The Trademark

A trademark is a picture. 
It is a symbol a sign an emblem an escutcheon…an image.

There are good symbols… like the cross. There are others… like the swastika. Their meanings are taken from reality.

Symbols are a duality. They take on meaning from causes good or bad. And they give meaning to causes good or bad.

The flag is a symbol of a country. The cross is a symbol of a religion.

The swastika was a symbol of good luck until its meaning was changed.

The vitality of a symbol comes from effective dissemination… by the state by the community by the church by the corporation. It needs attending to get attention.

The trademark is a symbol of a corporation. It is not a sign of quality… it is a sign of the quality.

The trademark for Chanel smells as good as the perfume it stands for This is the blending of form and content.

Trademarks are animate inanimate organic geometric. They are letters ideograms monograms colors things. Ideally they do not illustrate they indicate not represent but suggest… and are stated with brevity and wit.

A trademark is created by a designer but made by a corporation

A trademark is a picture an image… the image of a corporation.

The symbol for Westinghouse (1960) as it appears today is an adaptation of an earlier trademark.The problem was to transform an existing lackluster emblem, consisting of a circle, a W, and an underscore, into something unique. Updating and modernization were a byproduct and not the focus of this program.The final design, which comprises a circle, a series of dots, and lines, was intended to suggest a printed circuit. One of the comments this design evoked when it was being presented was that it resembled a mask. Although this idea was never intended, I believe that the effectiveness of this symbol is due partly to its anthropomorphism. 

The mask, since recorded history, has served many functions; to disguise, to pique, to simulate, to enhance, to identify, or simply to entertain. Not unlike the mask, the trademark is a potent and succinct means of communication — for good or for evil.

The need for simplicity is demonstrated in the blurred image of the ABC trademark. How far out of focus can an image be and still be recognized? A trademark, which is subject to an infinite number of uses, abuses, and variations, whether for competitive purposes or for reasons of “self-expression,“ cannot survive unless it is designed with utmost simplicity and restraint - keeping in mind that seldom is a trademark favored with more than a glance. Simplicity implies not only an aesthetic ideal, but a meaningful idea, either of content or form, that can be easily recalled.