Brands discover Botox
There is a quiet aesthetic taking form in the world of identity design.
As a consequence of improving graphic software and new and wonderful filters, we witnessing a transformation of logo graphics and brand marks. It is not unusual for products and outcomes to be influenced by production techniques. Many styles and trends have been based upon this simple principle.
In the world of identity design logo marks and brand marks are being dressed with the latest software filters. Once flat and graphic logo marks and brand marks have developed chrome finishes and 3D bevels and bubbles.
Is this a brand’s way of trying to become an object, something real, or is it just an nuance of graphic treatment that will define this period? Is this a look that will define the times, or is this a sign of things to come? There are designers that want their world to remain flat and graphic, there are designers at the software fore front turning flat graphics into object like brands, and then there is a vast majority who don’t care, let alone notice the difference.
Happy botoxing.
2 Comments so far
Reply
‘Don’t try to understand ‘em,
Just rope an’ throw an’ brand ‘em.
Soon we’ll be livin’ high and wide.’
Words from the theme song of Rawhide, one of the mid-century tv cowboy shows that provided a lot moral direction in my early formative years. Dressing up logos is for sissies.
Brands discover Botox.
Botox on people, as with logos, leaves them a shell of their former self. Not much thought has to go into a design that’s been applied with a bubble and tweak filter. Take for example the UPS logo. Paul Rand’s clever device was inspired by his daughter’s comment upon recieving a parcel: ‘It’s like getting a present’. A non-commercial take on a very commercial service. But the thought evokes so much more than new ’swoosh’ incarntion. It evokes care and thought, simple out-takes that companies now strive to bring back to their company mantra. I asked a delivery man what he thought of the new mark. His reply, straight from the company journal, ‘apparently we do more than deliver parcels’, was something he obviously found hard to swallow, whilst unloading boxes from his green van. Apple, even though modernised, has not lost its original inspiration. Chosen as a symbol of learning, the Apple still retains its very recognisable form. Now commonplace, people quickly forget this was launched in 1984 when technology companies, well, looked like technology companies. A very original thought, that stretched everyone’s imagination. As technology becomes more accessible and easier to use, designers should be concentating on their ability to think, rather than their ability to click.