Everyone in the design community knows Paul Rand. Everyone in almost any community knows Paul Rand. If you have seen the logos for Abc, Enron, Westinghouse, IBM, or UPS, you know his work. In his passing, logo designers lost one of their most innovative and dedicated leaders. Along with the loss of a great artist, the logo design world also seems to have let go of a certain way of doing things.
As a student of design theory, typography, and art history, Rand offered organizations a deeper branding solution. Logical and witty designs allowed Rand to express a company’s image in a manner that made sense. New trends seem to be moving farther away from these practices however. Designs are no longer so strongly based on simplicity and logic, but often feature the personality of the company in which they represent.
Young entrepreneurs and organizations have begun to focus on the ever growing and prominent youth market. The teen generations of today are a far greater consumer group than that of the past. Clothing, jewelry, and video games are no longer just presents, but regular purchases for youthful buyers. This emphasis on reaching a more sporadic and random group of people has changed some branding strategies.
This change comes in the form of new and edgy styles that will catch the eye of this already over stimulated generation. With the amount of media young adults are exposed to daily, companies need more than just a logical pattern or clean color scheme to reach them. The logos of today are increasingly complicated and colorful.
Some say this is just a popular trend that in time will pass. Even Paul Rand went through a period of more elaborate logos that challenged design standards. But it is hard to imagine that the youth market will eventually be less stimulated than it is today. What will companies be forced to do to stand out in the future? Which do you like, “old school” simple and logical designs, or the ever increasing number of “new school” edgy graphics?
Old School
New School
