London Logo Design Blog » British Logo Designs

Samsung’s Olympic Logo Design

Logo Design Company London — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:42:01 +0000

With the Royal Wedding over and done, there is yet another event that offers promise for UK companies hoping to make an impression: the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. Almost every major corporation in the UK has found a way to tie into the sporting event. The latest Olympic brand and logo comes from mobile phone giant Samsung, which has unveiled a new logo design that celebrates the event while publicizing Samsung’s role as sponsor of the Olympic Torch Relay.

The new logo design features a golden phone with arms outstretched. The London 2012 logo design (the same one that has gotten a great deal of negative press) is on the screen of the telephone, along with Samsung’s company logo and the words ‘Olympic Torch Relay Presenting Partner’. While this would not be a good ‘everyday’ logo, it is fun and appropriate for the sporting event that it represents.

The company has also created a new strapline to complement their Olympic partner brand: Everyone’s Olympic Games. This is intended to give a friendly, inclusive feeling and to stylistically match the open, outstretched arms seen in the logo design. According to company press releases, this Olympic brand is an open invitation to potential UK customers.

What kind of invitation? While this sponsorship should increase UK sales, this is not really the point of the marketing scheme. According to Samsung’s head of global sports marketing, Gyehyun Kwon, the new logo and the increased marketing efforts are not an attempt to add to the company’s rather small UK sales, but to increase brand awareness in the nation. While Samsung is one of the world’s top mobile telephone providers, it nonetheless has had a very low brand awareness in the UK.

Olympic sponsorship is one way to raise awareness. In addition, Olympic sponsorship is not new to the company, which has been associated with the Olympics in some capacity for nearly 25 years. Samsung is also the Olympic Games’ Official Wireless Telecommunications Partner and has been so since 1998.

Samsung is putting a lot of marketing energy into its Olympic brand. Not only has the company developed a special event logo design (known as the SOVIS, or Samsung Olympic Visual Identity System), they have contracted with football player David Beckham to be ‘brand ambassador’ of the London 2012 Samsung brand use.

How is your business celebrating the 2012 London Olympics? While sponsoring major events is too expensive to be a realistic part of the average UK business’s marketing plan, there is no reason not to make Olympic fever a part of your business in some way.

However, it is important to have a UK logo designer or branding consultant work on such a uniquely British project. It should be noted that Samsung had this brand developed by a UK agency. This ensures that your designer understands their audience. If you want to make Olympic celebrations a part of your company marketing, talk to a UK branding consultant about how to take advantage of the fervor of the moment and inject a little Olympic fever into your own business.

British Design Schools Rank Among World’s Best

Logo Design Company London — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:33:20 +0000

What country has the best design schools? This is a more important question than it initially seems, because the country with the best design schools will also have the best designers. According to a recent survey from magazine BusinessWeek, the UK has several of the world’s best schools of design.

The factors used to rank the schools were diverse, because the field of design itself is diverse. A blend of traditional design skills and new technology are the ideal basis of the curriculum. Partnerships with other schools and even companies teach students to work in other industries, as they will be expected to do after graduation. Last, students need to be able to deal with change by being flexible and creative. After all, change is a huge part of both the global and the UK design world. Here are the three UK design schools that met these high standards.

London College of Communication. This design school, located in London as the name suggests, has notable alumni including Sir Charles Saatchi of Saatchi & Saatchi. Nine thousand students at a time are taught both classical graphic and product design as well as marketing and other related fields. As part of their training, the students work for business clients on real design projects, learning their field under the oversight of experienced staff.
Royal College of Art. Also located in London, this school is known for preparing students well for the challenging field of corporate graphic design. In fact, top employers include such notable names as Apple, Panasonic, Sony and Virgin. The industrial design program is one of the more acclaimed (James Dyson is a famous grad). Students of this college partake in real design projects for global companies, take international trips to familiarize themselves with global design, and learn strategies for business development as part of their design education.
University of Oxford, Saïd Business School. Oxford is an obvious addition to this list, having produced excellent and well-trained students for centuries. This program may focus primarily on business, but its students are also some of the best designers on the globe. Saïd Business School accomplished this by partnering with several other universities, including the Royal College of Art mentioned above. This business-oriented design program has done collaborative graphic design products for companies as divers and influential as Disney and L’Oréal. However, design education that Saïd is not limited to design students. MBAs are required to take courses in design and consulting because of these fields’ importance within the business community.

These schools are all very different, with focuses on design, art, and even business. However, one thing that they have in common is that they are producing great UK designers, including web designers and logo designers. The next time you need design services, the best thing you can do for your business and your country is to choose a UK design firm that will bring the excellence and experience of British design to your own company.

The ‘Made in Britain’ Brand

Logo Design Company London — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:29:57 +0000

With low cost goods from Asia and Eastern Europe flooding the market in the UK, British companies know well that they need a way to distinguish themselves from the competition. One way of doing this has been the ‘British Made for Quality’ hallmark, which was formed several years ago to indicate that the product in question was local and therefore, made to local standards. However, what makes up this ‘Made in Britain’ brand? Is it a brand that inspired customers to buy, even at higher prices?

The British Made for Quality, or BMFQ, logo design is distinctly British. The familiar Union Jack shapes and colours are seen formed into an image of a bird, representing freedom and achieving new heights. The lettering is bold and highly readable, but extremely plain. The message is that this is a straightforward organisation with a distinct British heritage, which is exactly the image that it is trying to project with this logo design.

Many business owners are eager to throw themselves behind any proposal that promises to boost sales. However, there are a few problems with this scheme. First, there may be problems with the EU, which bans marketing initiatives that discriminate against EU products based on point of origin alone. The National Farmer’s Union encountered this legal issue with their Red Tractor logo. The solution was that the seal would be extended to foods that met British standards, rather than solely foods originating in the UK. The British Standard’s Institution’s mark is similarly available to non-British goods. However, BMFQ is determined not to make this sort of compromise.

One key fact that companies who are seeking a ‘Made in Britain’ certification of any kind may ignore is that these types of marks are commonplace. Consumers in the UK see so many labels on their products that one more may not have the desired impact, even with an attractive and appropriate logo design. With this glut of marketing messages, the best way to differentiate your products from the competition remains to offer consistently high quality and a winning brand image.

Another strike against the BMFQ label is a general acceptance of foreign goods. With many people now accustomed to drinking a French wine with an Italian meal on a table made in Germany, choosing place of origin as a key brand value may not resonate with internationally minded people in the UK.

Will this marketing scheme be successful? Only the future will tell. Many people can remember the ‘I’m Backing Britain’ campaign of the late sixties. This campaign did not focus on labelling so much as generally stirring up national pride and support for local UK products. The campaign began to diminish when it was made public that many ‘I’m Backing Britain’ items had been in fact manufactured outside of the country. Hopefully this marketing brand can avoid the same disastrous fate. Until then, we will be seeing the BMFQ logo design on products all over the country as a symbol of British quality and pride.

Britain’s best known brand?

Logo Design Company London — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:21:17 +0000

A recent study put Google as Britain’s number one brand. Another pointed to Vodafone. However, if you want to know what Britain’s top brand is, you can find a likely answer from teens and tweens all over the world: Harry Potter. That’s right: Harry Potter is a brand, and a very successful one at that.

The Harry Potter books were a phenomenon in themselves, as children and adults all over the UK and even the world lined up to get a dose of literary magic. Harry and his friends were more than characters, but seemingly real people that the public watched grow up. They dealt with normal adolescent angst along with the unique circumstances of child wizards fighting the forces of evil.

Many books have been made into movies, but few with the success of this series. However, this is not the end of this brand. Now, the Harry Potter brand has turned into something greater than the story line, with specially branded toys and games. There are even Harry Potter costumes, clothing, and a line of sweets in rather unappetizing flavours.

What makes up the Harry Potter brand? First, he is a boy thrown into an unfamiliar world. While his circumstances are unique to say the least, as an orphan who suddenly is invited to a school of wizardry, this is a situation that many teens and even adults can identify with. Second, he fights against evil even when the evil is an authority figure. Many people feel that they are up against an unfriendly establishment, so this is a brand that is highly consumer friendly. Last, Harry Potter is gifted at a variety of things. Many people wish they were in his situation. However, he makes enough mistakes and foibles that others can identify with him nonetheless.

Some feel that the branding of literature is a negative move, that it cheapens the books by watering them down into something fit for the generally non-literary public. However, it could be argued that branding a book is like branding healthy foods: if it gets more people involved in this constructive activity, no negative can come of it.

The Harry Potter brand is centred on struggle and triumph. However, the world of magic keeps the story interesting enough that readers can’t wait to turn the page. Excitement and wonder are two key aspects of the Harry Potter brand. Taking the normal and mundane, then turning them into something new and exciting, is the brand promise that keeps Harry Potter front and centre in the literary scene.

There was a time when no one would call a literary character a brand, but that time has passed. Many books are marketed in the same way that breakfast cereal might be. Harry Potter was perhaps the beginning of this trend, but he certainly won’t be the end of it. Other books turned movies, such as the Twilight series, are enjoying the same success. Branding has become a key part of having a best selling book, as important as the cover or even the story itself.

A Classic British Logo Turns International

Logo Design Company London — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:07:43 +0000

Jaguar, a lasting symbol of classic British luxury, has long been one of Britain’s globally best known brands. Seen in exclusive locales ranging from James Bond movies to the toniest country club parking lot, a Jaguar logo is synonymous with wealth and power, a maker of sports cars, luxury sedans, and vehicles that cater to the tastes of the wealthiest members of society. However, many worry that this british logo brand will be diminished by its sale to Indian carmaker Tata.

How will this affect a classic and well recognized British brand? Many industry specialists feel that the worry over the continuing ascendance of the brand is unnecessary. Those who lament the foreign control of this British automotive logo design brand ignore the fact that Jaguar has been owned by American auto maker Ford for the better part of two decades. Far from diminishing, the brand has flourished under foreign ownership and returned to the image it enjoyed in its heyday.

The Jaguar brand logo was created in the twenties by William Lyons, who initially sold the automobiles at reasonable prices. The product was both affordable and attractive, and quickly became a fixture on British streets. When the company launched a highly successful racecar that was at the time the fastest in the world, the brand began its ascendancy to one of Britain’s top brand. Every successive model pushed the brand ever higher, along with the price. By the seventies, the Jaguar logo was a worldwide symbol of luxury and the UK.

However, the brand began to diminish when it had technical difficulties under British Leyland. The cars were less reliable and the company stopped producing the innovations that had given it the savvy image. When the company was bought by American auto maker Ford, the first order of business was to correct the technological problems and refresh the brand image to its former glory. However, even with American auto companies floundering, Ford’s decision to sell the British brand to an Indian company took many by surprise.

Will the Jaguar brand remain stalwartly British? All signs point to a resounding yes. The company has maintained and even enhanced its image even while being owned by a foreign auto maker. There is no reason that a different foreign car company would change this. If anything, Tata will likely try to bolster the British brand as it is such a valuable and integral part of the image.

Part of Jaguar’s strength is in its brand, as represented by a sleek and elusive wild feline. The jaguar is an animal known for its speed, sleekness, and rarity. This has made the jaguar both an excellent name and an appropriate image for a manufacturer trying to project a sporty yet classy image. The fact that the brand has not changed substantially over almost a century only adds to the strong and traditional image. If Jaguar can produce more racing winners, it will have completed regained its former image.

What does the future hold for this brand? Only time will tell. However, the brand seems poised to protect its reputation and move into the future.