For my brand awareness activity I have chosen 3 brands that have always stood out in my mind as successful logos.
1. American Horror Story
American Horror Story premiered as a television show created by Ryan Murphy in 2011. Since the first season I have been intrigued by the branding and marketing of this show. To provide a little background, each season follows a completely different story line of a horror story: Murder House, Asylum, Coven, Freakshow and Hotel. Simply put the brand looks scary! The simplicity and contrast of a black background and white text with no additional color adds to the spooky feel of the brand and provides a canvas for many different stories. It looks like a modern version of some sort of gothic font because of the double lines on the H. After some research I found that the creators used a mix of fonts, ITC Willow and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The o is raised above all other letters with a dot below and I think that’s what draws my eye to design. It works nicely because the dots create a triangle, perhaps that was an accident but it works well visually.
American Horror Story uses mostly social media and television commercials for their marketing. Each season the video clips/commercials they release are extremely graphic and scary. The simple black and white logo is a much needed contrast to the video advertisements because they are so intense and colorful.
2. Firehouse Subs
Ever since moving to Oregon in mid-July I have missed Firehouse Subs SO much! I absolutely love a sandwich and Firehouse Subs is the best I’ve ever had. As you can tell from the name and logo it is a company founded by firemen and all of the marketing mimics a fire department seal/vector.
They used the white capital bold typography but added a small serif on the letters. It mimics the red badge as the background of the logo and I think that makes it memorable. When any person sees the Firehouse Subs logo they will think of firemen and I believe because of that it makes the logo memorable. The Subs part of the logo has the two gold dots on the edge of the oval like a seal on the front of a fireman’s hat. It seems strategic to put ‘Founded By Firemen’ at the bottom of the logo because a fireman is a very respectable job that serves the community. It could make people feel good about eating at an establishment because it was founded by people that serve the community in such a commendable way. Another way Firehouse Subs uses their history to market is through the dalmatian print. Their tables are topped with dalmatian print and they use it as a background for a lot of their in print material.
3. Lucky Brand
Lucky Brand is one of my favorite clothing/jewelry/shoe companies and their brand has always been very appealing to me. I noticed that their brand has very recently changed so I wanted to show both and talk about possibly why they changed.
The first of the logos is their old brand and the second is their new brand. I am really drawn to the new design because of its simplicity. They made the font all capitalized, no serifs, with spacing between the letters, and they added the four leaf clover, which has always been a constant symbol in their designs. I would guess they wanted to rebrand to create a more modern and simple design and they wanted to add in the four leaf clover to reinforce that symbol with their brand.
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