For my first logo, I decided to review the very famous and recognizable logo of Starbucks coffee. The reason why I selected this Logo is because it is as mysterious and seductive as their symbol, a smiling and inviting mermaid. Visually, the logo is very simple, consisting of a green design over a white background; despite the simplicity of colors, the design is very busy with vertical and horizontal wavy lines, which create the form of the mermaid’s long hair and her “two tails”. The mermaid has a crown with a star on her head, which is the only connection I could find between product – logo – and name of company (the star from “Star”-bucks). To me, the attraction of this logo comes primarily from the subliminal sexual reference/invitation the mermaid is making to the customers. After taking a closer look to the mermaid, one can realize that the happy and inviting face of the lady is not inviting us to have just coffee, but something else; with her two tinny white arms, the mermaid is clearly spreading apart her “two tails”, making this a very inappropriate, but effective logo. The Starbucks logo is one of the mot popular and recognizable in history, despite the fact that has no clear connection to the product it represents, demonstrating that a good product can make a logo important.
For my second logo, I selected the Arts and Entertainment television channel logo; the main reason, how simple and clear it is. The symbol is a black capitalized A and E divided by the over-imposed ampersand “&”. The logo is attractive to the view, is balanced, it posses modern fonts, and is representative of the name of the company. Also, this logo has a very classical touch, by having three of its edges on right angles, one of the main elements on any classical composition; despite its rigidness, the logo is softened by the waves the ampersand creates inside the logo, uniting both main letters, and giving this logo a balanced and harmonious composition. In addition, the logo is very easy and cheap to produce, because of its simplicity in shape and color, and despite the fact that is not clear on what it represents at first view, it has become widely recognized and represents the company very well, at least in the U.S.
Finally, I selected the logo of the international recognized American Red Cross, which is an ancient logo with a lot of history. Originally, it was used during the dark ages by the Knight Templars, later on the three ships Columbus was leading when he discovered the Americas, many centuries later it became a very popular symbol to mark hospitals and school buildings during the biggest wars, and its power today is still very powerful, since it means humanitarian relief of some form is being provided in that area. In fact, the Red Cross currently is a relief agency, which provides humanitarian help, disaster relief, and education services to people all over the world. Its logo is very simple but probably one of the most powerful symbols in our subconscious, just a red cross over a white background; this logo is probably as symbolic as a white flag or the skull and bones, and everyone in the world knows that wherever this symbol is present, the area which is marked should be left undisturbed, since is usually a humanitarian relief area, making this symbol almost universal. Visually, the red attracts immediate attention to the eyes, especially when is placed in contrast to a white background, which makes this logo very hard to miss, and gives it so much power and recognition. The cross, which is a powerful symbol on itself, posses its four arms of the same length, taking away the religious meaning of the cross, but still retaining the importance of the symbol; the fact that the cross is red, gives the already powerful symbol f the cross a more intense look, almost impossible to miss, making this probably one of the most powerful logos in history.