What are your three favorite logos?
We may not know that logos had their beginning in 1870. Yet, more than a century later, we do know the power of logos to influence buying decisions, and that companies spend billions to promote them.
In the book, Logo Beginnings, Jens Miller details a study of nearly 10,000 logos. Miller writes that modern logo designs fall into two major groups, figurative and abstract, and 25-30 subgroups. For example, BMW models the emblem type with a stamp-like arrangement of images and text. KFC sports a mascot logo to represent its brand featuring a pictorial logo related to the company’s name.
Of particular interest is the popularity of wordmark logos that look like signatures such as Ford and Kellogg’s. The most famous wordmark logo, introduced in 1886, belongs to Coca-Cola. It was the drink company’s bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, who used the Spencerian script to create the logo, one that has remained basically unchanged.
Another historical note is a simple red triangle that was registered by England’s Bass Brewery in 1875. If you look closely at Edouard Manet and Pablo Picasso paintings, you’ll find the contemporary-looking logo on Bass beer bottles. Today we call that commercial product placement which is more than an $11.4 billion industry.
As with every good story, there’s more to the logo legend…