Release Candidate One with Chris Clark

World-famous logos do not become that way—do not become historically significant—without big budget expenditure. They are renowned because the companies that own them are renowned.

Hard to believe it was five years ago I said the same thing about product names:

Extra doesn’t give you any clues that it’s sugar-free, nor that it’s gum. Cap’n Crunch isn’t the name of a cereal, it’s the name of a fun character created specifically to hawk cereal.

Logos are signifiers; empty vessels to be filled with the values of the brand. They are hopefully pretty, and they are hopefully emotionally significant to the people who own them, because then they have a chance of being emotionally significant to their customers. But they’re only signposts. They can’t do anything on their own.

When you have a million-dollar ad budget, then you can shove the logo in so many people’s faces that they recognize it. Even if they don’t love it. Even if they wish they’d never heard of it. Keep that up for a generation or two and you’ll have built something “iconic.”