The North Face
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Face
“The north face of the mountain in the northern hemisphere is usually most difficult to climb.” The logo consists of a skewed quarter-circle with two lines running through it, which is a representation of “Half Dome,” a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, California.
This logo is simple and effective. The groups of people who use the brand easily recognize it. Also, it is easily describable by someone who has only seen the logo once. The text in the logo is placed so that the logo as a whole looks unified.
The brand is used the same way online and in print. The logo does not have much variation other than in color (background and foreground) when used in print and on clothing. The brand is typically seen in white text with red background or black text with white background.
The brand is effective because it has remained the same since ’71, it is simple, and recognizable. I do not think there is any need for improvements.
Burton
Talk about a brand that has been through their fair share of logos! Burton has had over one hundred different logos throughout the years. With this being the case, what is it that makes their brand so effective? “They are the largest and most recognized snowboard brand in the world.” http://www.printwand.com/blog/how-burton-snowboards-logo-reinforced-their-business
Today’s logo is a bold representation of an arrow. The arrow resembles a lowercase B which directly represents the name of the company. The link above describes what three things make this new logo (which has lasted for 10 years) so effective. It is describable, memorable, and sizeable. The latter we have talked about in class. With new media and in this case various products, the logo must be sizeable to fit on different things without loosing recognition of the logo. A super detailed logo might be compromised if it were scaled down to a small size. This is why the bold, easy to describe, recognize and size logo woks well in this day and age.
Habitat
http://vimeo.com/habitatskateboards
All the letters in the company are there but it takes a second for us to notice. This creative design also includes a cute representation of a plant, which is in its first stage of growth. A way of representing the word “habitat.”
On problem with this logo is that it is not sizeable. When the logo is seen at a very small size it becomes hard to read. However I have seen the logo represented using only a portion of the whole. It is the portion that looks like a circle within a circle and three leaves coming out of the top. (The plant). If only this portion of the logo was used it would be recognizable when scaled down.
When the logo is repeated it makes a nice background that looks great on skateboard decks, shoe soles, etc. You can see how they do this if you shrink the page (command -) on the website. You’ll notice that the background is just the logo repeated and interconnected across the page in a low contrast green.