The Past and the Present of the Logotype

Nowadays company logos play an enormous role in promoting goods and services. The logotype and the corporate style are any company’s distinguishing features, its ideology, a way of communicating with clients and partners. Company logos are placed on fill-in forms, websites, envelopes, souvenirs, street announcements, ads. Through logos we recognize the products of this or that company and its sales outlets.

Antecedents of today’s logos came into being virtually at the same time as sales first took place. The distinguishing symbol consisted in an announcement or a seal or hallmark of the master or a special writing on the body of the goods.

In the 19th century when the industrial revolution had led to incremented production, competence, growing exports and globalization, each more or less serious company was adopting its logo so that buyers could distinguish quickly and simply between the goods offered by different firms within one industry. Companies placed their logos on the packaging, the goods themselves, the street signs and the documents. Issuing an advertisement, the company tried to make sure the ad contained the logo. In people’s minds goods and services began to be clearly identifiable with this or that graphical symbol.

In the 20th century the definition of a logo as we know it up to these days finally took shape. Company logo is a lettering or a graphical symbol representing the goods and services of the company.

Over the time of its existence the understanding of what a logo should be like has undergone significant alterations. Whereas originally company logos were bulky, having too many items thrown into them, today it is the whole way around. The fewer constituting elements there are in the logo, the better. For this makes the logo easier to recognize, memorize and reproduce unpainstakingly through the various advertising tools.

Requirements placed to a logo today are as follows:

• It must be unique;
• It must reflect the essence of the company, its goals, mission and work style;
• It must not be sophisticated, design-wise;
• It must have due technical quality to look good both on business cards and street banners;
• In people, it must originate those mental associations that you need.

A logotype is not a little picture but a whole concept and an ideology behind your company, its future. So when setting about creating a logo you must think it over in utmost detail. You need to single out your range of clients or buyers, select the right colour solution, reflect the values of your company in the logo. It might appear an incredibly hard task to achieve, a step next to impossible, but just look at the logos of the world’s most famous, such as Nike, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, BeeLine (Билайн), or Puma, you will see that making an excellent logo that will remain topical for many years, is quite possible.