Many people believe a great brand needs an icon - like Nike, for example.
Brands in industries such as fashion and automotive need icons, or contractions of the brand mark, that can be displayed on their products. In rare cases, a complex brand architecture is built around such an icon.
However, an icon must be explained and connected to the brand name, and that requires expensive communications measures.
In contrast, a name - and a memorable way of writing that name – act as a first principle of brand recognition. Strong logotype expresses everything you want to communicate about your brand, so you don’t need an icon to create a successful brandmark.
A successful logo type is more than a brand name written out in an existing typeface. It requires innovation, variation, and craftsmanship to be unique. Although I have worked on many aspects of corporate branding, I am now focused on brand-mark development. In this section, I’d like to present a few branding projects I’ve been involved in the past.
Erasco is an important German food brand. I designed the logo for Landor in 2010:
Alete is one of the largest children’s food brands in Germany.
I redesigned their logo for Landor in Hamburg 2009:
Here’s a logo I did for BeaBitzer, an online children’s clothing store: www.beabitzer.de
I’m happy to see this logo type used now, because it was always my favorite option.
Hertie was a renowned chain of retail stores in Germany. Logo developed for Lukas Clark, Hamburg.
I have an ongoing conversation about Spencerian handwriting with design director Edward Leida, formerly of W Magazine, in New York. While Leida’s had attempted to hire master typographer Tony Di Spigna to design display type for the magazine, I was in the process of developing Mommie for L’Officiel, based on the very same idea. Recently, I was able to design this headline for W.
Schwarzer Adler (“The Black Eagle”) is one of my favorite local watering holes.
This branding project for Bally, because we were able to avoid working with a branding agency. Boris Bencic, the former art director of Frank magazine in London, got me on board for the redesign of the logo-type redesign, the basic elements, and the manual the corporate typefaces. To this day, I’m very happy with the results.
Flashmanual
Here’s a brand mark I designed for Eden Industries, an art project that brings together scientists and architects to develop buildings based on organic shapes and structures.
I slightly altered this existing logo type. The curved triangles and the details in the letter “A” imbued it with more personality.
Additional work was required to organize this key chemical and pharmaceutical company’s brand architecture.
A masthead logo I developed for a psychology magazine emotion published by Gruner + Jahr.
The Beate Uhse chain of stores is where Germans stop to shop for everything regarding sex, including toys and lingerie.
Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This cosmetic company’s logo used to be designed in a cloddishly condensed version of the Optima font.
Believe it or not, it’s bracketed outlines looked even worse in condensed. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
I developed this logo for Balea, the much-lauded house brand of Germany’s DM chain of drugstores.
I designed this brand mark for the IAA international car trade show.
Developed for Citigate Demuth, Frankfurt.
A logo for a tissue-paper brand. Developed for Redpack, Hamburg
I worked on an evolution of German dairy giant Weihenstephan’s coat-of-arms logo. My task was to drop the local association represented by the Bavarian flag and the Bavarian lions and replace it with something more universal. I started to work on several options involving cherubs and wings. Eventually, however, the brand was sold and the new managers decided to return to the Bavarian design. I simply ended up optimizing the coat of arms for smaller sizes.
A brand mark for a popular German brand of shampoo. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This mashead logo for Frank Magazine is based on my Libris font.
This logotype I developed for the German chamber orchestra combines traditional and modern shapes to convey that the musicians are capable of playing an eclectic mix of musical styles. I didn’t receive any money, honors, or free concert tickets for this project – only the warm and fuzzy feeling of supporting a cultural institution.
Here’s a brand mark I designed for a web-based investment bank. Developed for Citigate Demuth, Frankfurt.
In Germany, beer bottles are generally emblazoned with blackletter typefaces. Characters such as the “z”, the “s”, the “k” and the ornamental capitals are notoriously hard to read and need to be transformed for the logo to work. Developed for Just Blue Design, Hamburg.
Here’s another good example of a blackletter font I altered to make it more readable and give it a modern appeal. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
Blackletter fonts are especially difficult to read at small sizes, so they need to taken in a direction that’s closer to Roman fonts. Developed for Citigate Demuth, Frankfurt.
Asbach is a traditional German brandy. I transformed its existing blackletter mark to give it a more contemporary feel. In the end, the corrected traditional logotype was chosen with less swirls surrounding the A. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This logotype of a tobacco brand was quite a change from its earlier slab-serif incarnation. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
I slightly altered the logo of family-owned luxury grocer Dallmayr’s popular Prodomo coffee brand. Developed for Lothar Böhm, Hamburg.
I made slight alterations corrections to the logotype of Lätta, a low-fat butter product. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This logotype for was commissioned for a confectionary brand. Developed for Barutzki Design, Hamburg.
A calligraphic logotype for the German food and beverages brand Knorr. Developed for Interbrand, Hamburg.
This logotype is a redesign of a Knorr salad-seasoning product. Developed for Interbrand, Hamburg.
In 1999, Enterprise IG in Hamburg commissioned me to work on a new Quelle brand mark. Almost a year, several different stages and hundreds of variations later, we arrived at the solution.
After the redesign, many of the Quelle’s private brands got a makeover, as well.
...including, believe it or not:
Brands in industries such as fashion and automotive need icons, or contractions of the brand mark, that can be displayed on their products. In rare cases, a complex brand architecture is built around such an icon.
However, an icon must be explained and connected to the brand name, and that requires expensive communications measures.
In contrast, a name - and a memorable way of writing that name – act as a first principle of brand recognition. Strong logotype expresses everything you want to communicate about your brand, so you don’t need an icon to create a successful brandmark.
A successful logo type is more than a brand name written out in an existing typeface. It requires innovation, variation, and craftsmanship to be unique. Although I have worked on many aspects of corporate branding, I am now focused on brand-mark development. In this section, I’d like to present a few branding projects I’ve been involved in the past.
Erasco is an important German food brand. I designed the logo for Landor in 2010:
Alete is one of the largest children’s food brands in Germany.
I redesigned their logo for Landor in Hamburg 2009:
Here’s a logo I did for BeaBitzer, an online children’s clothing store: www.beabitzer.de
I’m happy to see this logo type used now, because it was always my favorite option.
Hertie was a renowned chain of retail stores in Germany. Logo developed for Lukas Clark, Hamburg.
I have an ongoing conversation about Spencerian handwriting with design director Edward Leida, formerly of W Magazine, in New York. While Leida’s had attempted to hire master typographer Tony Di Spigna to design display type for the magazine, I was in the process of developing Mommie for L’Officiel, based on the very same idea. Recently, I was able to design this headline for W.
Schwarzer Adler (“The Black Eagle”) is one of my favorite local watering holes.
This branding project for Bally, because we were able to avoid working with a branding agency. Boris Bencic, the former art director of Frank magazine in London, got me on board for the redesign of the logo-type redesign, the basic elements, and the manual the corporate typefaces. To this day, I’m very happy with the results.
Flashmanual
Here’s a brand mark I designed for Eden Industries, an art project that brings together scientists and architects to develop buildings based on organic shapes and structures.
I slightly altered this existing logo type. The curved triangles and the details in the letter “A” imbued it with more personality.
Additional work was required to organize this key chemical and pharmaceutical company’s brand architecture.
A masthead logo I developed for a psychology magazine emotion published by Gruner + Jahr.
The Beate Uhse chain of stores is where Germans stop to shop for everything regarding sex, including toys and lingerie.
Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This cosmetic company’s logo used to be designed in a cloddishly condensed version of the Optima font.
Believe it or not, it’s bracketed outlines looked even worse in condensed. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
I developed this logo for Balea, the much-lauded house brand of Germany’s DM chain of drugstores.
I designed this brand mark for the IAA international car trade show.
Developed for Citigate Demuth, Frankfurt.
A logo for a tissue-paper brand. Developed for Redpack, Hamburg
I worked on an evolution of German dairy giant Weihenstephan’s coat-of-arms logo. My task was to drop the local association represented by the Bavarian flag and the Bavarian lions and replace it with something more universal. I started to work on several options involving cherubs and wings. Eventually, however, the brand was sold and the new managers decided to return to the Bavarian design. I simply ended up optimizing the coat of arms for smaller sizes.
A brand mark for a popular German brand of shampoo. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This mashead logo for Frank Magazine is based on my Libris font.
This logotype I developed for the German chamber orchestra combines traditional and modern shapes to convey that the musicians are capable of playing an eclectic mix of musical styles. I didn’t receive any money, honors, or free concert tickets for this project – only the warm and fuzzy feeling of supporting a cultural institution.
Here’s a brand mark I designed for a web-based investment bank. Developed for Citigate Demuth, Frankfurt.
In Germany, beer bottles are generally emblazoned with blackletter typefaces. Characters such as the “z”, the “s”, the “k” and the ornamental capitals are notoriously hard to read and need to be transformed for the logo to work. Developed for Just Blue Design, Hamburg.
Here’s another good example of a blackletter font I altered to make it more readable and give it a modern appeal. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
Blackletter fonts are especially difficult to read at small sizes, so they need to taken in a direction that’s closer to Roman fonts. Developed for Citigate Demuth, Frankfurt.
Asbach is a traditional German brandy. I transformed its existing blackletter mark to give it a more contemporary feel. In the end, the corrected traditional logotype was chosen with less swirls surrounding the A. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This logotype of a tobacco brand was quite a change from its earlier slab-serif incarnation. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
I slightly altered the logo of family-owned luxury grocer Dallmayr’s popular Prodomo coffee brand. Developed for Lothar Böhm, Hamburg.
I made slight alterations corrections to the logotype of Lätta, a low-fat butter product. Developed for Enterprise IG, Hamburg.
This logotype for was commissioned for a confectionary brand. Developed for Barutzki Design, Hamburg.
A calligraphic logotype for the German food and beverages brand Knorr. Developed for Interbrand, Hamburg.
This logotype is a redesign of a Knorr salad-seasoning product. Developed for Interbrand, Hamburg.
In 1999, Enterprise IG in Hamburg commissioned me to work on a new Quelle brand mark. Almost a year, several different stages and hundreds of variations later, we arrived at the solution.
After the redesign, many of the Quelle’s private brands got a makeover, as well.