These two keywords have become the "go-to" for many brands in their search for visual identity. To illustrate this phenomenon, a tweet comparing the evolution of the logos of four global companies went viral last February.
From Google to Airbnb, including Spotify and Pinterest, these companies have gradually changed their brand image, moving from serif fonts to remarkably similar sans-serif fonts. As Thierry Brunfaut, artistic director and founder of Base Design, points out:
"All these bold and neutral logos convey the same message to the consumer: our brand and our services are simple, direct, clear, and extremely legible."
Moreover, all these brands now share one thing in common: they are no longer defined by their logo, but by the product or service they provide. In the past, designers sought a concept when creating a logo, but this is no longer necessary today because the brand has become a concept in itself. Although these four brands are similar in design, their offerings are completely different, and their logos are now 100% recognizable by the consumer.
In 2013, McDonald's launched a bold advertising campaign without a logo or tagline. The brand simply displayed close-ups of its signature products.
This was a remarkable strategy, but rarely implemented because few brands have products with enough popularity to pull it off.
Since then, the brand has repeated the move by transforming its six signature products into pictograms, riding the wave of the Flat design era, which further cements McDonald's as an iconic brand.
Sources: Fastcodesign "Why Do Google, Airbnb, And Pinterest All Have Such Similar Logos?é" Images: TweetMcDonald's Campaign 1McDonald's Campaign 2
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