This video features renowned graphic designer and author Michael Bierut examining three kinds of logo design:
- Wordmarks – from the clean and modern kind like FedEx and Google, to the shared heritage kind like Disney and Budweiser
- Pictorial logos – from direct pictorial associations like Apple and Target, through to indirect pictorial associations like Lacoste
- Abstract iconography – such as Pepsi, Chase, and the Nike swoosh.
Bierut also explains the logo system, a graphical framework that can have endless permutations, which has been put into great effect at brands including Google, with the daily doodle, MTV, and most recently, Hillary.
Bierut says a logo is really just “an empty vessel that you pour meaning into.”
You can follow Michael Bierut on Twitter @michaelbierut, and, while he’s not a prolific tweeter, he does share some good stuff, like this:
@michaelbierut nicely sums up why decisions in big branding aren’t as simple as the blogs would have you believe: pic.twitter.com/L9QtRgWCxX
— Jon Rowlandson (@jonrowlandson) January 3, 2016
