LIKE MY LOGO, LIKE ME

Suddenly, logo-speak has gotten a lot more popular.

It’s no wonder:  With major enterprises like Airbnb and Google and Starbucks changing their primary look and feels, the talk centers on the whys and the styles.

Journalists, naturally, love to bash the new.  And pinpoint trends.  Google is criticized for its kindergarten-like fatter strokes.  Airbnb, for its erudite change (the design is called Belo, or a symbol of belonging).  And Starbucks, for its attempt to extend the brand beyond coffee.

The so-called logo trends, though, caught our eyes (and brains).  Many label the updates friendly and less formal.  More humanistic.  Calming.  Youthful and approachable.  Because, or so goes the reasoning, companies just wanna be liked.

Does anyone understand all that comes from the use of sans serif type, round letters, and bright colors? 

As uncommon consumers, we admit, the brand name gets our attention first.  We do the associating and the memories based on experiences with the humans who represent the company:  The friendly (or not so) drive-thru individual delivering our coffee.  A retailer who went out of the way to special-order for us.  The Web site that doesn’t chew up and spit out our credit cards – and actually gets us information via chat.

Sure, a logo is a symbol of the business’ public face, its identity.  But how much more frequently do we connect that nameplate design with a real being, an employee, an ambassador – than we do with Product Sans or names on soda cans or round and squat fonts?