In appreciation of the new issue of Creative Review and its homage to the teams favourite logo designs, I thought I would talk about the logo’s that I love while avoiding the usual suspects like nike, apple, FEDEX (Notice the arrow?  No, nobody else does either unless you work in marketing or have met me while standing in front of a FEDEX van)

I really liked the CR take on logos.  Its choice for number one was Woolmark, a brand that has been around for so long but still goes relatively unnoticed. Another of my favourite picks from the magazines was the British Rail logo.  Another so simple but so so clever and yet so overlooked. 

So here we go, my thoughts on some great logos... you may agree, you may not.  Hell, in a couple of weeks, I may not agree with myself but such is the nature of design...

In no particular order we have

VOGUE.  Is it the title of a magazine, a word or a logo?  Both and more. It is a dance sub-culture started in New York, a world-wide recognised pop song (I can’t remember who sang it... JLO is it...??) and a word which stands for everything cool and current.  It shows the strength of the logo that it is still used in its original format across so many different countries of the world including Russia and The US.  Put simply, if you’re not in Vogue (the magazine or the word), you’re nobody.  From the early hand drawn issues, the logo has adapted and changed with the times and issues but one thing still remains... if you work there, you are definitely getting in

The Cadbury’s Caramel Bunny.  Yes, you can argue that this isn’t a logo either but a brand icon and in fact, Cadbury is the logo but I am not a design graduate so I don’t care.  The pure sexiness of the bunny, which in my opinion has zero connection to the product has become the symbol of pure indulgence, making the product feel desirable, sexy and a little bit naughty.  It also has a lovely retro feel (since being re-launched in the UK in 2009) and reminds me of being a child.  In the Cadbury’s Caramel nibbles advert, the brand took it one step further with Giles Deacon being brought on board to design a dress for her... bizarre, yes.  Brilliant, maybe.  I just wish Vogue and Cadbury would team up.  The first ever bunny cover of VOGUE; now there is a PR idea...

Started by Blek Le Rat in Paris, and continued by Banksy in the UK, the rat became the symbol of popular street art culture.  Used in different guises and situations it soon became the calling card of the world’s most elusive millionaire artist Banksy.  Often copied, the humble rat image has gone from being one that caused revulsion to one that can add a cool £100k onto your house.  Not a bad career move

And speaking of calling cards, my fourth favourite is projected above the city of Gotham at night when trouble is afoot.  The Bat Symbol, used by Bruce Wayne (I know he doesn’t really exist... or does he) was designed to strike fear into his enemies hearts before he had even arrived.  In the real world, a man dressed as a bat running around the streets in a mask and morph suit is pretty scary so not sure you actually need the symbol in the first place.  The ideas however that I could project this on any wall in the world today and people would know what it was is pretty impressive to me

I tried to think of a Political party logo that I liked.  Green tree, red rose... the other one... all rubbish

My final logo choice is Penguin.  Every time I see the Penguin books logo, not only do I already know I will enjoy the book but it says so much more.  It screams ‘not too hard to read so don’t worry’ just as much as it says ‘probably don’t take this on a bus if you are looking to pull’ (unless you are one of those, I don’t try and look cool but look really cool types).  Incredibly simple, universally known and just quite cute to boot

As I mentioned, are these the world’s best? Probably not.  Are these all logos?  Probably not.  But Creative Review (http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/cr-april-logos-issue) inspired me to write this blog, so write it I did...

The April issue of Creative Review is out now