Last week I was invited along by Creative Review, to the Pentagram studio, for a talk by one of their partners, Angus Hyland, also the co-author of (relatively) new book Symbol.

Angus took us through ten corporate identity symbols of one kind or another, telling us a bit about their origin and meaning as well as why he liked them.

He started with the play symbol. Clever. And he went on to ask why that was such a recognised symbol for direction. In fact, perhaps arrows are one of the most fundamental symbols, and it must all come from arrowheads somewhere along the line, which we used to be pretty preoccupied by…

…In Angus’s words: “Things haven’t really changed that much.” Angus is a clear devotee of symbols, “SYMBOLS, not logotypes” and despairs of clear symbolic logos which have had the name of the company stamped across them. He quoted Eric Gill:

“Letters are not pictures, but signs for sounds”

We also learned that Bass was the first trademarked symbol in the UK, dating back to 1875, and that Carolyn Davidson designed the Nike swoosh symbol for $35. Blimey.

Angus told us that a symbol is like a bucket which doesn’t leak, it’s something which you can fill up, and over time it will hold much of the brand’s value. He told us that was why he would buy the Coca-cola logo over the secret recipe for the drink itself without hesitation: “That’s where the money is”

And so we went through the ten symbols, pausing every now and then for a quick quiz question, to which a correct (or hilariously incorrect) answer won a badge. Hyland was entertaining and witty, whilst remaining suitably shambolic with a playful glint in his eye which only comes from someone who knows their stuff inside out. He was toying with us. The thought occured to me that he’d make a good Doctor Who…

The first symbol was (of course) Apple. Angus wondered whether you’d covet a MacBook Pro if it had the ASUS logotype (not a symbol) on it, or indeed the original Apple logo: “I guess they figured that didn’t work terribly well.”

Modern branding is so damn clever and immersive, but if you get rid of the thing in the middle, you’re still at the heart of the experience… I’m not so sure…”

We learned that the bite out of the Apple was at Steve Jobs’s request, in order to give it scale – otherwise might it be mistaken for a tomato or a cherry?

He traced the evolution of the Shell symbol, reserving special comment for the”clever dick” who decided in 1955 that “it wasn’t enough to just show a shell” and admitting that as a child from Brighton, he had assumed the brand was all about the seaside.

He brought us to the WWF symbol, admitting a love for animal symbols, and saying gleefully “everyone likes their first teddy bear” and noting that although based on a drawing of a real Panda at London Zoo, it “represented a paradigm shift from illustration to symbol” in its execution.

And that brought him nicely to the Penguin symbol, where he revelled in the fact that it had nothing at all to do with the subject matter:

“Penguins don’t read books”

Angus told us how his more recent work on the Penguin symbol had involved slimming the bird down by 15%, primarily to make it easier to fit onto book spines, but also retaining it’s design quirks.

“Idiosyncrasies are what we associate that brand with.”

He spoke a few times about the tendency for companies to take the safe route when it came to their symbols, and described the woeful process whereby individuality is removed from a mark in the quest for boardroom acceptance:

“…and it enters the wind tunnel, the anodyne focus groups, where all the edges are blown off”

This struck a chord with me, I’ve often myself used a sculptural metaphor for this phenomenon, whereby the designer chips away at a piece of stone to create a beautiful sculpture, only to have a series of well-meaning but unimaginative people apply sandpaper to it, until there are no edges remaining on which anyone can snag their coat. You start out with a masterpiece and no matter what you do, you end up with a ball.

One final thought from Jan Tschicholdon on the inspiration behind the Penguin symbol? “My God, those birds stink!”

Next up was the CBS eye, where Hyland took us to the world of Mad Men corporate America.

Angus liked the “fundamental” aspect of this symbol, made from 4 circles building a pictogram of the human eye. Perhaps it was inspired by Magritte, who knows…

So from the eye to the mouth, and the Rolling Stones symbol, first used on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers.

Hyland told us the story of John Pasche who, while studying at the RCA was asked to design the symbol after Mick Jagger approached the college looking for a bargain basement symbol. The best thing about it? “It’s NOT The Beatles” but an “enduring pop-art symbol” which “encapsulates the time”.

And so that lead us to another zeitgeist-seizing symbol, that of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament…

…which we learned is actually not a trademarked symbol at all, and stems from the Aldermaston march of 1958. Perhaps an early use of a public domain socially powered identity? Why has it endured? In Hyland’s view, perhaps because it’s “so damn easy to make”, unlike other symbols for peace: “try drawing an accurate dove”.

As the symbol appeared almost virally on badges nationwide, it gained a “quasi-religious” status, but what inspired it? Opinion is divided on the matter, but Angus accepts the account which tells us it is made of of the semaphore letters N and D. Clever, huh?

The next symbol Angus talked about was the perpetual designers’ favourite, the Woolmark…

…with the most infamous aspect being who actually designed it? The symbol was the result of a competition in 1963, with the true designer to this day being somewhat unclear.

Hyland showed us how it was based on a Möbius strip, actually cutting one up in front of us, Blue Peter style.

Influenced by commercial op-art of the day, the Woolmark was agreed to be the direct ancestor of the ubiquitous recycle symbol.

Next, on to that monument of corporate identity, the Deutsche Bank logo.

I hadn’t realised that this was another symbol resulting from a competition, but crucially in this case, the entrants were shortlisted designers, judged by a panel of design experts, rather than the clients themselves. The result is an iconic symbol which would surely not have survived the “wind tunnel” if the client had intervened. Interesting stuff.

The symbol is a square you can’t penetrate “with profit inside” which is the sort of rooted abstraction many designers aspire to in mark-making. Finally, Angus reminded us that the symbol had been allowed to endure also, because it was at the heart of a well managed brand, the absence of which can be the slow death of an equally great symbol.

And so, to the final symbol Angus showed us, British Rail.

He told us this was the result of “proper design” by the Design Research Unit, the first generation of British multi-discipline design agencies, sitting around “stroking their chins”. And it’s certainly an enduring symbol, becoming the de facto icon for transport in the UK long after the demise of British Rail, as well as being emulated elsewhere in the world.

After this tenth symbol, Angus left us with an Alan Fletcher quote:

Commercial symbols are like people. Some are reasonably put together but lack personality, others are aggressive, or pompous, or merely unpleasant. Occasionally one encounters an interesting character. Whatever the case, to be effective, a trademark must meet a set of criteria: the utilitarian values of being relevant, appropriate and practical and the intangible qualities of being memorable and distinctive; and that something extra, the visual tweak which creates a unique personality.

Which seemed to sum it all up nicely.

And that was it. Ten symbols from the book, from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. The talk was entertaining and engaging, and Angus was fun to watch as well as learn from. He made a point of going into exhaustive detail about the origins of each symbol and went to great pains to credit the correct people (something which I wasn’t fast enough to write down all of for this post I’m afraid!) I didn’t win a badge, but I did pick up a copy of the book on the night which is full of this kind of detail, as well as the endless pages of pure symbols which designers crave.

There were some questions afterwards, mostly fixating on the origin of the CND symbol, with some frankly ludicrous rationalisations of its meaning. In the end Angus conceded that “you load your own reasons on to it” but I’m happy saying I’m pretty sure it isn’t anything to do with unborn children or the crucifixion of our lord Jesus Christ.

After that, Angus stepped back into his TARDIS and disappeared. The whole thing was brisk, making my note-writing somewhat chaotic, as it was obviously a cut-down version of the same talk he has given elsewhere. Like at the Design Museum for instance, where Amanda Jahn had the luxury of time to compile this impressively succinct summary of the talk. So if you haven’t managed to follow my rambling, you can simply glance at that to get the gist of it:

In fact I should probably just have shown that image at the start really.

Oh well, Symbol the book is available to buy now.

Two lovely examples of adding motion to what would previously have been static symbols.

This is the Current logo (the new Current logo, not the previous Current logo if you see what I mean), which in its previous incarnation had been animated from a static mark by the addition of a (bit dodgy) wave effect. Wolff Ollins and friends took this one step further and reimagined it as a flag.

Found over at Brand New where you can read the full story. Lovely…

Also, here’s a nice bit of 8-bit esque animation applied to a road safety sign.

Working within 2kb of RAM, the barbarian group animated the signage on hardware not intended for animation, to send a stark message.

Found rather predictably via the Creative Review blog…

No, not the rubbish film, the video which shows the Batman logo changing over all its various incarnations.

This isn’t just a geeky indulgence, it seriously shows how much variation can still be found in something simple and essentially already ‘designed’, as well as the impact small changes can have on the character of a recognisable symbol:

Video found via Logo Design Love

Along with a lot of other right-thinking people, I was really sad to hear the BBC were planning to close down digital station 6music. Almost as importantly as the end of the Adam & Joe show, it will mean I won’t have a use for this sketch I did a while ago.

The 6 was always aching to be a pair of headphones, and most of the other stations have a small intervention to the number to indicate their content.

If you want to try and change the BBC’s mind, there’s a protest tomorrow in London, apparently if enough people turn up they will consider a reprieve.

And if that happens, I’m happy to develop the logo for the relaunch.

Forza Motorsport 3 for the Xbox 360 boasts the Alfa Romeo Mito in the car line-up, which means as a graphic designing gamer I’ve got my first logo in a videogame!

Although would it have killed them to put the logo on the car selection screen instead of the default Franklin Gothic? It’s not even been kerned, just LOOK at that letter ‘o’

I’m afraid it’s still not enough to make me buy an Xbox (shudder) I’ll stick with my PS3 thanks. Maybe Gran Turismo 5 will feature the Mito to go head to head with the DeLorean…

Here’s something I came across while doing some research for a project this week.

Genius.

There’s a new Doctor Who logo. Some people don’t like it. I do.

It’s a hell of a lot better than the awful eye of Sauron London taxi logo we’ve had since the show came back…

In fact it’s closest really to the very first logo, from the William Hartnell era, let’s hope the Radiophonic Workshop theme tune comes back too…

…and if it’s possible look past the Photoshop lens flare and the MASSIVE letter W, it has a quite old fashioned quirky silhouette. I’m not convinced by the need for a TARDIS symbol, but hey. It looks like there’ll be a whole new dark and vintage feel to the new show’s identity in 2010.

I don’t really know exactly what this is but I like it.

Globo Logos from Julien Vallée. Thanks to Afonso for the link.

What can I say? The general design opinion online seems to be almost totally negative. While I do think they’ve missed a trick by contrarily not doing a Coke and just stripping it back to a beautiful essential mark from their history, I have to be honest and say I like it. It’s easy to criticise it on a blog when you’ve just got your graphic design degree, notice it looks like Korean Air, say it’s just like everything else these days, HOW much? etc etc… (yawn) It’s not perfect, but it’s clean and simple, it’s new and fresh and it’s got some honest to goodness shapes and form. Relax everyone, it doesn’t have to win a D&AD you know.

It won’t last forever by any means, but what does these days? It’s brave and time will tell how it works. Adding dynamism to the logo is great, varying the thickness of the white stroke is a good idea, I just wish it looked a little less like a builder’s bum crack. (Is that just me…?) Apparently it’s a smile and there are varying versions of it, so in the true tradition of the 21st Century, the logo alters and flexes in use.

I love the way it is fat for the Max stuff, normal for the regular product and then thinner for the diet version. It’s also unfair to tag Pepsi with the current ‘spit-shine globe’ logo epidemic that’s going round, they’ve always had one, so they’re allowed. And besides, they’ve flattened it and removed all the Photoshop wizardry which has blighted their cans for the last few years. It’s progress for them at least.

One thing that people aren’t talking about much (the bum crack is getting all the press) is the type. I think I’ve seen it before, and yes, it turns out I have.

I like it, although I wish they hadn’t shoehorned the wiggly line from the old logo into the letter e. Less is more remember?

It’s also worth having a look back at the rich logo heritage that they could have chosen to investigate. I wonder if they went down any of those roads?

Of course this is all academic anyway. As every good Back to the Future fan knows, Pepsi is ultimately destined to redesign again, and will look like this in 2015…

…around the time Pasta Hut change their name back.

Friday was the launch of Bastardised, the book based culmination of Bunch Design’s Made in Bunch identity project. I sent in an idea a while back and heard recently that I might have made the cut so I went along to find out.

Well, it turns out I did, and I found my entry on page 136 which won me a free copy and a souvenir badge.