We’ve already chatted about the America Online rebranding, in which the online media conglomerate went hip with a sans-serif font, lowercase letters, and punctuation. (Aol. > AOL?) It got us thinking about the efficacy of that one small dot, and what brands are trying to convey by punctuating their logos. From greater-than symbols to obnoxious exclamation points to a growing number of quotation marks, we have to wonder if punctuation is the new emoticon.
You know what to do. Give us your thoughts and tips on any other punctuated logos we might have missed, in the comments.
Is this logo getting familiar yet?
Perhaps it doesn’t count as punctuation if the greater than symbol is floating about the letters in the company’s name, as in consultancy firm Accenture‘s brandmark. Regardless, it’s an obvious allusion that’s distracting in a logo.
Designed by powerhouse firm Pentagram, the EAT. logo works as a persuasive tool in differentiating the London chain from other similar eateries.
In 1993, Pentagram also designed the logo above for Curious Pictures, a mixed media, live action, animation and computer graphics studio.
Michael Beirut and team at Pentragram are punctuation happy, judging from this logo design for The Library Initiative.
Swiss furniture line Vitra is also fond of end punctuation.
What is it about tiny electric cars that inspires whimsical punctuation? Th!nk, a Norwegian car company, inserts a pesky exclamation point in their text as well as its official logo, while G-Whiz, a British relative, contains what the New York Times calls a “spurious hyphen.”
Social media purveyors are big fans of the quotation mark to symbolize technology-enabled chatter. Godpress, a social platform for Christians, has a logo designed by Matthew Reynolds: “The quotation marks as the letters G and D symbolize the fact that prayer is simply talking to God.” Talkmore is a mobile phone outfit.
For some background on the ethos behind brand punctuation, check out Alice Rawsthorn’s article for the New York Times.
Comments (14)
I think it’s interesting that ending punctuation is a trend. Lucky Magazine used to go by “Lucky.” on the cover, and then dropped the period, to “Lucky”. I have to say that I’m a fan of the punctuation, and the use of punctuation as other letters (Godpress, Talkmore, L!brary).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/arts/design/07iht-design7.html?src=tp
so we’re stealing articles from the nytimes now?
I think it’s just another way to make a statement or command. Use aol. (period) – now. (period) – or else… (dot dot dot)
the > sign used in the Accenture logo is actually a musical notation for ACCENT or loud note. Which being above the company name Accenture makes a lot of sense to me.
Punctuation or not, the whole Aol rebranding seems bizarre to me. Apparently, they have deliberately made the lettering bleed off into nothingness somewhere on each of these – but why? And why these particular images? Perhaps these are anti-logos?
AOL = RIP.
It’s a simple transformation from Brand to call to action. In marketing terms, probably considered a breakthrough. But from a consumer perspective, it’s all rather dull. Incidentally, what on earth is going on with that G-WIZ logo? I smell design by committee. Actually make that conference.
[...] Flavorwire: Brand Punctuation [...]
Why is punctuation called the “new emoticon” when some of these examples are over 15 years old?
i think accenture, curious pictures and the social online media logos work the best. in those instances the punctuation adds an extra layer of meaning to the logo, which helps make it memorable. accenture has an accent mark. curious pictures has a question mark. and talk more has talking quotes. it’s actually quite brilliant. but the use of the period for aol and vitra and eat, it seems superfluous. the period, doesn’t add any extra weight to the logo or company. maybe it does for eat, because the period turns it into a command, but that’s not true for aol or vitra.
interesting article and timely in my case. i’m working on a logotype, and just recently decided that my idea with the period just wasn’t working and decided to head in another direction. i suppose i’m glad i’m not jumping on the punctuation bandwagon.
Sorry. while I like the look of the Godpress logo, they are actually using a comma (,) and an apostrophe(‘) because quote marks “are always double” at least in my experience.
Sony’s new make.believe is another one http://www.sony.net/united/makedotbelieve/
Hi, Splendid article! Very well worded and right to the point. I am referencing some of this information in my own articles as a reference, I hope you don’t mind.
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