Hidden Message Logos

One of the most important aspects when it comes to the branding of a company has to be the logo. A company’s logo is often the first visual impression of the company and you absolutely do not want to fuck up that first impression. Fucking up your logo is the equivalent of trying to talk to a chick with that nasty white shit in the corner of your mouth… Well may be not that bad but you get what Im saying. A LOGO IS SOMETHING YOU DON”T WANT TO FUCK UP.

Some of the best logos are the ones that deliver a message to the potential consumer indirectly. When companies deliver a message to potential consumers indirectly, theres a stronger connection to the brand vs. the brand forcing a message down the consumers throat. Its the equivalent of observing a girl and recognizing she’s fly without anything being said vs. the girl telling you how fly and awesome she is.

Checkout a few dope logos that pulled off the hidden message pretty well:

The Amazon logo is an extremely simple logo and while the arrow may just look like a smile it actually points from a to z. This represents that Amazon sell everything from a to z and the smile on the customers face when they bought a product.

Big Ten is an academic union which was founded in the year 1896. Until 1990, this union consisted of 10 universities, but in June 1990 Pennsylvania State University was added. They didn’t want to change their name, so they added the number 11 to the logo.

The FedEx logo look like a plain text based logo but if you take a second look between the E and the x you will see an arrows which represents the speed and accuracy of the companies deliveries.

Sony Vaio is a well known brand of laptops. But did you know that the name Vaio logo also had a hidden meaning? Well, the first two letters represent the basic analogue signal. The last two letters look like a 1 and 0, representing the digital signal.

Continental is a manufacturer of tires. You could actually see this in their logo, because the first two letters create a 3-dimensional tire.

The Chick-fil-a logo incorporates a chicken into the C. Although this isn’t very hidden, it is still very clever.

The Baskin Robbins logo may look like it includes a simple BR above the name but if you take another look you will that it includes a pink number 31. This is a reference to the original 31 flavors.

You Took My Name By: Dorothy

Manchester based creative agency, Dorothy, stripped famous logos back to their basic graphic forms to create these paintings. The art is entitled ‘You Took My Name’ and the paintings lack any kind of words or lettering. Can you tell which companies the logos belong to?

These pieces are genius as well as beautiful. Genius because without the name on the logo, the logo gives you more of a feeling/emotion vs. a direct link to the company. Marketing folks often use this tactic in focus groups; they will draw a logo without the name and ask the participants to tell them how they feel about the logo which gives them a more direct view of how the public feels about the brand. Genius!

I love it. I wish I could buy one.

Coca-Cola

Master Card

Levi’s

Kodak

Heineken

Burger King

Chupa Chups (took me forever to find this one)

Coolhunting

cool·hunt·ing

-verb
is a term coined in the early 1990s referring to a new breed of marketing professionals, called coolhunters. It is their job to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends. The word derives from the aesthetic of “cool”.

Coolhunting is a word that was created in the 90s that needs to be deaded. Kids these days are too smart to go for the same “Coolhunting” tactics of the 90s and early 2000s. Companies that use these same tactics will not survive. Companies that want to be cool or seem cool can’t become cool through market research. They have actually have to be cool, they can’t fake it, they have to live it from the CEO to the guy that cleans the office at night.

Checkout a pretty interesting documentary from Frontline (PBS). It breaks down coolhunting and tactics companies use to become cool.

Frontline: Merchants Of Cool

Jay-Z Decoded iPad/iPhone

Jay-Z’s Decoded book campaign is one of the best campaigns I’ve seen in the past two years without a doubt. From front to back, Decoded pushed the limits at every point of the campaign from online promo to the traditional promo and now they’re pushing the limits with their new iPhone/iPad app.

Fuzz Productions was brought on to make a simple app for Decoded but ended up creating a completely immersive multimedia app with dynamic layouts, custom animations and integrated audio and video. The app also includes over 30 minutes of video interviews, interactive lyrics, user polling, and in-app purchasing of Jay-Z’s work. NEXT LEVEL. Big up to Fuzz Productions. Never heard of those guys but they obviously know what they’re doing.

Checkout the video below to see what I’m talking about:

…PS: The app won a FWA award as well… good shit!

Books That Are Cool: The Brand Gap

The Brand Gap is a dope short read that thoroughly describes what a brand is and “How to bridge the distance between business strategy and design.” The book is full of interesting images and examples to keep your attention (a 3rd grader could read and understand this book). If you can’t finish this book, you might want to check this video out.

Through my adventures in the world of the music business and marketing, the number one most misused/overused word has to be BRAND/BRANDING. People use it in the most ridiculous ways by considering random things brands when they’re actually just random things. For example, the mom and pop resturant on my block is not a brand. But the brand gap clearly explains what a brand is and how branding plays a part in creating a business strategy.

They mad a cool powerpoint version of the book too. Check it out below:

The Brand Gap –

Dope Ad: Ferd Truck 10000

This ad from College Humor is fuggin hilarious. Somebody has to jump out on a limb and give these guys a shot at producing a real commercial. Ferd 10000 > Old Spice Guy.

Dope Ad: Volkswagen Commercial “The Force”

Kinda late on this but the new tv ad from Volkswagen is amazing on several levels.

1. Its touching: I cried when I saw it (not really but close)

2. None of the actors said a word during the entire commercial and the message was still communicated load and clear (that speaks to the brand strength of Volkswagon and especially Star Wars.

3. The commercial connected with people in way that made them spread the ad around the internet with the ad being the most viral commercial before the Super Bowl ever.

Nike Basketball: “The Black Mamba” Campaign (Teasers)

So it looks like Nike Basketball is back at it with their new “Black Mamba” campaign. Nike has been leaking 30 sec teasers for their “Black Mamba” short film produced by Robert Rodriguez. I’m a huge fan of teasers as a marketing tool but these teasers are wack for a few reasons.

1. The teasers are way too over the top. I know they’re doing that to be funny but it comes across as corny.

2. The teasers feature Kobe as a competitive basketball star going up against a team of basketball monsters. I feel like I’ve heard that story before… oh yeah… Space Jam with Michael Jordan. People are already tired of Kobe trying to be like MJ and this will probably piss people off more.

3. The cameos in the teaser suck. You have a washed up action hero (Bruce Willis), a great musician but terrible actor (Kanye West) and the random guy from the Machete movie. I used to Nike commercials having people like Chris Rock, Tyra Banks, Spike Lee, etc…

4. And finally who thought it would be a good idea to put Kobe Bryant in a short film. He has no personality and he’s about as interesting as a cardboard box.

I loved the MVP Puppets from last year but I think Nike dropped the ball this year with this “Black Mamba” campaign. This campaign is almost as bad as the Nike Football “Boom” campaign. Checkout the teasers below and judge for yourself:

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