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Original source: Conferencias y Contenidos
This video from Conferencias y Contenidos covered a lot of ground. Streamed.News selected 8 key moments and summarises them here. Everything below links directly to the timestamp in the original video.
Understanding the relevance of the background in logo design can transform the perception of a brand and its visual communications strategy, offering insight into how seemingly secondary elements reinforce identity.
The backgrounded logo: a key strategy for brand protection and objectification
The logo with a background has emerged as a strategic design solution that gives a brand inherent protection and the ability to transform into an autonomous object. Unlike a pure logotype, this typology integrates the name within a visual support that acts as a barrier against external elements, ensuring legibility and recognition. Examples of codified backgrounds include universal geometric shapes such as circles, ovals, and diamonds, which — though pre-existing — do not diminish the originality of the composition, but instead provide a familiar and publicly recognizable foundation.
The choice of a background, whether codified or custom-designed, is a deliberate act aimed at giving the logo a physical presence and a sense of stability. This quality enables its application across a wide range of contexts, from a car body to a label, ensuring the brand maintains its visual integrity and identifying impact. The effectiveness of this typology lies in its ability to provide a solid visual support, allowing the logo to project itself with greater force and clarity within the communications landscape.
"This is excellent for gaining a competitive edge — a logo with a background can even transform into an object in its own right."
Pure logotypes: between orthodoxy and transgression in brand identity
Pure logotypes, defined by the exclusivity of the written word, constitute a fundamental category in brand identity design. Their conception, far from being accidental, involves meticulous typographic and spacing study, as demonstrated by cases such as IBM, which exhibits a rigorous orthodoxy in its composition. On the other hand, brands like Coca-Cola exemplify a transgressive typographic manipulation, where the alteration of the normal writing baseline creates a distinctive and memorable identity that challenges convention without sacrificing legibility.
The existence of diverse typologies within pure logotypes underscores the creative flexibility inherent to the design field. This duality between the norm and the exception allows organizations to choose the degree of formality or boldness that best represents their essence, recognizing that every graphic choice is a declaration of principles. The significance of this classification lies in its capacity to illuminate how a simple sequence of letters can encapsulate the personality and values of an entity within the collective imagination.
"Coca-Cola varies the writing baseline in that zone — it is a transgression against the normal writing convention; by contrast, others uphold total orthodoxy."
BMW as a benchmark for the logo-symbol: the indissoluble union of symbol and logotype
The logo-symbol — a brand category in which the symbol and the logotype fuse in an indissoluble manner — finds its paradigm in the design of BMW. This total integration of both graphic elements creates an autonomous object with such deeply rooted symbolic power that, even if the letters were removed, visual identification would persist. Although the company maintains the conjunction of its graphic components in most of its applications, this cohesion gives the brand an identity solidity that transcends mere nominal representation.
The robustness of BMW's logo-symbol manifests in its ability to adapt to peripheral uses, such as its initials appearing separately on personal consumer products, without undermining the brand's global recognition. This controlled flexibility is a testament to the quality of the original design and to the anticipation of diverse usage scenarios, demonstrating that a well-conceived brand is capable of enduring and evolving. The choice of this typology guarantees a resilient graphic identity with a long-lasting future.
"There is only one case where both elements — the symbol and the logotype — are indissolubly fused; they cannot be separated. Everything goes together."
Global brands shift to purely symbolic identity after cementing their image
A number of global organizations have reached the rare status of being able to dispense with their wordmarks entirely, relying solely on symbols for identification. Brands such as Shell, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Nike exemplify this strategy, where a symbol — following dominant, widespread adoption and strong association with the company name — becomes self-sufficient. This phenomenon underscores the power of a well-established graphic identity, capable of communicating a brand's essence instantly and universally, often functioning as a recognizable pictogram.
A brand's ability to operate on its symbol alone signals a level of recognition and collective memory that few organizations ever achieve. This privilege, reserved for brands with decades of history and sustained investment in communications, allows for a more concise visual presence that adapts readily across formats. The choice of this approach reflects an evolution in branding strategy, where the simplicity and universality of the symbol take precedence once the association with the brand name has been fully cemented.
"There are several brands that, after establishing their symbol dominantly across the market, have shed the wordmark altogether — taking it as a given."
The combination of typeface selection and typographic composition defines brand identities
The intersection of typographic selection and composition reveals a four-quadrant grid of distinctive logo typologies. Chanel serves as a prototypical example, employing a standard typeface with conventional composition — a deliberate choice reflecting timeless elegance and orthodoxy. This apparent simplicity does not diminish the design's sophistication; rather, it anchors the identity in a recognized and enduring foundation that resists passing trends, as evidenced by the lasting design of its No. 5 perfume.
By contrast, FedEx illustrates the use of a standard typeface with an altered composition, where the elimination of space between the prefix and suffix is no mere stylistic whim, but a strategic intervention that gives the logo a striking and memorable visual singularity. This compositional transgression produces a visual effect that sets it apart within its sector, demonstrating that innovation in logo design does not always require custom typefaces — only an ingenious manipulation of existing elements. Both approaches highlight how decisions around typeface selection and composition are fundamental to building a robust and differentiated brand identity.
"Chanel is a standard logo with conventional composition — meaning someone with an extraordinarily refined eye selected a very strong type family and set it in a completely orthodox way."
Kraft Foods reverses decorated logo redesign over concerns about lack of corporate gravitas
The Kraft Foods case illustrates the far-reaching consequences of a misguided typological choice in identity design, after the company reversed a logo featuring decorative add-ons that were seen as undermining the seriousness expected of a major food company. The brand had initially moved away from its original design — a red background with white lettering that conveyed the solidity befitting a large food group — in favor of a version laden with graphic embellishments. This misstep, visible across products such as mayonnaise, proved dysfunctional, projecting a frivolous image at odds with the institutional weight the company required.
Kraft Foods' return to a more sober design aligned with its corporate character underscores that the value of a graphic identity lies not in originality for its own sake, but in its relevance and ability to communicate the organization's essential attributes. The lesson drawn from this process is that the choice of logo typology must be grounded in a rigorous assessment of client needs and the message the brand wishes to convey. Coherence between design and brand identity is a critical factor in a company's market credibility and positioning.
"Kraft Foods is precisely a case of corporate regret — they made this mess and then walked it back."
Symbol logos: quality and historical value as pillars of brand identity
The symbol logo category stands out for its intrinsic fusion of the written word and a graphic element that, by virtue of its quality and heritage, becomes indispensable to a brand's identity. Examples such as Puma and Nestlé illustrate how these symbols, deeply rooted in organizational history and brand equity, constitute true pictographic gems. In Nestlé's case, the famous nest featuring a mother bird and her chicks transcends mere representation, becoming a fundamental component of the company's graphic heritage.
The importance of these codified symbols lies in their ability to evoke values and narratives consolidated over time, exerting a significant influence on consumer perception. Abandoning them would mean an irreparable loss of recognition and the accumulated history behind them. The inherent quality of these designs ensures their longevity and effectiveness as identifying elements, confirming that a brand's strength resides, in large part, in the solidity and intrinsic value of its distinctive graphic components.
"Nestlé cannot abandon this — not given its history and brand equity. The famous nest with the mother and the baby birds is something they cannot walk away from, because it is part of the graphic heritage of this great company."
Coca-Cola as the archetype of typographic uniqueness and altered composition in logo design
The Coca-Cola brand stands as the emblematic example of a logo category that combines singular typography with an altered composition, achieving a maximum degree of originality. Far from conventional orthodoxy, this approach manipulates the shape and spacing of letters to create an unmistakable and highly distinctive visual identity. Coca-Cola's iconography demonstrates how breaking conventional typographic rules can result in a brand with a unique graphic personality, firmly embedded in the collective memory.
The hallmark of this type of design lies in its ability to defy expectations and establish its own visual language — one that, despite its complexity, becomes universally recognized. The choice of an invented typeface and a non-standard composition lends the logo an artistic quality that sets it apart in a saturated marketplace. The Coca-Cola case underscores that singularity in logo design is a crucial factor in achieving powerful and enduring brand recognition, establishing a benchmark in the world of global branding.
Also mentioned in this video
- Speaker introduces the brand megatypology before showing examples (0:38)
- Typological thinking as a natural deductive process of the human brain (1:00)
- Typological thinking: useful for selecting and identifying (3:10)
- Critic of designers who start drawing a brand without prior analysis (4:07)
- Choosing the right brand type as the first crucial step in design (7:09)
- Importance of groundwork and early detection in the design process (12:12)
- A typology developed with Raúl de la Llama and Luciano Cassisi (13:43)
- Three families of nominal identifiers presented (15:51)
- Logotype with accessories: logotype remains the dominant element (20:47)
- Presenter moves to symbolic marks where symbolism predominates (25:03)
- Logosymbol examples analyzed: Starbucks Coffee and its type choice (31:12)
- After choosing the logotype type, diving into subtypologies is key (35:06)
- Degrees of typographic selection with brand examples explained (38:35)
- How letters combine: from standard use to typographic transgressions (41:14)
- Singular logotypes analyzed: Disney and unique typography (49:02)
- Importance of students and professionals knowing brand typologies (50:02)
- Logotype typologies with manipulated but legibility-respecting letters (52:54)
- Background classification developed with Arnulfo Espinoza introduced (56:07)
- Coded backgrounds: squares, ovals, diamonds and their conventions (57:09)
- Figurative backgrounds: known objects like shields explained (1:00:11)
- Examples of coded and figurative backgrounds like coins presented (1:02:05)
- Non-coded figurative backgrounds: original shapes like a unique form (1:05:02)
Summarised from Conferencias y Contenidos · 1:09:10. All credit belongs to the original creators. Streamed.News summarises publicly available video content.
