We often don’t really look at great logos — we just see them and know exactly what they mean, like the shape of a letter or a familiar word that our brains can process so quickly it seems as if it goes straight from image to understanding. Some logos are so ubiquitous that we would never think twice about what they mean or how they came to be, so when we came across this great little video about the PBS logo we decided to take a closer look at some iconic brand markers. Click through to read the stories behind a few of our favorite logos, and perhaps you will look at them a bit more closely in the future.
PBS
In this video, Herb Lubalin gives a spirited account of the origin of the PBS logo — basically, they got there on the basis that PBS is for people. Interestingly, the network seemed to want any face on their logo to look to the right to ward off their reputation as a liberal network. Seems like a small nod to conservatism if you ask us, but no matter. Though they had to compromise that ideal on the original logo, you can see from the modern versiona bove they eventually got the little man to look to the right. We bet he’s mad about it.
Comments (3)
All these logos make sense for the products they represent except for the Morton Salt young miss. This figure defies all the rules of logo making. It’s generic, irrelevant to the company and product. Any emotion it stirs is cheap and shallow (She’s so cute!”). It’s complicated and hard to remember precisely. Yet it’s worked for almost a century. Does this mean almost anything can work as a logo? Maybe, if the product utterly dominates a category, time is on your side and your updates are subtle and appropriate. Having a tag line that’s a little mysterious won’t hurt.
This logo was apparently created to appeal to the people who buy the most salt packaged for general consumers: moms. The cute little girl gets their attention and the combination of the slogan with the fact that the salt is pouring out of the box she is carrying in spite of the weather she’s walking through conveys the presumed superiority of the brand.
I always found the tagline for Morton to be creative and witty — and hardly mysterious, given the properties of the product.
I will say that, much like Coppertone, which also features a non-stylized girl as their logo, just because the style of the logo itself is dated, it doesn’t mean that the logo it out of date. A company can show a pride in their history by keeping an older logo, and that transfers over to confidence that their prospective consumer base picks up on. In contrast, a company that switches logos every few years can come off as grasping at straws.
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