Logos today

The current era of logo design began in the 1950s. A paradigmatic contemporary logo is the Chase Bank logo, designed in 1960 by Chermayeff & Geismar, considered pioneers of Modernist graphic design in the United States. The Chase logo was “the first truly abstract logo” of the contemporary era. As would happen with many subsequent corporate logos, mass media advertising was used to link the logo with the bank in the public mind, while its simple, distinctive form, free of specific cultural or other connotations, was well suited to represent a complex, multinational corporation.

Today there are many corporations, products, brands, services, agencies and other entities using an ideogram (sign, icon) or an emblem (symbol) or a combination of sign and emblem as a logo. As a result, only a few of the thousands of ideograms people see are recognized without a name. It is sensible to use an ideogram as a logo, even with the name, if people will not duly identify it. Currently, the usage of both images (ideograms) and the company name (logotype) to emphasize the name instead of the supporting graphic portion and making it unique, by it non-formulaic construction via the desiginal use of its letters, colors and any additional graphic elements.