First signs: Logo Beginnings by Jens Müller
A beautifully illustrated new book tells the story of the how business emblems came to define not just the companies they represented, but a whole way of life.
Brands are very particular about logos. And no wonder. A logo is often the first thing we notice about a company, and as we develop a relationship with them, the logo becomes shorthand for everything we like (or dislike) about them.
Whether it’s 1980s British youth adopting the emblems of Mediterranean sports club culture (ie, Lacoste’s crocodile, FIla’s two-shade ‘F’) or fan-boys getting Apple, and Google tattooed on their forearms, logos belong not just to their company, but customers too.
“If you’re the sort of person that spent far too long tracing designer labels onto their school bag [see Umbrella editorial team], this is a book that will delight and fascinate in equal measure”
Now author Jens Müller, described as the “logo detective” by Wired magazine, has written an exhaustive history of these corporate identities. In Logo Beginnings, Muller looks at logos from 1870 onwards and charts the story of how coats-of-arms and figurative illustrations transformed into the often-abstract devices we see today.
A common theme is how brand identities tend to evolve slowly: the book shows how businesses like Rolex, BMW, and Louis Vuitton still use logos designed over 100 years ago. Müller also does a deep dive into the symbols and typefaces of companies 3M, NBC, Shell, Firestone, Singer and Olivetti – and shows how they gradually altered as fashions and products changed.
If you’re the sort of person that spent far too long tracing designer labels onto their school bag [see Umbrella editorial team], this is a book that will delight and fascinate in equal measure. And make you realise just how many logos you encounter in everyday life. Something which may or may not be an altogether positive thing.
Logo Beginnings is published by Taschen, out now.