A decade in emblem design: what has modified?
While Michael Evamy is publishing a revised version of his book Logo, he looks back on the great developments in this area over the past ten years
The new edition of my book "Logo", just published by Laurence King, is very different. Fourteen years after its original publication, it is high time things changed.
The content of the book is noticeably different. Around a third of the word marks and symbols from the first book have disappeared, replaced by 600 newer years, bringing the total number of marks to 1,500. It is a major transfusion of new material and some classics, collected and selected from around 100 of the most accomplished and original practitioners in the field.
A lot has changed in logo design since the original edition was released. In 2007, the creative world was thrilled with skeuomorphic user interfaces and 3D symbols. Curves, contours and complex color gradients fooled the eye everywhere you looked. Super-reflective metal combs made the leap from the hoods to the printed page, amoeba balls and amorphous blobs stuck to wordmarks, and nameless dripping liquids strained bandwidth as they animated the home pages.
Today, after Trump, after Cummings, in the middle of the pandemic, we yearn for truth and transparency. We are careful when we get involved. We want things that we can rely on. Marketers and brands strive for authenticity which can be seen in the hands of some men in the form of male models dressed as if they have just come out of the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, and in other cases it is a Slimmed-down, no-frills design approach that strives for timelessness, economy and longevity.