The following is an introductory article by Lester Beall for Trademark USA. This was published in 1968 and produced in conjunction with a pioneering exhibition of American trademarks and logotypes created between 1945 and 1963.

A restatement of the type of trademark that will embody the individual visual requirements of a corporation is redundant because it has been repeated innumerable times. Nevertheless, some thoughts relative to these graphic devices may be of interest to the designer and those in the business world, who are, or should be, interested in the trademark as a promulgation of the function of individuality. For a belief in individuality is a belief in the human thought processes involved in achieving individuality.

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In 1924 Alfred Knopf published a book of trademarks compiled by Joseph Sinel. Some of the best efforts in this field were represented: W. A. Dwiggins, Harvey Dunn, T. M. Cleland, C. B. Falls, Edward Penfield, René Clarke and Joseph Sinel. Not all of these were great, nor outstanding. However, they did have common characteristics of warmth and literal content.

The latter was due, in part, to the individuality of the products and services of the corporations cited. Today, corporations characterized by their many faceted divisions (usually a result of acquisition) dictate the development of a graphic device that must positively project an "all-encompassing" visual image. This requirement underscores the difficulties encountered in designing a trademark that is a mark of individuality, while at the same time having the qualities of universal application. It is axiomatic that every corporation has some kind of a corporate image. For a corporate image consists of many factors: management, products, services, research, employee relations, personnel, packages, and consumer relations.

Any graphic device, no matter how well designed, cannot alone project an over-all positive image unless it is an integral part of a usage system. This system, or the organization and coordination of all usage areas, functions as an integration synthesizer and is therefore an acutely essential factor in the development and growth of a corporate identity. However, in the development of a corporate design program a paradoxical phenomenon is often exposed.

For though the corporate objective is basically to create or develop an individual corporate identity, the corporation sometimes ignores the fact that an effective realization of this objective, depends on individual initiative and responsibility and not on group anonymity epitomized by either the committee or the computer. The burying of one's self in group anonymity is a denial per se of the human factor of which intuition is a part. It is important to remember that an increasing dependence on mechanical devices and the subsequent digitizing of those human factors in the creative processes as well as the processes of living, does not provide an assurance of incontrovertible "problem-answers" regardless of how thoroughly the machine (computer) has been programmed.

Though the computer in a sense can be "creatively" programmed the substitution of artificial intelligence for human intelligence with all of its vagaries, is an act of ruling out the essentiality of inspiration in the accepted definition of creative problem-solving.

It is also a verity that man is too often obsessed by a desire to "look-alike". The use of the machine unquestionably aids this achievement of "look-alikeness" and as a result quickens a sense of the superficial meaning of security inherent in "look-alikeness". It also demonstrates a form of self-destruction; for a society based on a continuum of physiological and psychological controls can never be intellectually retrieved. Instead, the individual as a sensory perceptive apparatus faces erasure. To survive in today's world of unrealities the designer should consistently expose himself to new experiences, absorbing some, deflecting others but nevertheless building a bank of human phenomena. This becomes his personal computer.

He is, therefore, continually concerned with this structuring of his own individualistic data computing system. If the system is a thorough one, he can presume to impose answers upon his clients as a result of his individualistic compilation of facts plus their application to his creative processes. If instead the designer is willing to stand aside and watch individuality be denied then inevitably the machine will substitute for him. Furthermore, training his receptivity in constancy and reflecting that receptiveness in his own terms of individuality can "slow-down" both the subconscious human desire for "look-alikeness" and the "look-alikes" produced by an increased dependence upon machine usage. The exclusion of the machine, however, will never account for the plethora of trademarks that are distinguished by their sheer boredom. This condition is man-made and is only going to change when the designer becomes more completely conscious of his responsibility to society and business.

The Society of Typographic Arts Trademark USA Exhibition was an attempt to project to many publics the intricacies involved in trademark creation and usage. The compilation of this exhibition can serve as a guide book to the many different symbols and their usage as a means of projecting the individualities of many corporations.

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The following was written by British designer Colin Forbes in 1978 for Issue 150 of the Japanese design magazine Idea. In it, he reflects on graphic design in Europe, covering printing, the architect/designer, the American influence and trends.

I recently talked in the United States about European graphic design. The main theme was that there is a European tradition of graphic design and development which is distinct from, although very much influenced by, the United States. This distinction is subtle whereas the difference between European, Japanese or oriental work, for example, is much more obvious. Overriding all this is the new international style that has been developed through the needs of multi-national manufacturing and marketing corporations. However, my contention is that there is an identifiable European tradition that remains true. There are four major influences that have created this: 1) the printing traditions of Johannes Gutenberg from 1439, 2) the illustrators and artists who became poster designers in the late nineteenth century, 3) the Dutch/German influence from the first half of this century, and 4) the American international cultural dominance since the 39-45 world war. I will discuss each in turn.

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The Printing Tradition

If we presume that typography is a part of graphic design, the European graphic tradition, of course, derives from the development of European civilization, the invention of moveable type and the international supremacy of the roman alphabet. The designers working today, Matthew Carter in England, Adrian Frutiger in France, Hermann Zapf in Germany, are continuing the craft of type designers. The standard of type design in Europe is probably still the highest in the world and the crafts of calligraphy and lettering are probably better taught than anywhere else in the world. In addition, two of the best patrons for good new type designs have been European, the Bauer Company in West Germany and Letraset in the UK.

Poster designers of the nineteenth century

Artists of the calibre of George Cheret, Toulouse Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard and Seurat did posters in 1891 and concurrently Aubrey Beardsley and the Beggarstaff brothers in London and Carl Moos and Hans Rudi Erdt in Munich. They have become the classic examples of early poster art which have been reproduced everywhere. They were the beginning of a tradition that lasted until the late 50s where, of days the commercial clients for posters have largely disappeared and those that remain are often part of wider advertising campaigns, acting only as reminders for television commercials. There are few exceptions in the west but only in specialised cultural areas like Frieder Grindler's theatre posters in Germany. However, in Eastern European countries where there is no commercial advertising and designers and artists are appointed to the position of 'poster artists', the medium has a special cultural status and Warsaw has probably the world's largest collection of posters through the poster biennale. Henryk Tomaszewski and Waldemar Swierzy are among the most distinguished exponents of the poster art and are direct descendants of the early poster tradition.

The Dutch and German architect/designer

Architects and designers became interested in graphic design having completely different frames of reference than earlier craftsmen or artists. From the constructivists in Russia, the De Stijl movement in Holland, the Dadaists in France through to the Bauhaus in Germany, these designers were ideologically and politically motivated and were more interested in design as a means of communication than a medium in which to practice their craft. With the growth of Nazi Germany and the closing of the Bauhaus, many of these designers went to the US, for example, Herbert Bayer and Moholy-Nagy who went both as practitioners and teachers and had a major effect on the formation of the international style. Wim Crouwel and Anton Stankowski are direct descendants of the original Dutch/German influence and young Wolfgang Weingart in Basel works in the traditions of the movement in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. There are, of course, many others and probably the majority of European designers have in some way been affected by the Bauhaus ethic.

The American influence since 1945

There has been an American general cultural dominance in the western world starting most strongly with the English speaking countries but also spreading very quickly in Germany and Japan where there were long periods of American military occupation after the war. In Europe, the effect was most felt in London which has become the leading centre of graphic design and has influenced the rest of Europe in turn. The emergence of London as a leading centre of graphic design was accelerated by the American designers and art directors who came to live and work there in the later fifties. The most important were Robert Brownjohn who was previously with Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar in Brownjohn, Chermayeff and Geismar, and Bob Gill who joined Alan Fletcher and myself. They were the major progenitors of 'the single image school'. Bob Gill taught regularly for about ten years with a cumulative influence on generations of students. He summed up the whole essence of the American designers' conviction that the message is more important than the form in a sentence: 'if you can't explain it over the telephone you do not have an idea'. Naturally, Fletcher and I and the other Pentagram graphic partners have been very much affected by the American way.

The current trends

There have been new latter influences from the US. The success of Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast in Push Pin has resulted in a revival of illustration and of the nostalgia boom. Also the success of the American realist painters and illustrators has also influenced the younger generation of illustrators. This all seems to have happened faster in London and the major West German centres than in the other European countries.

There has been a cultural change related to the whole conservation movement mixed with an increased professional or business attitude in design. The conservation movement has spread to the designers who do not automatically just want to change everything. They find value in found images and do not knock everything down and rebuild in their own style which, in the more important field of architecture, has been a post-war crime in many cities. The professional attitude comes from a greater respect for the commercial organization that pays the fee. An attempt to understand the objectives of the corporations and help their identification and communication. Not to treat them like patrons to artists who considered that industry has a moral obligation to support the arts for their own sake, although we are all prone to self indulgence. These two factors combine to increase the interest in the communication value of graphics and have changed the 'well, that has to go for a start' attitude.

Another factor is the growing academic approach to graphic design. The interest in research and other studies is also affected by the technical developments in the industry. Also the growth of information theory. This trend will continue as the entrants into graphic design come from different backgrounds. In the early part of the century, graphic design came from art schools that were part of technical colleges. All over Europe there has been an increase of these courses being integrated in universities or being given degree status. There are more post graduate courses and the entrants for these courses are required to have a broader education than their predecessors. Whether for the good or not these people will have a big effect on the practice of graphic design in the future.

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The following is an article published in Graphis 158, 1971. In it, Herbert Spencer writes about the formation of British design studio Pentagram.

Increasing complexity in the structure of society and industry during the past decade has accelerated changes in the practice of design. The recent merging of two well-established design offices, Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes and the industrial design practice of Kenneth Grange, under the title of Pentagram, reflects the contemporary need for coordinated design teams able to meet the challenge and opportunities of very large-scale exercises with diverse design abilities and sophistication in the services which they provide.

Pentagram activities are in three principal areas: buildings, interior and exhibition design; graphic design; and industrial design. The principals of Pentagram - the London-based partners (Theo Crosby, Kenneth Grange, Colin Forbes, Alan Fletcher, Mervyn Kurlansky) - and the head of the Swiss office in Zurich (Georg Staehelin), though different in their origins, training and ambitions, have worked together in various combinations for several years.

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There have in the past been many successful and distinguished two-man design partnerships, but even some of the most productive of such collaborations have often proved emotionally abrasive. Until recently a partnership composed of highly individual and original personalities would have seemed wholly unrealistic. It is perhaps a sign of the growing maturity of the profession as well as of the scale of contemporary design practice that they are confident that the new Pentagram partnership is both a rational and an entirely workable development of the close collaboration which they have already established on a wide variety of commissions.

Theo Crosby, who was born and educated in South Africa, is an architect who is perhaps best known for his work in exhibitions. His range of interests is enormously wide, and through his writings and his skill in convening exhibitions his influence in design and the graphic arts generally has been immense. Crosby's other principal contribution to the partnership has been in designing office interiors. Kenneth Grange, born in London, has also established a reputation in interior and exhibition design as well as for product design. His more recent work ranges from a sewing-machine for the Maruzen Sewing Machine Company of Osaka to a locomotive for British Rail.

Colin Forbes' early experience in teaching and design school administration prepared him for his co-ordinating role in the partnership. He especially concentrates on the design of information programmes and his work is distinguished by its clarity, logic and discipline. Alan Fletcher was a student of Paul Rand and Josef Albers at Yale. His work reflects the mixture of the 'problem solving' graphic designer and the individual artist, often preoccupied with geometry and colour. Mervyn Kurlansky was trained at the London County Council's Central School of Arts and Crafts and had established himself in freelance practice before joining Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes in 1969. His graphic designs echo an unashamedly romantic influence, while the work of Georg Staehelin, who is in charge of Pentagram's Zurich office, reflects his Swiss design education and his international working experience. These four graphic designers each bring to design problems a strongly personal approach combining the positive aspects of the American and European traditions in solutions which are at once both robust and eloquent.

The diverse talents of this group produce an atmosphere of creative stimulation in which original solutions flourish. But a common ground of ideas and design philosophy provides a sound foundation for each solution. Pentagram is, I think, almost unique among larger design offices in achieving in almost every one of its many design solutions something of the sparkle and the panache which, in earlier periods and under quite different social and economic conditions, the best of individual freelance designers were occasionally able to capture. The success of this group of designers in maintaining consistently high standards of analytical and creative thinking and originality as well as of formal design reveals rare organizational talents, too. Is it, then, that the Pentagram consortium is itself a brilliant design solution?

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The following is an article introducing The Landor Methodology. This was published in Idea Extra Issue: Walter Landor Associates, 1977.

An interdisciplinary team effort

Today's scientific approach to communications calls for a design program based on an interrelated approach which may involve qualitative and/or quantitative research, competitive research, controlled financial planning, definitive marketing philosophy, comprehensive design exploration, integration of the advertising platform, and most importantly, a dynamic working relationship with the client.

Every Landor project is approached by a three-part team, composed of marketing, research, and design specialists, plus technicians in various related fields. As a coordinating group, the Landor project team interfaces with the client project team assessing the environment of the company or the product in the marketplace and assisting in its positioning. Often visual audits and consumer research are conducted by Landor Associates in the market, prior to finalization of design and marketing objectives. Management must agree on these objectives, and they then become the basis for design evaluation. It is not uncommon for Landor to assign one team to design close-in to the existing product line and another team to design with virtually no limitations. The design process, per se, is essentially evolutionary in that at least three major internal critiques take place before the selection of the prototype designs that are presented. Extensive consumer research and evaluation of proposed designs are part of the development process. To arrive at the final, most effective marketing design, the Landor designers frequently blend elements of one design concept with elements of others. And while design cannot assure marketing success, it is increasingly becoming the spearhead of the marketing effort.

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Value of marketing research to visual communications

Marketing research has served as an indispensable tool in the creation and upgrading of visual communications by Landor Associates. The research is used at various junctures of the design process, as befits the particular client problem at hand. Research into consumer attitudes regarding a company, product, or package (including attitudes regarding the competition) may help shape design objectives and indicate design directions. Once design work is underway, research can be used to evaluate the most promising design directions of all those which have been formulated. Research is also used frequently in the post-design stage to make a selection between two or more final design candidates.

Communications Research Center was created 15 years ago as an arm of Walter Landor Associates to assist in the achievement of optimum design solutions. CRC is composed of a staff of marketing research specialists, all familiar with the special techniques required to measure communications through visual media. Located on the Ferryboat offices in San Francisco, CRC's facilities include a room especially designed for consumer group discussions, with a built-in lighting system to simulate supermarket, home, or outdoor lighting. The room is equipped with microphones, tape recorders, and a one-way mirror which enables clients seated in an adjacent observation room to observe the proceedings. For projects outside San Francisco CRC utilizes an established network of facilities and research services across the United States and throughout the world. Under the direction of Landor Vice President Mim Ryan, CRC conducts a range of research activities which provide the Landor design teams with the input and direction they require to successfully implement design projects. A few of these techniques are described below:

Focus group interviewing

Approximately ten persons in each of a number of groups considered to be typical of the existing or intended target group audience are interviewed in a group situation by an experienced moderator. The sessions usually last about two hours, during which time the discussion focuses on usage patterns, attitudes regarding the company, brand, product in question and its competition, in-depth reactions to visual communications (both existing, proposed and competition), and comparative evaluations. This technique is especially useful in understanding the feelings of consumers and the special reasons which make one company, brand, product, package, or symbol more or less appealing than another.

Visual testing

The tachistoscope is one example of a mechanical device used to measure visual impact, such as the shelf impact of a new package. A simulated competitive shelf display is projected on a screen for increasing lengths of time, between which respondents are asked to identify any products, brand-names, colors, or words they were able to see. The eye-tracking camera is a device which records the eye's path in response to a visual stimulus and, like the tachistoscope, is used to measure visual impact.

Image measuring techniques

Various techniques, such as similarities ratings, semantic differentials and agree-disagree scales, are used to measure and understand the imagery projected by a symbol, package, or name. They are often utilized prior to design work to identify the specific imagery which should be communicated through the visual medium for a product, package, company or name.

Landor Associates' reliance upon CRC's expertise and technical ability reflects its awareness of the increasing competition and proliferation of brands and products in the marketplace, resulting in an evermore demanding environment for communications with the consumer.

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The following is an article first published in Graphis 140, 1968. In it, Willy Rotzler talks about the importance of a good symbol and the Mexico 1968 visual identity.

International events such as world exhibitions and Olympic Games need a memorable symbol which can be used to identify them wherever they stake their claims. One of the main preliminary tasks of the organizers of such events-and one that is often tackled years ahead-is therefore to find an emblem that has a high identity value and can be put to many uses not always foreseeable in advance. It is often no easy matter to find a mark that meets these requirements and is at the same time graphically satisfying and adapted to its purpose. In the case of Olympic games the issue is complicated by the fact that the existing symbol of the five interlocking rings has to be connected in some way with the location or year of the games concerned.

The American graphic designer Lance Wyman came up with a particularly happy solution to this problem for the Olympic Games in Mexico. Rightly starting from the rings of the Olympic emblem, he combined them with the year '68, both figures of which supplied circular or rather semi-circular elements. In this way he obtained a self-contained and centred symbol with a marked spatial effect due to the superposition of the two components. The next job was to create lettering for the name ‘Mexico' which would correspond in character to the '68' symbol. Wyman's answer to this was to use parallel lines to paraphrase the simple linear forms of the rings in the numbers and lettering. The five lines of the resulting logotype permit the use of either black and white or two colours. The monumental character of the lettering has something of the feeling of old Mexican manuscripts, while the two-colour alternative, which was used in numerous variations, creates the atmosphere of colourful ancient Indian or Mexican folklore. Wyman's greatest success, however, lies in the wide range of playful variants he has opened up for the black-and-white lineaments. The use of line structures radiating out from the emblem like waves in all directions, and of variable density and area, was a brilliant idea. It produced op-art effects whose kinetic fascination was rekindled in every new application, down to the mini-skirts worn by the hostesses.

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Wyman had a slightly less happy hand with the signage that is always necessary when crowds speaking many different languages have to be furnished with quick and unequivocal information. Here he was able to set out from the exemplary symbols for the various sporting events which had been developed for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. For the amenities signage (first-aid stations, telephone booths, post offices, banks, information desks, etc.) he was able to consult various models, the most recent of them being those designed under the direction of Paul Arthur for the Expo in Montreal. Even if these models were not quite equalled, it was gratifying that in Mexico the combinations of various signs in their distinguishing colors often produced attractive effects. This fact was exploited for ornamental purposes, for example in the kiosks. But perhaps the most satisfactory feature of the graphics for Mexico was that the symbols designed by Lance Wyman proved suitable for use in a wide variety of applications--for instance on souvenirs--where they were taken over and adapted by others without losing any of their impact or of the clarity and strength of their design.

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