The Millstone Times September 2018

The Logic of Logos and Catchphrases By Pam Teel

What comes to your mind when you think of logos? Do you immediately recall a brand or product? Well, that’s the power of a logo. You will not find any business without a logo or trademark these days. Logos allow business owners to distinguish themselves in a world cluttered with thousands of brands.

So, how did this all get started? Logo finds its genesis in Greek etymology. It is derived from ‘logos’ meaning ‘word’. The Greeks used to heavily rely on logos to get their concealed messages across kings and rules. Moreover, many ancient Roman and Greek coins showcase monograms (referred to as logos in the present era) of their kings. If you think only the Greeks and Romans used logos for different purposes, you might be slightly mistaken. The Assyrian, Mayan, Chinese, Egyptian and Babylonian cultures also made use of pictographs for communicating their ideas and words. Now, these pictographs can be termed as ancient logos. If we talk about the 13th or 14th century, the monograms as described above were transformed into trademarks. Farmers, goldsmiths, merchants and everyone involved in trading used trademarks. In fact, branding is centuries old. When there was no way of identifying their cattle, farmers imprinted signs on cattle using hot iron stamps. Coming to the 18th century, the age of Industrial Revolution, logo design and branding became all the more intense. Businesses, gradually, started embracing the branding culture in one way or the other. With products being manufactured on a mass scale, merchants and businessmen had to find ways to make their products different and unique. With the advent of technology, logo design became all the more popular. The rise in visual arts and lithographic processes, further added, to the growth of logo design. Talking about the 1890s era, logos found their way into corporate branding.

The present age of logo design and branding has its roots in 1950s. The Chase Logo crafted in 1960 by Chermayeff and Geismar paved way for the modern logo design. Today, designers use latest technologies and include excellent graphics to churn out exemplary logo designs that simply take your breath away. With competition levels soaring new heights, logo designing has become indispensible for businesses. Now- a-days, you simply cannot afford to ignore the power of logo design.

Symbols have so much significance in our lives. Because symbols are such an ingrained part of our lives, most people don't even realize howmany symbols they see and experience on a daily basis. All of these symbols have ancient origins but in today's modern society, most of these symbols might have lost their true meaning. And then again, symbols can be perceived in different ways, depending on the person and their culture. From hundreds of companies' logos, to television shows, to religious text, to engravings on gravestones, we run into these ancient symbols anywhere and everywhere. Let's explore the origins of the cross, spirals, knots, and more. We might then realize the importance of these symbols to our ancestors' lives and to our lives. For example spiral logos back in the ancient times meant growth and expansion; a never ending spiral of the soul. Spirals are used a lot in modern day logos. Take the famous caduceus medical symbol, a traditional symbol of Hermes, it features two snakes winding around an often winged staff. It is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine instead of the Rod of Asclepius, especially in the United States. The

two-snake caduceus design has ancient and consistent associations with trade, eloquence, negotiation, alchemy, wisdom, and controversially, thievery, lying, and the passage into the underworld. Snakes were once regarded by Greeks as sacred and used in healing rituals. The Pentagram was originally used by Christians to represent the five wounds

of Jesus but Satan worshippers now use it in a negative connotation. The ankh represents eternal life or the key of life. Its symbol is seen on gravestones, in jewelry, and much more. Eye symbols are used all over. CBS uses one as part of its logo. The eye represents the window of our souls. The all Seeing Eye can be seen on the back of a U.S. dollar engulfed in a triangle. It was meant to mean protection and truth. The eye and triangle are also part of Masonic symbolism. Today the eye and the triangle are also associated with satanic cults. I guess how they are interpreted in modern times are up to the individual and his beliefs.

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The Millstone Times

September 2018