"RECOGNIZING LOGOS V. READING LOGOS"

I just recently purchased "The Mark of Excellence -the History of Taxonomy of Trademarks" and the author, Per Mollerup stated, people recognize trademarks, but do not read them.  This shocked me until he explained some very well known trademarks and what they mean.

The first was Coca Cola:

This tradmark was designed to tell the customer of the two main ingredients in it, Coca leaves and Cola nuts.

The second was Porsche:

This trademark is made up of the coat of arms of Stuttgart, Germany where the car is made and the name Porsche superimposed over it.

The third is IKEA:

This trademark stands for the intials of it's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, and his place of birth, Elmtaryd Aguunnaryd 

Amazing what can be learned when "read" a trademark as opposed to just recognizing it.

"More Wordmark Research"

After our class review of wordmark research examples submitted by members of the class and the resulting coversation that ensued about what a true wordmark is I lucked upon this web article entitled "The 10 Best Wordmark Logos of All Time". 

The following logos made the list, but in seeing some of them are they truly wordmarks?  Here at the 10 wordmark logos:

10. VISA

9. CRAFTSMAN

 8. DISNEY

7. FERRARI

6. XEROX

 5. MET LIFE

 4. CANON

 3. CITI

 2. FED EX

1. COCA COLA

The link for this article is : http://breezycreativedesign.com/2010/02/26/10-best-wordmark-logos-of-all-time/

"Wordmark Research"

Here are three corporate logos that have been significant in my life in some form or another;

"A Super WordMark"

Project 2 for class deals with wordmarks and this caused me to think about one the most recognized and possibly beloved wordmark logo today, the Superman logo.

Now most people would not think of it in this way but when you take a moment and consider it, it makes since.  We have all seen countless organizations, schools, businesses, etc. that have copied/incorporated it's design in order to draw from its world wide recognition factor for their cause because it is so well known..
Most people would argue that this is not a wordmark but given that it is made up of a letter and minimal extras (the outline borders) it would classify as one.

Originally, the S Logo was designed to look like a police badge but over the years it evolved into the design that we currently have:

The Original design circa 1939

Current design circa 2011

Overall, very few logos carry the weight and influence that this one has over the last 80 years.  Just goes to prove that a well done design is a design done well.

As an added measure the lettering for Superman's name has barely changed since it first appeared on the cover of Superman #1 in 1939.

Circa 1939-1940

Circa 1983

"An Interesting Serif StyleTypeface"

Letterhead Font has done it again.   They have just released a new typeface called Cameo created by Tom Kennedy. The typeface is a serif style font as is described as, "the perfect substitute for the over used Copperplate font.  

As far as serif style typefaces go, I like the look of this one. The characters are very clean and consise.   Go to http://www.letterheadfonts.com/ to view the other character sets for Cameo as well as sample design uses.