Brand and Logo

Fantastic essay by Oliver Reichenstein:

This post is not about the technical quality of the logo. I am not writing about brand design, but about brand management. This is about a simple rule: Brand design follows brand management, not the other way around.

One could argue that we can’t say if this is bad brand management. Unless we know what the brand ambition, the brand architecture, and the brand strategy is, we ought to have no opinion. Maybe the logo does exactly what it is supposed to do. Because really, it doesn’t matter whether it looks pretty, or whether someone likes or dislikes the purple or the scallops. The Coca-Cola logo was not designed by a professional designer, it is typographically hideous, but that doesn’t matter. Brand identity is not about visual refinement or aesthetics. It can be purposely ugly, like the London Olympics logo. What is important is that it is done seriously.

(By the way, I'm still amazed by the quality of the iA website, and especially the blog. Typography, details, everything. It's wonderful.)