Early Logos

How did logo design evolve? Let's look at two early examples of the medium.

Procter and Gamble

By the beginning of the 19th century, trademarks began to play a pivotal role in the establishment of brand recognition. Procter and Gamble was one of the first companies to capitalize on the use of trademarks. In its early days, the company shipped candles to ports along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Wharf men stamped the company's crates of candles with a crude star image to differentiate them from those of other suppliers.

P&G soon noticed that its distributors would recognize the containers as holding their goods. After the company refined the mark, the symbol became, well, a true "symbol" of quality merchandiseand distributors would pay top dollar for the "starred" crates.

Figure 7.9. The early P&G logo looked something like this sketchit combined a moon and stars representing states.

Aspects of the mark were carried into the 20th century, but its privileged status did not last. In 1982, the Procter and Gamble logo became the focus of a bizarre, potentially damaging rumor that claimed the company was involved in devil worship because of the 13 stars that the designer incorporated into the logo design. (The stars, a reference to states in the union at the time of the logo's creation, were actually intended to be a patriotic gesture.) After trying to find a way to suppress these falsehoods, the company decided to drop the mark from its products for good.

The World's Fair

The 1939 World's Fair provided hope for a United States emerging from the Great Depression. The fair, with its emphasis on product consumption, had as its centerpiece the Perisphere and the Trylon, symbols that were widely applied to the memorabilia sold at the fair. These symbols and how they were marketed truly exemplified the theme of the fair: "The World of Tomorrow."

Figure 7.10. The Perisphere and Trylon symbols sketched here were emblazoned on memorabilia sold at the World's Fair.

Today, of course, they represent the past. Logos (like languages) are not immortal. Many of our human languages have died out over time (Sanskrit, anyone?). Logos can perish too, so they must be designed for longevity. Symbols, marks, logoswhatever you'd like to call themrepresent value because they can communicate meaning over time.

tip

The style of an early 20th-century or ancient identifying mark can be a good source of inspiration for a contemporary design.

At the same time, a designer must know that nothing lasts forever. The World's Fair identity is beautiful but unmistakably associated with a specific period. As times change, so does the style of symbolswith more complex levels of information necessitating an innovation in the forms used to communicate new ideas.