1. Peugeot 

peugeot-logo

 

peugeot-logo-evolution

In the neighborhood I grew up in, we had a neighbor who drove a grey, Peugeot station wagon from the 80s, and as a kid, I remember being particularly struck by this logo.  It contrasted to the other American, European and Japanese car logos I was familiar with.  Peugeots have always been a rare import to the United States, and so no other car around had this logo.  I think I was struck by its uncommonness, but also by it’s attractiveness.  Unlike any other car logo I knew then, this one had kind of a medieval, regal flair, but at the same time very simple in that it was a single line done in a single color.   As a simple logo, it easily transfers to other applications, and as an older car brand, the continued use of this image makes it easily recognizable, at least to the French.

 

2.   The Whitney Museum of American Art 

whit-new

This is the new logo redesign for the Whitney Museum of American Art.  This redesign was introduced in anticipation of the museums big move from its uptown location in New York to its newly built mega-museum downtown.  Black and white, and very minimal, one of the strategies behind this new logo is the adaptiveness and flexibility of that giant ‘W’.  The W can be stretched, squished, elongated or nearly flattened to accommodate for various ads and applications (best seen in the video below).  Its starkness and simplicity can probably be a bit polarizing to some, but the previous logo was similarly stark and minimal, and I think it was a good idea on the part of the museum to enforce to the public that big changes were coming with the museum’s big move by changing the logo beforehand.

old logo:

whit-old

 

 

3.    W. B. Mason

wb_mason_flag_logo

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This last logo is more of a wonder than anything else.  I chose it because of my familiarity with it, and because I can’t not stop to consider it every time a truck passes by.  It’s an office supply company that primarily serves cities in the Northeast, and this branding campaign has been going strong since the 1980s.  My familiarity with having seen it daily means I know what their business is, but otherwise nothing about its branding says anything about the business of office supplies.   The company also advertises heavily at the baseball stadiums for the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, and Nationals.  Perhaps its old-timey look, paired with one of America’s oldest pastimes and its fleet of trucks, has led to its branding familiarity and success.