Yet another archive book stuffed full of logos has been published… but is it looking at the right logo’s for the right reasons? Is it full of progressive Branding ideas? Or just another æsthetic selection of random marks based on nostalgia & whimsy?

Symbol, a new book from the brilliant publishers Laurence King has been launched.

I’m sure this will sell well to designers. buy it here

It’s a thorough enough archive of logos past.

But… this connects to the recent swell of ‘my top 10 logo’s’ seen in many design magazines…

It seems a shame that as a profession who fuel tomorrows branding, we seem to so deeply delight in the past achievements of the brands that simply survive rather than those that genuinely move the practice of branding on.

Pan Am with all it’s retro chic and knowingly reissued vinyl satchels is an easy inclusion — but did it really do anything innovative?

Or is it simply a comfy sofa of reassuringly cosy logo nostalgia?

It’s about as useful as the Nike Swoosh. Any symbol with that amount of exposure will etch itself onto societies retina and consciousness.

Equally did the Pompidou branding leap as far ahead as the radical architectonic mindset behind the building?

I’d say not.

It’s just another logo. Stamped into the back of a cow.

Same old application.

The PanAm ads were rather dull really. And not that effective. Cover the logo and they could be anything. From anyone.

In fact I’d go as far as to say the Pompidou symbol is also simply a convenient minimalist geometry that did little to add to a more progressive approach to creating compelling visual brand identities for products, services and organisations.

For me, this book serves as an example of how things have started to move on. (however slowly in some parts of the design fraternity)

These symbols may be romantic when viewed through the rose tinted glasses of ‘the good old days’ of graphic design. But they bear little resemblance to the new branding landscape we are experiencing today.

I’m actually not knocking this book. Archives are useful and important.

I’m simply saying that we should be as keenly devouring ways creativity has introduced game changing approaches to branding — if we are to really create new design work that merits being included in the equally elegantly designed archives of the future.

I’d like to see as many new books published that are progressive and demanding of new answers as well as neat retrospectives such as this.

Simon