What makes a truly great logo — Transcript

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1. 0:00this is michael baby I'm Michael Baruch
2. 0:03I'm a graphic designer you might be
3. 0:06familiar with this one but interestingly
4. 0:09he thinks that logos are just kind of
5. 0:12overrated I am actually often very
6. 0:16ambivalent about them let's back out
7. 0:17this what is a load basically the face
8. 0:20of a company some are beloved some the
9. 0:23swastika is a long ago when it's reviled
10. 0:25you know they have to work at tiny sizes
11. 0:27and huge there are three specific types
12. 0:29first type is the word mark the word
13. 0:33mark is the easiest one and it's one
14. 0:35that we're all most familiar with I mean
15. 0:37John Hancock's signature is kind of a
16. 0:39word mark and he can look crisp clean
17. 0:40and modern white the new google logo
18. 0:42looks it can look somehow that it has
19. 0:45roots in a shared heritage way to
20. 0:48coca-cola logo looks you know the second
21. 0:50is pictorial pictorial logos often
22. 0:52function as a kind of Rivas you know
23. 0:53it's a picture and you say but what's in
24. 0:56the picture and it's sort of is
25. 0:58identifying the name of the company
26. 0:59sometimes directly like Target sometimes
27. 1:02more indirectly like what cost the Third
28. 1:06Kind is kind of the Holy Grail abstract
29. 1:09iconography it's everyone's favorite
30. 1:11kind of category because it just seems
31. 1:13almost like magic you know as a designer
32. 1:15people come to me and they'll say oh I
33. 1:17want what something like the Nike swoosh
34. 1:20they think that the Nike swoosh was the
35. 1:22Nike switch the day it was drawn but it
36. 1:25was nothing today was drawn the company
37. 1:27that birds nike commissioned a design
38. 1:29student in Carolyn to draw some ideas
39. 1:31and the Nike founders didn't really like
40. 1:33they sort of said I'll use that one it
41. 1:36wasn't like an overnight success and
42. 1:38then they started putting on the science
43. 1:39of shoes the shoes were good and then
44. 1:42the genius of Nikes marketing apparatus
45. 1:44made us further associate that product
46. 1:46not merely with performance athletic
47. 1:49gear but with the very idea of athletic
48. 1:51achievement itself and that's how over a
49. 1:53long time a little mark means something
50. 1:56big that's exactly our religious symbols
51. 1:58work is obviously not just anything
52. 1:59inherent
53. 2:00the shapes but it's about what those
54. 2:03shapes have come to represent in the
55. 2:04minds of the people who are looking at
56. 2:06them but there's a fourth type of logo
57. 2:08that goes beyond these three types and
58. 2:10can use elements of each of them the
59. 2:12logo system a graphical framework that
60. 2:15can have endless permutations the first
61. 2:17gigantically popular example of the logo
62. 2:20system would be MTV but Google's daily
63. 2:22doodles are another great example of the
64. 2:24logo system a familiar mark that can
65. 2:26also point to other ideas and issues
66. 2:28this approach all has to do with
67. 2:30technological change it used to be if a
68. 2:33company was doing a logo there'd be this
69. 2:35you know military operation by which you
70. 2:38would be inscribed on all their
71. 2:39equipment and other airplanes and the
72. 2:41retail facilities and gold pins and
73. 2:43cufflinks will be made for the executive
74. 2:45suite and put on spittoons and ashtrays
75. 2:47and the top of the skyscraper and we say
76. 2:49dwelling on everyone's business card
77. 2:51right nowadays none of that's as
78. 2:53important as an email signature or your
79. 2:56twitter avatar or the little thing
80. 2:58that's just next to your URL and those
81. 3:00things are much more ubiquitous and they
82. 3:03can be changed at the drop of a hat the
83. 3:05root use this system approach for his
84. 3:07Hillary Clinton logo we wanted to have a
85. 3:10mark reflect the electorate and reflect
86. 3:13the issues those simple forms that
87. 3:15comprise the age with the Arowana are
88. 3:18actually designed to hold not just two
89. 3:20colors say red and blue but any colors
90. 3:22you want the use of logo systems seems
91. 3:25to be continually on the upswing now
92. 3:27probably because it allows the brand
93. 3:29using it to expand the conversation
94. 3:30beyond its own name the logo kind of
95. 3:33reminds people that that's that's what
96. 3:35we're taught that is what our priority
97. 3:37is today but at the end of the day
98. 3:38regardless of the shape style or system
99. 3:41it might not matter what your logo is it
100. 3:44really is about thinking of these
101. 3:46symbols as being empty vessels in a way
102. 3:48and then you pour the meaning into
103. 3:50so what's this all add up to basically
104. 3:53those fights people get in about new
105. 3:54logos are pretty misguided they think
106. 3:57they're judging a diving competition but
107. 3:59actually all these organizations are in
108. 4:01swimming competitions it's not what kind
109. 4:03of splash you make when you hit the
110. 4:05water it's how long you keep your head
111. 4:07above that water logos need to have a
112. 4:09long life not win points in a discussion
113. 4:1212 years after the birth of that Nike
114. 4:15logo nike came back to that graphic
115. 4:17design student Carolyn with a gift and I
116. 4:20key ring with her own trademark on the
117. 4:22swoosh thank you very much it's
118. 4:24beautiful in an undisclosed amount of
119. 4:27Nike stock Wow in 1973 when it was
120. 4:30designed her pay was thirty-five dollars