I like to walk into Staples or Office Depot and ask for the anti-trust department.
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They are a big company that is more than just office supplies. But they sold off the various physical print production facilities, and the groups that did the work that went to those printers.
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Which is exactly what a good logo is SUPPOSED to do.
For example, even posting just one letter of a well known trademarked logo, most people should still be able to recognize this brand almost immediately:
The color and shape are very familiar and tell you at a glance what the company/product is. That’s the entire purpose of branding.
Meanwhile, those milquetoast typefaces above say nothing but “I’m lazy, boring, and there’s nothing whatsoever that’s distinctive about me.”
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It’s quite possible that focus groups point to this horrible trend…
… and/or perhaps there is some evidence that the older logos have become so ubiquitous that they have become “invisible”; if that is so, then I’d think that they could have been much more (or just plain) clever with the new ones.
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Yeah, when it is just one or two, it looks like a new, modern design. I actually like that sort of block helvetica black or what ever they are using look. But when everyone does it, it looks blase.
I have heard it pointed out that the new logos work better in small, digital formats. So if so, it is a sign of our media evolving.
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I think that is true, but not as needed as it was back before Apple said “F’ it!” to 72 dpi screen pitch and pushed a trend towards ever denser pixel density on mobile, laptop and desktop screens.
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I appreciate the factual response, but you have just crushed my dream of one day running a multinational 5-ring binder conglomerate.
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That Diane von Furstenberg logo needs more snek: xkcd: Full-Width Justification
Edit: mockup:
DIANE VON 
F U R S T E N B E R G
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sorry, i had to
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They got Lands End too, the bastards.
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I did care about them as a brand, at one point anyway. I own some of their stuff. I walked into a store for the first time in a little while the other day, and let me just say, OHMYGAWD. It has comPLETELY gone to shit.
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Being a former graphic designer i have a lot to say about the minimalist branding nonsense, but yeah… i want a company’s name, typography and logo to say something. Coca-cola is excellent, and in comparison i hate Pepsi’s rebranded look… though looking at their previous branding they’ve always had kind of lousy designs. Although the more cursive font is ok but very derivative of Coke
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You had to bring up Pepsi…
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Yeah I read that branding outline awhile ago. I thought I BSed my way through my reasoning for things during critiques to justify my work - and hopefully help my grade. This - this was the next level.
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In all seriousness, I ask these questions here, of all the folks who either work as graphic artists in advertising or know of or learned from at least one
because I have been wondering for years about this.
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Is cursive now and forever more forbidden because (a) machines have a hard time parsing or reading it; and/or (b) younger humans these days in countries with Roman lettering orthography have a hard time reading cursive?
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Re KISS–is there a curve of diminishing returns? Like, as a general rule in graphic-designer-land, is there a well-known limit where less is in fact, actually less?
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Maybe a logo in a slightly unusual serif font / typeface is a problem (Burberry’s old logo was both Copperplate Light and some kinda cursive script like oh I dunno maybe Snell Roundhand). Is the predominance of sanserif in the examples posted here somehow based on the “one size fits all” because corporate decision making now serves multinational corporations, who need greppable, simplified logo recognition across all global markets?
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Do graphic designers understand something new about human brain development and use wrt “digital natives” and how they use / understand digital culture? Different cultural requirements?
ETA: the Digital Natives question
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“Alas,” I don’t actually work in advertising, despite having a BA in it, so I can only tell you what “Le Roy” told me back in the day.
@Brainspore actually has a job teaching design, so he will likely be able to answer those questions better than I can, but nevertheless I’ll give you my quick-take:
The way LP explained it, cursive was to be avoided for the sake of legibility, again at just a quick glance. With well designed type; the viewer should be able to easily read the company name or slogan, even on the side of a rapidly moving bus.
Moderation, in all things; “even less is more.”
Given the law of probability, it would seem likely that there must be a limit to how simplistic a design can be, before it completely fails to convey the intended message.
Again, see @brainspore about an answer to that one.
I had to go look up the term “digital natives;” that’s just how old school I am.
While I am sure that the digital era has deeply impacted current day commercial art and the way that designers think about reaching their intended audience, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and just say:
But again, Brainspore can probably elaborate on that better than I can.
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If that’s a staple, shouldn’t it have pointy ends?
Your gif made me laugh out loud.
I’ve been working outside today since first light, and have a lot of fire ant bites on my hands and arms (and maybe a few when they found their way down the back of my shirt), so thank you. I needed that.
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