Fashion comes and goes and so do logos in our very fast times: a month ago Burberry unveiled a new logo and monogram, part of a rebrand under its new Chief Creative Officer, Riccardo Tisci.
The logo and monogram were commissioned by Tisci to iconic graphic designer and art director Peter Saville, famous for his postmodernist album covers and well-known for his fashion collaborations with houses such as Yohji Yamamoto, Jil Sander, John Galliano, Christian Dior, Paco Rabanne, and Raf Simons/Calvin Klein.
Both the logo and monogram were inspired by archival material: the new all-caps logo (allegedly borrowed from a 1908 logo) in a bold sans serif font revolves around a text-based approach and looks more streamlined and contemporary compared to the previous one in a Bodoni font that also featured a knight and a horse (the equestrian knight hasn't actually been used that much in the last two years so this is not a great loss...).
The new monogram in white, beige and coral red, features instead two interlocking letters - "T" and "B" - referencing the name of the brand's founder, Thomas Burberry.
This is the first time Burberry has changed its logo in 20 years and Tisci hopes the graphic innovations will herald a new era for the company after Christopher Bailey's 17-year tenure at the British brand.
Burberry is not the only fashion brand that has gone through a logo revamp: luxury French fashion house Celine recently unveiled its updated logo courtesy of new Creative Director Hedi Slimane (succeeding Phoebe Philo who announced she was leaving the house last December).
When Slimane arrived at Yves Saint Laurent in 2012 dropping the Yves was the first thing he did, so it was only logical that something similar would have happened also with Celine's logo.
The new logo is inspired by the original, historical version from the 1960s: the accented letter has been dropped and the spacing between letters has been reduced (in the '60s the accent wasn't used that much; the new typography hints instead at the 1930s). An Instagram post explained that this choice represents a "simplified and more balanced proportion" in the logo. Besides the 1960s version of the logo including the word "Paris" will be reinstated within the clothing and on packaging, but the name of the French capital will be dropped from the logo on campaigns.
In this case changes are minimal, almost superficial, but Slimane has a penchant for such visual changes and often disregards traditions and the history of the brand (that's probably why he killed the iconic "YSL" 1961 logo created by French-Ukranian painter Adolphe Mouron Cassandre to opt for a more boring Helvetica typeface for "Saint Laurent"...).
There are obviously pros and cons when a brand changes its logo: in the case of Burberry some fashion commentators highlighted that it will now be even easier to copy it, something that Burberry is trying to avoid considering that the company's 2017-18 annual report showed the company destroyed unsold goods for $37.8 million to prevent them from flowing into the black market, causing the company to lose value.
So why simplifying and risking your intellectual property rights by changing the logo? Well, first of all altering a logo is often the most visible way to remind consumers that something at the helm of that company has radically changed, in these cases it heralds the arrival of Tisci at Burberry and Slimane at Celine. The other basic point is that, in this way brands try to keep up with the tastes of consumers. The third point is actually more practical and regards the technological aspects: forget about heritage and traditions, mentioning the '60s and calling the '30s in your defence, some logos simply do not work well with browsing devices and smartphones and eliminating accents and spaces or coming up with a graphically stronger monogram help a brand staying more relevant on mobile devices and social networks as well.
Last but not least, changes produce interest, getting the attention of the consumers and, well, generating more sales. Usually when a brand changes the colour or the font of its logo, consumers react positively or negatively and any sort of publicity is still publicity for all brands out there. In a nutshell, rebranding guarantees Insta-media revenue that allow consumers to get acquainted with the new visual look of the future collections.
Burberry by Tisci will debut at London Fashion Week, while the first Celine collection by Hedi Slimane will be showcased during Paris Fashion Week, so we will soon understand if these exercises in rebranding mark real changes at these houses.
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