5 ms·

The Age of the Wordless Logo (2016)

47 points by macbookaries 8y ago

colanderman 8y ago
Thankfully we can still describe such logos using the USPTO's design search code ontology: http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.htm http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.htm
rahimnathwani 8y ago
This only works if your brand is well know already, so it's unlikely for this to be a major trend.
- macbookaries 8y ago
  Hmmm not necessarily: look at every single brand that has an app; the logo of that app can often be more well-known than the name
- Broken_Hippo 8y ago
  That is definitely not true. These are all examples of getting folks to associate an existing company with a logo. If you are starting a company, you don't really have to do the same work. All you need is to advertise the logo and attach it to your products. The "bulk" of an advertisement can mention the name in text or audio. It works nearly the same as the name does, but with less mental effort on the consumer's end. You simply need to be consistent with the logo. Like the other poster said, game studios do this, even new ones. Superman and Batman pulled this off very successfully long ago as well. Of course, it does take some popularity for it to be in the public eye like the McDonald's logo does.
saagarjha 8y ago
> This year’s Top 20 includes Paypal and MasterCard, as well as Coca-Cola. Of course, this ignores the fact that they're low on the list, with many of the top spots going to companies with their name in the logo.
- macbookaries 8y ago
  I think it’s more a reason of how the brands are presented on that particular external list (ie mostly by name rather than logo). If you look at the top 5 at least Apple and PayPal have shifted to pretty much wordless logos
jaysonelliot 8y ago
Conversely, my own company has chosen a logo with only the name, and no logomark. Our name is only three letters, so it makes for a very easy lockup, and I believe it's strong without any symbols. I wouldn't call this the best approach in every case, but it's what we prefer: http://tsrgames.com/ http://tsrgames.com/ A symbol alone as a logo is good for an iconic brand, but not necessarily for a brand trying to establish themselves. A logo + symbol can work when that logo adds something to the meaning, like Amazon's smile mark or the Salesforce cloud. And sometimes the logo alone is stronger, like Google or IBM. Wordless logos are as old as advertising. Car companies have relied on their symbols to speak for them for decades, and it's easy to think of classic symbols like the Playboy bunny, Penguin books, Swiss army knives, etc. that have been wordless most all of their lives. Apple's logo has been used without words right back to the 1970s. There will always be different approaches that work for different brands. Choosing the right approach for any company is always on a case-by-case basis.
- DonHopkins 8y ago
  Terminate and Stay Resident games are never ending fun! ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminate_and_stay_resident_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminate_and_stay_resident_pr...
- lexa1979 8y ago
  TSR... I remember as a kid, that was the name of the group programming the cracks for my computer games :) Thanks for the fond memory :)
- 113 8y ago
  Isn't that confusingly similar to Gygax's TSR?
  - jaysonelliot 8y ago
    We acquired the trademark about five years ago, I founded the new company together with Luke & Ernie Gygax. Several original TSR people are involved. We're doing tabletop only right now, and we're working on a new mobile platform.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
I just posted this on the firefox logo discussion, but it applies equally well here. I have a theory that we're almost always in a design bubble. Look back in the history of most major brands, icons and trademarks and the ones that most people would consider classic all seem to come from two or three distinct eras. The rest can be viewed as "what the hell were they thinking?". Current thought doesn't seem to be shaping up for any classics.
yuchi 8y ago
Moderators, please add a `(2016)` suffix to the title.
jlebrech 8y ago
or maybe "no logo" is the new logo. just have a unique font made for your brand and nothing else.
- dest 8y ago
  Like Stripe ?
  - jlebrech 8y ago
    that's a good example
JunaidBhai 8y ago
I think that wordless logo can only work for brands who spend heavily on marketing and advertising. We ran a design shop for past 10 years and lately pivoted into a productized service http://draftss.com http://draftss.com All these years we've received hundreds of requirements with similar specifications such as "We want a logo that we can use just as a mark, Eg: nike, adidas, mcdonalds, etc." What client did not understand is that it's not just design or branding that makes these big brands recognizable to every person but their huge expenditure on 360-degree marketing campaigns. Not just any marketing campaign but high targetted quality campaigns where they are spending a huge sum of money everyday for decades. Although, this article reminds me of a time when Web 2.0 had been at rage and there were articles which said it's the Age of Web 2.0 All the logo design brief we received thereafter were "We want a Web 2.0 logo".
Jaruzel 8y ago
I am surprised that no-one has mentioned Amazon yet. If you look at the boxes now[1], they only have the Amazon curved-arrow logo on them. Even the black Prime branded packing tape no longer says Amazon on it. Also the ending of the TV adverts are the same, with just the curved arrow logo. -- [1] In the UK, at least.
- arthurfm 8y ago
  > If you look at the boxes now[1], they only have the Amazon curved-arrow logo on them. Another thing I noticed is that some third-party sellers are using similar yellow curved arrows in their product images [1][2]. I guess this results in more sales due to the association with Amazon? [1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07583NM7L http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07583NM7L [2] http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071VX675L http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071VX675L
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    Or to create the impression that it's an Amazon only bundle/offer ?
dpeck 8y ago
99designs has a good page on different kids of logos/word arms that gives a good baseline of terminology https://99designs.com/blog/tips/types-of-logos/ https://99designs.com/blog/tips/types-of-logos/
aeontech 8y ago
I noticed a billboard the other day. All it had was an edge-to-edge photograph, a raised squircle outline (iOS app icon shape of square with rounded corners), and a one word name. It was a very simple ad, but it made me double-take, because I suddenly realized that the squircle has become such an ingrained visual term of our cultural reference frame that it's sufficient to show just that outline to communicate that this is advertising for a mobile app.
- derefr 8y ago
  It makes a lot of sense, too. It's like AOL keywords, or hashtags, or even phone numbers: all attempts to brand the idea of "dial X to get Y." In this case, it's "press the button that looks like X to get Y."

47 points by macbookaries 8y ago

Thankfully we can still describe such logos using the USPTO's design search code ontology: http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.htm http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.htm

rahimnathwani 8y ago

This only works if your brand is well know already, so it's unlikely for this to be a major trend.

macbookaries 8y ago
Hmmm not necessarily: look at every single brand that has an app; the logo of that app can often be more well-known than the name
Broken_Hippo 8y ago
That is definitely not true. These are all examples of getting folks to associate an existing company with a logo. If you are starting a company, you don't really have to do the same work. All you need is to advertise the logo and attach it to your products. The "bulk" of an advertisement can mention the name in text or audio. It works nearly the same as the name does, but with less mental effort on the consumer's end. You simply need to be consistent with the logo. Like the other poster said, game studios do this, even new ones. Superman and Batman pulled this off very successfully long ago as well. Of course, it does take some popularity for it to be in the public eye like the McDonald's logo does.

saagarjha 8y ago

> This year’s Top 20 includes Paypal and MasterCard, as well as Coca-Cola. Of course, this ignores the fact that they're low on the list, with many of the top spots going to companies with their name in the logo.

macbookaries 8y ago
I think it’s more a reason of how the brands are presented on that particular external list (ie mostly by name rather than logo). If you look at the top 5 at least Apple and PayPal have shifted to pretty much wordless logos

jaysonelliot 8y ago

Conversely, my own company has chosen a logo with only the name, and no logomark. Our name is only three letters, so it makes for a very easy lockup, and I believe it's strong without any symbols. I wouldn't call this the best approach in every case, but it's what we prefer: http://tsrgames.com/ http://tsrgames.com/ A symbol alone as a logo is good for an iconic brand, but not necessarily for a brand trying to establish themselves. A logo + symbol can work when that logo adds something to the meaning, like Amazon's smile mark or the Salesforce cloud. And sometimes the logo alone is stronger, like Google or IBM. Wordless logos are as old as advertising. Car companies have relied on their symbols to speak for them for decades, and it's easy to think of classic symbols like the Playboy bunny, Penguin books, Swiss army knives, etc. that have been wordless most all of their lives. Apple's logo has been used without words right back to the 1970s. There will always be different approaches that work for different brands. Choosing the right approach for any company is always on a case-by-case basis.

DonHopkins 8y ago
Terminate and Stay Resident games are never ending fun! ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminate_and_stay_resident_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminate_and_stay_resident_pr...
lexa1979 8y ago
TSR... I remember as a kid, that was the name of the group programming the cracks for my computer games :) Thanks for the fond memory :)
113 8y ago
Isn't that confusingly similar to Gygax's TSR?
- jaysonelliot 8y ago
  We acquired the trademark about five years ago, I founded the new company together with Luke & Ernie Gygax. Several original TSR people are involved. We're doing tabletop only right now, and we're working on a new mobile platform.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

I just posted this on the firefox logo discussion, but it applies equally well here. I have a theory that we're almost always in a design bubble. Look back in the history of most major brands, icons and trademarks and the ones that most people would consider classic all seem to come from two or three distinct eras. The rest can be viewed as "what the hell were they thinking?". Current thought doesn't seem to be shaping up for any classics.

yuchi 8y ago

Moderators, please add a `(2016)` suffix to the title.

jlebrech 8y ago

or maybe "no logo" is the new logo. just have a unique font made for your brand and nothing else.

dest 8y ago
Like Stripe ?
- jlebrech 8y ago
  that's a good example

JunaidBhai 8y ago

I think that wordless logo can only work for brands who spend heavily on marketing and advertising. We ran a design shop for past 10 years and lately pivoted into a productized service http://draftss.com http://draftss.com All these years we've received hundreds of requirements with similar specifications such as "We want a logo that we can use just as a mark, Eg: nike, adidas, mcdonalds, etc." What client did not understand is that it's not just design or branding that makes these big brands recognizable to every person but their huge expenditure on 360-degree marketing campaigns. Not just any marketing campaign but high targetted quality campaigns where they are spending a huge sum of money everyday for decades. Although, this article reminds me of a time when Web 2.0 had been at rage and there were articles which said it's the Age of Web 2.0 All the logo design brief we received thereafter were "We want a Web 2.0 logo".

Jaruzel 8y ago

I am surprised that no-one has mentioned Amazon yet. If you look at the boxes now[1], they only have the Amazon curved-arrow logo on them. Even the black Prime branded packing tape no longer says Amazon on it. Also the ending of the TV adverts are the same, with just the curved arrow logo. -- [1] In the UK, at least.

arthurfm 8y ago
> If you look at the boxes now[1], they only have the Amazon curved-arrow logo on them. Another thing I noticed is that some third-party sellers are using similar yellow curved arrows in their product images [1][2]. I guess this results in more sales due to the association with Amazon? [1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07583NM7L http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07583NM7L [2] http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071VX675L http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071VX675L
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  Or to create the impression that it's an Amazon only bundle/offer ?

dpeck 8y ago

99designs has a good page on different kids of logos/word arms that gives a good baseline of terminology https://99designs.com/blog/tips/types-of-logos/ https://99designs.com/blog/tips/types-of-logos/

aeontech 8y ago

I noticed a billboard the other day. All it had was an edge-to-edge photograph, a raised squircle outline (iOS app icon shape of square with rounded corners), and a one word name. It was a very simple ad, but it made me double-take, because I suddenly realized that the squircle has become such an ingrained visual term of our cultural reference frame that it's sufficient to show just that outline to communicate that this is advertising for a mobile app.

derefr 8y ago
It makes a lot of sense, too. It's like AOL keywords, or hashtags, or even phone numbers: all attempts to brand the idea of "dial X to get Y." In this case, it's "press the button that looks like X to get Y."