke Lee Stafford Remington Silvikrin Nivea Loreal Rimmel Maybelline Weetabix Spar Windows 7 Premiar Abus Evian Value Fara KX Epson Specsavers Debenhams Nivea Extra Strepsils Tesco
Snickers Hula Hoops 4head Deep Heat Watestones Vivanco Currys Caffe Nero Bizhub Pepsi Apple Inkjet Verbatim Snopake Yorkshire Purchasing Rexel West Design Staedtler Kodak Belkin WHSmith Stabilo
Pg.34 David Airey, author of “Logo Design Love: A Guide To Creating Iconic Brand Identities� and a Northern Ireland-based brand identity designer. Jason Santa Maria, founder and principal of the New York design studio Mighty, creative director for Typekit, a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and creative director for A List Apart.
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Acknowledgements 56
A big thanks to Teabag Studios for their input and inspiration.
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