A small logo with a complicated history of business and design

This article is from WeChat official account:Xu Xu Duoduo (ID: xxddkids) , author: Koch on apple plant, editor: Chen Shih Yue, Assistant editor: Luan new Ping, title figure from the visual China

In early January this year, Burger King released a new logo to bid farewell to the old version that has been in use for more than 20 years. This new logo has some retro, almost the same as the orange version used in the 70s and 90s. The font has become rounded, with two pieces of “bread” on the top and bottom. It looks like a hamburger and is very vivid.

Why did Burger King change the logo? Is there a logo design feature in each era? What did the earliest logo look like? Today we will take a look at the evolutionary history of the logo.

The birth of the business world logo

In the mid-nineteenth century, the vigorous industrial revolution had just ended, and just as Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom began to take power, a new wave swept across. Everyone was full of expectations, hoping that new technologies could greatly increase productivity and benefit mankind.

The major manufacturers have begun to explore new marketing methods. How can their products stand out among mass-produced mass products? One of the answers is a logo, because it can simply express information such as product quality, technical advantages, and social status through a symbol.

In terms of style, the Victorian design reflected the optimistic spirit of the time, using symmetrical layout and heavy decoration. For example, the Pepsi logo in 1898 used Gothic fonts, which is far from the Pepsi logo we are now familiar with.

In almost the same period, there was also a design trend called the Arts & Crafts Movement (Arts & Crafts Movement), which redefines the logo The decorative elements in the use of simple medieval, romantic and folk style decoration, with a heavy texture. This trend connected the Victorian era with the subsequent modernist trends.

Ford’s 1903 logo is a representative of this style, with some simple and flat lace decorations.

Art Nouveau Movement

Art Nouveau Movement(Art Nouveau) reached its peak from 1890 to 1910, and it led the trend of popular culture at the beginning of the 20th century. The logo design at this time, while retaining some Victorian style, turned to more concentrated Modern and modern aesthetics, frivolous decorations are gradually abandoned, regular geometric structure and smooth lines are combined with simple lace patterns and hand-painted fonts.

The most famous example is the Coca-Cola logo in 1891, which is almost the same as the current version.

Early Modernism

1910s~1920s early modern (Early Modern) art reflects radical philosophical and technological experiments. Coming out of the global tragedy of World War II, they tried to get rid of all traditional artistic methods and ways of thinking, and began to take concepts and forms as core elements. The concrete patterns gradually decreased, and the abstraction attracted more and more attention. As a result, solid color backgrounds, bold line fonts and simple graphics began to be popular in logo design, resulting in simple but far-reaching designs. Bosch in 1913 was an excellent representative.

Decorative Art

In the 1920s, the decorative art (Art Deco) began to emerge in large numbers from Paris, France. It combines traditional handicraft style and mechanical style with rich colors , The shape is outstanding, the decoration is luxurious, and there is a strong exotic style. Because of the great influence of archaeological excavations in Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century, the lines and zigzag patterns of ancient Egypt became popular. This design style represents prosperous consumption power, luxurious charm, vigorous vitality, and most importantly, the belief in social and technological progress.

There are many Art Deco style buildings and logos in Shanghai. For example, the Peace Hotel on the Bund is now the Chinachem Hotel(Cathay Hotel)< /span>, it has a typical Art Deco style logo.

On the business logo, the most representative one is Fiat in 1904.

Modernism

Modernism(Modernism) is based on science, emphasizes rationality and logic, and experimental explorationTherefore, it requires the design to be more objective and emphasize the clarity and communicability of concepts. It believes that form should serve function, and function should be supported by data and information.

Visual designers influenced by modernist aesthetics usually adopt a strict grid design system, so logos are mostly neatly arranged or cleverly combined geometric shapes, becoming simpler and more symbolic. This design concept continues to today’s digital product design.

An example is the London Underground. The current style is basically derived from the design in 1933 and 1958.

Late Modernism

After the Second World War, people have doubts about the belief and practice of modernism, especially objectivity and absolute truth. This is the period of transition from modernism to postmodernism, and designers begin to reflect and question.

From an aesthetic point of view, late modernism (Late Modernism) uses more concise graphics and creates some dramatic effects through collage and overlap , Kodak’s logo launched in 1960 exemplified this very well.

Postmodernism

If modernism is the pursuit of ideals through objective means(Ideal), then postmodernism(Postmodernism) will ask: “What is an ideal?” It was an era of skepticism, a deconstruction of long-standing traditions and beliefs. The whole postmodernism is filled with an atmosphere of suspicion. As long as there is reason, there will be contradictions and irony.

In this chaotic worldview, some deliberately contradictory designs appear, which are realized through randomness of layout, color, and deliberate arrangement. Designers juxtapose letters of completely different shapes, or use some discordant color schemes to achieve satirical and contradictory purposes, such as the design of MTV.

Imitation materialized design

With the popularity of digital design tools, more people have access to creative opportunities, encouraging a large number of people who have no formal college education but who have artistic talents to design. This trend of development is particularly evident in the design of quasi-materialized (Skeuomorphic)logo, where the details and aesthetics of icons often surpass real things.

Mimicking design began in the 1980s. The initial followers included Apple’s Jobs. Supporters believed that mimic design was more intuitive for users. The first few logos of Instagram were designed to simulate cameras, and the details were very realistic.

Minimalism and flatness

With the rise of mobile devices, a small screen carries too much content. At this time, the designer went back to modernism, which was born in the Bauhaus in Germany from 1919 to 1933.(Bauhaus) advocates minimalist functionalism, using as few elements as possible, the simplest layout and colors, which is called minimalism and flat design(Minimalism & Flat Design). This style makes the user interface of electronic products more concise and efficient, and is widely used.

At this stage, we saw the logos of many companies oscillating back and forth between imitation and flatness, such as Apple and Volkswagen, and they all chose flat logos in the end.

The style of Logo design goes round and round, constantly absorbing nourishment from history, and at the same time constantly innovating forward. Let’s predict together, what kind of style will the logo of the next era look like?

This article is from WeChatOfficial account: Xuxu lot (ID: xxddkids) , author: Koch on apple plant, editor: Chen Shih Yue, Assistant editor: Luan new Ping

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