Collated by Richard Baird, founder of LogoArchive, the world’s largest historical logo book, and of LogoHistories, home to 200+ in-depth logo histories.
What makes a trademark work? Long before brand strategy became an industry, designers and critics wrote seriously about symbols: how they communicate, why so many look alike, and what separates a lasting mark from a fashionable one.
These essays, reprinted from design annuals and magazines including the Trademarks & Symbols of the World and Top Symbols & Trademarks of the World series, cover everything from the history of the trademark to the meaning of arrows, stars and other basic shapes.
They make an ideal companion to our guide to 30 logo design techniques, and to the Magazine collections on logo design around the world, legendary designers and studios, and corporate identity.
Key Takeaways
A symbol has to earn its meaning
Many of these writers argue that a trademark gains significance through use and association, not from the shape alone.
Similarity is a real risk
As marks multiplied in the 1960s and 70s, critics warned of a narrowing visual language of arrows, circles and initials.
Simple forms carry deep histories
Basic shapes such as arrows and stars bring centuries of meaning with them, which designers can use or subvert.
Go behind the logos. Explore 200+ in-depth and meticulously researched logo histories revealing the designers, design decisions and ideas behind the world’s most iconic logos and important brand identities.
Continue reading to discover all 13 articles in this collection →
Trademarks, an introduction, 1966
This is an introduction published in Trademarks: a handbook of international designs, 1966. In it, Peter Wildbur offers his take on the logos of the 1960s.
On Trademarks
Here, Tomás Maldonado introduces Volume 8 of Top Symbols & Trademarks of the World, offering an insight into the various forms of trademarks.
The Trademark: A Graphic Summation of Individuality
Lester Beall wrote this introductory article 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.
Design Concept of Trademarks and Logotypes
In this article from a special issue of Idea, 1979, FHK Henrion writes about the design concept of trademarks and logotypes.
Thoughts on Logotypes and Symbols, 1983
In this article, published in World Trademarks and Logotypes III, 1983, FHK Henrion shares his thoughts and experience on the design of logos.
Trademarks and logotypes, 1978
In this introduction to Volume 9 of Top Symbols & Trademarks of the World, Gillo Dorfles offers an insight into logotypes.
Trademarks and Signs, 1986
In this piece from Novum Gebrauchsgraphik, November 1986, Udo Zisowsky writes about his understanding of the trademark.
Similarities among trademarks, 1973
Here, in an article published in Trade Marks & Symbols Volume 2: Symbolical Designs, 1973, Yasaburo Kuwayama writes about the similarities that arise among trademarks.
Designing a trade-mark, 1988
The first task to be performed when designing a trademark is to define the ‘message’ that the sign is to convey. For example the message conveyed by the letter P in the Pirelli logotype is elasticity, which is a property typical of rubber. A logotype is often linked to the trade-mark itself. The letter P stretched lengthways is an elastic letter, and the stretching, which runs in the normal reading direction, ie. from left to right, is executed in a fluid manner, whereas it would have been harder to remember it it had been stretched downwards. Thus the message is closely linked, where this is possible, to the product to which the trade-mark refers. Hence it would be ideal if the trade-mark for a textile company were intertwined, if the trade-mark for a mattress were soft, if the trade-mark for a manufacturer of unit furniture were sectional, and so forth.
Elements of Idea: The Arrow, 1975
In this article from Idea 118, 1973, Shigeo Fukuda explores the arrow as a symbol, mark and sign.
Stars, arrows and other shapes
In this article, published in Novum Gebrauchsgraphik, October 1982, Tobias Christoph writes about the qualities of a good logo.
Selection of Graphic Products: 1 Icons
In this piece from Simgeler, Turkish designer Sait Maden writes about the design and meaning of symbols.
Changing modern mark and symbols, 1987
In this article, Yasaburo Kuwayama shares his thoughts on the state of trademark design in the 1980s after composing the second volume of Trademarks & Symbols of the World. It’s illustrated with spreads from the book, plus examples of the types of logos written about in the text.
Go behind the logos. Explore 200+ in-depth and meticulously researched logo histories revealing the designers, design decisions and ideas behind the world’s most iconic logos and important brand identities.