Research into Logos and Branding

Own Photography of Logos around Leeds

Caffé Nero

Caffe Nero is an Italian brand which sell premium Italian coffee. The ingredients are fresh for example the coffee is high quality using expensive, fresh coffee beans. Therefore, the company is a high end coffee shop, particularly aimed for adults.

Café Nero is a sustainable company towards their faring and trading. The companies purpose is to create a place where you can spend a long time, somewhere to meet up and have that feeling of a ‘buzz’. The company is very successful winning awards for branding.

The whole concept of the logo was to convey the context of a waking up in addition to addressing the Italian culture. There the tones are a variations of blues to suggest the idea of sleep and being at peace. The use of the font being spaced out and clear conveys the idea of reassurance and relaxation, the idea of forgetting about your worries. The target audience is unisex therefore the logo had to be diverse. The block square lettering imposes presences to address the coffee store being a high end. The use of the ‘N’ being pointed at two terminals suggest individuality towards the company to establish personality. Therefore, creates a memorable impression towards the customers. It could perhaps also suggest energy to address that feeling of coffee giving you a ‘buzz’ throughout the day.

Subway

The company originates in 1965 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. The story became when Fred DeLuca a 17year old high school student graduate was looking for a way to make money to save up for his university studies. A family friend of Fred DeLuca, Dr Peter Buck suggested the idea of creating a submarine sandwich shop as sandwich shops were popular around the area he lift. They both created a partnership forming ‘Pete’s Super Submarines’ in August 1965. After three years the company became well known where they shortened the name to ‘Subway’.

The concept of the yellow has come from the context of basing the business with the theme of submarines. The font of subway includes arrows to address travel and movement of the submarines in addition to responding to the business being a fast food place. The use of the arrows suggests the business will be quick for people that are on the go. The word ‘subway’ includes ‘way’ which addresses movement, travel, speed.

Recreating the logo, the modern version is more compressed with a closer kerning. This perhaps conveys the element of speed of the fast food restaurant. The lettering is more rectangular rather than circular to emphasize the food being healthier compared to other fast food chain stores. The colour green creates the idea of something fresh and natural to address the company’s ingredients.

Due to the company selling fresh ingredients, in my opinion would aimed at an older target market contrasted to other fast food chains. I would say Subway is aimed for young adults, unisex due to the colours being natural.

The Zara logo was created by the typeface of Helvetica. The designer has applied a ‘typical’ fashion typeface of combining serifs and variation of lines. The added serif creates a sophisticated, elegance, supremacy style. Zara is a unisex clothes store, in my opinion this logo is not as successful compared to other logos, as I would usually associate this logo with more of a feminine audience. In response to this, I feel that a male target audience would not approach the store compared to other highstreets stores in the industry. The logo Zara is quite generic of mimic fashion typefaces such as Bodoni.  However, saying this the finish of the logo has a sense of sharpness, neatness, which I could apply to my practice by applying my ideas digitally. The uppercase works effectively at addressing the customer’s characteristics of someone feeling important, confident, selfish, powerful. The idea of purchasing clothes being a selfish thing.

Turtle Bay

This logo is most successful compared to the other logos. Turtle Bay is a Caribbean restaurant. The company has addressed context through the word ’bay’ and turtles being an island animal. The designer has manipulated the typeface by introducing shapes and varying size through each terminal of each letterform. The varied kerning adds the characteristics of the restaurant being a quirky place to hang out. The font is in uppercase but has varied the size which is laid out to address a less intimating approach. The idea of trusting the place but also not feeling intimidated to eat there. I could adapt this into my practice by incorporating shapes towards typefaces for certain briefs. Due to the typeface not being clean and finished it also creates an informal social aspect which suggests the restaurant is aimed at young adults. The composition layouts more complex compared to the 'subway' logo. With this food place, it gives off a more expensive sophisticated approach through the way it looks, it is more eye-catching. 

Schuh is a footwear retailer aimed at 16-25 year olds. The brand is in lowercase to address a youthful target audience. The broken up ‘s’ addresses an identity and personality and to also convey the context of a pair. I could use this in my practice by perhaps breaking up letters to create more of a personality. The san serif typeface includes a closer kerning to address a more modern, contemporary branding. This branding is a diverse branding as within the shop they contain many shoe brands. The company sell a wide variety of brands from doc martins to high heels. Therefore, the branding of the shop is diverse.