This week we looked at logomarks and how brands create effective and iconic logos. We were first tasked with creating a monogram of our initials and an animal using only shapes. For the H in my initials I only used rectangles and for the C I used two circles with one rectangle to create the gap in the letter. For the animal I decided to create a bird using two circles and the rest being rectangles that I modified to create the shape.
I had a look at an article from Creative Review on top 20 logos of all time. Apple was 14th on the list with their 1977 design which was the same apple with the bite but with the colours of the rainbow instead of the iconic greyscale design which was designed by Rob Janoff he stated: “I designed it with a bite for scale, so people get that it was an apple, not a cherry”. Janoff included the stripes in the design as a reference to the Apple II which had a coloured monitor . A year before that design was made Ronald Wayne created the very first Apple logo which depicted Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. I quite like the 1977 logo design as I feel that a company like Apple should have a logo that looks bright and innovative, although the current apple logo is very iconic and works very well with the design of all of their products.
Pentagram is an independently owned design studio founded in 1972 in Notting Hill London. They are the only design studio in the world were the owners of the studio actually create the work and are the primary contact for all of the clients. I wanted to delve into some designs pentagram have commissioned and see what they do well as a studio.
In 2016 Pentagram created a slight rebrand for Mastercard, they focused on keeping the brand’s simplicity and putting a focus on the overlapping circles and how the brand will look when presented digitally. For their typography choice they chose FF mark which is a sans-serif typeface inspired by Mastercard’s former type from 1979. I personally think this brand refresh was great as I feel that it helped Mastercard look more modern and helps fit in, I also think it was a good idea to place the wordmark below the logo instead of being inside of it because it puts a greater emphasis on the logo and helps it grow along with the brand.
