The brand played on
He had just been shown a sketch for the company’s new logo. Today, the swoosh would cost a multinational firm at least $500,000. Knight got his hands on one of the best-known symbols on the planet for a meagre $35.
In fairness to Knight, he later made up for his lukewarm initial reaction by giving its designer Carolyn Davidson a swoosh diamond ring and an envelope stuffed with Nike shares. The swoosh must have grown on him, because it’s celebrating its 40th birthday this summer.
Logos are brand name shorthand, specifically designed to both appeal to a certain group of consumers and convey to them the company’s virtues. Nike’s swoosh, for instance, can be a symbol of speed, flight, correctness, power; hardly the type of mark you’d want on a washing machine.
But good logos are difficult to create. For every swoosh or golden arches or bitten apple, there are a million disasters. Just think of the controversy sparked by the London Olympics logo. However, there is one principle that all famous logos have in common — simplicity.
“I find that some company logos just aren’t simple enough,” says Anthony Cotter, a graphic designer based in Cork city. “The very best logos are always simple.”
Cotter was faced with the task of dreaming up a simple, but clever, logo for his own company, Coolgrey, as part of a re-branding just last month. After playing around with the logo idea for weeks, Cotter finally settled on a badger motif. “Some logos come in an instant while others take extensive research,” says Cotter. “We had about 100 names bandying about. The name Coolgrey was actually a joke one because myself and sales director Justin Cronin are both getting old and going grey, and we wanted to stay cooler! The logo is just an abstract badger. We had to make sure there was nothing similar out there. Some people have said it resembles the Volkswagen logo. All designs include what has influenced the designer, whether it is sub-consciously or not, but the similarity to the Volkswagen logo never dawned on me.”
Cotter also managed to get in some hidden design features, just like the Fed-Ex logo. “When you look closer there are pencil tips and a ‘W’, which stands for web. The general design of the badger is a play on the yin and yang of there being two of us in the company, two different sides of the same thing. Also, the technical name of the colour of our logo is cool grey.”
Cotter was faced with a dilemma that did not affect Nike 40 years ago. All logos created in the past decade have had to be web-friendly, capable of looking their best online. “The Coolgrey logo had to be simple and clean enough to look well on the web, embroidery, screen printing and every media it will ever appear in.”
It’s just luck that Nike got all that too for their $35 investment.
1) McDonald’s (1962)
Though the now ubiquitous fast food merchants were founded in 1940, the golden arches didn’t arrive until 1953. Initially, they were part of the architecture of restaurants, one arch on each end of the building. In 1962, the company’s head of design, Jim Schindler, sketched an “M” to resemble a McDonald’s restaurant seen from an angle.
“The arches convey elegance and structure,” says Coolgrey’s Anthony Cotter.
2) Apple (1976)
It’s still a mystery why Steve Jobs and co chose a fruit as the name of their company. The simple apple logo was created by designer Rob Janoff, who included the bite so that it would not be confused with any other fruit. It’s much better than the first attempt — Newton sitting under an apple tree.
Cotter’s verdict: “The shape hasn’t changed but it has gone from being rainbow in colour to various monochrome versions. It was a clever strategy to move from the rainbow logo, it allowed Apple greater flexibility when it came to branding products.”
3) Coca-Cola (1885)
The person who penned the logo script is not known and many sources claim the company’s bookkeeper dreamt up the name. The cola drink company has used genius advertising tactics to such an extent that Santa is one of its marketing executives and even the shape of the bottle is recognisable the world over.
“Coca-Cola’s free-flowing script allows for a fun, elegant design which conveys youth,” says Cotter.
4) Fed-Ex (1994)
Hands up if you’ve noticed the hidden arrow in the logo. If not don’t worry it’s supposed to a “hidden bonus”, according to its designer Lindon Leader.
Cotter’s verdict: “Such a simple logo which houses an arrow in the negative space between the ‘e’ and ‘x’. The arrow symbolises movement, delivery, forward thinking... you won’t view it the same way again once you find that arrow!”
5) Shell (1904)
Shell Transport and Trading used a mussel as its first logo in 1901 but soon switched to a scallop, which was retained in the merger with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company.
“A visual to match the brand name,” enthuses Cotter. “The durable exterior of the shell symbolises power, strength, nature and the sea. The brand
mark is so recognisable that it doesn’t need the company name. This has it all, a simple name, easy to remember and a unique logo.”
6) Mercedes-Benz (1909)
Created by Gottlieb Daimler before his death in 1900, the three-pointed propeller symbolised his company’s production of engines for use on land, sea and in the air. It was his business partner Wilhelm Maybach’s daughter, Mercedes, whose name became the trademark for the company’s automobiles after the Daimler and Benz firms merged.
“It’s interesting to see in recent times that the company has lost the bevel edges in the logo and opted for a simple 2-D approach, again what they are doing here is keeping their brand consistent for both web and print,” Cotter says.
7) Chanel (1925)
It’s only fitting that perhaps the most significant fashion designers came up with her own logo. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was in business for about 15 years before she felt the need to put her own stamp on her items of haute couture.
Cotter’s verdict: “This shows symmetry, with the overlapping double ‘C’. Also the middle section forms an ‘eye’ — beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The logo has not changed since first design and the typeface is sans serif and in all caps to show quality, class.”
8) Google (1998)
Not so much a logo as just the company’s name, Google understand that the coloured letters are so well known by internet users that it can play around with them and still retain recognition. The logo was designed by Ruth Kedar, but some of the best Google “doodles” have been created by Dennis Hwang. The most recent innovative doodle was an interactive guitar in honour of Les Paul.
“The one logo that is 99% an online brand, hence the non-requirement for a monochrome version and the need to be colourful, playful. I don’t think this is a great mark; it falls down on the logo delivery,” says Cotter.
9) Playboy (1954)
What was initially intended to serve as an endnote for articles became the official magazine logo. It was created by designer Art Paul to replace a stag logo that Hugh Hefner was going to use for his Stag Party mag. Threatened with a trademark breach, Hefner renamed the magazine Playboy.
Cotter: “I feel the logo itself isn’t provocative; it’s more clever, playful, mischievous. The logo has always been black which gives it a classy, black tie, upmarket feel but also passes the ‘all good logos’ must work in black test. If you didn’t know what the logo stood for you would say it was a nice mark and identity.”
10) Guinness (1862)
The harp logo is known far and wide, but whose decision it was to use it is lost in time. It coupled the company to its country of birth brilliantly, though the harp faces the opposite direction than the one on Ireland’s coat of arms.
“The logo is most often reversed out of black which gives it a striking effect, the clever marketing has allowed us to view the logo as always sitting on the outside of a pint,” says Cotter. “One can envisage the swirls and clouds of the Guinness flowing behind the brand name.”
GOOD — Virgin: The legend goes that Richard Branson was having lunch with a designer to tease out ideas for a new logo. The artist grabbed a napkin and wrote ‘virgin’ on it. Branson looked over his shoulder on the way to the loo and said: “That’ll do.” He paid him £200 for the napkin.
BAD — Aer Lingus: The shamrock on the planes used to be upright. Then along came a British design company and made it paler, stretched it and stuck a stem on it. Aer Lingus paid them “a six-figure sum”.
UGLY — London 2012: It cost £400,000 and is still being berated four years after being unveiled. It’s supposed to represent England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Some say it looks like Lisa Simpson performing a sexual act.
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