Logos have become an integral part of our everyday lives and it only makes sense that I would be curious about where logos came from. From my research I was able to discover that logos have existed longer than written word due to the use of hieroglyphics in Ancient Egypt. Around 2125 B.C grids began appearing in Egyptian designs, which has become an essential part of logo design to ensure that artists effectively maintain proportions. Jumping forward in history around 1300 AD the use of family crests, to identify enemies, seemed to kick off the use of logos in Europe. Even with the extensive display of logo usage now spread across the world the use of logo design for business didn’t take root until 1389 when King Richard II passed a law requiring businesses that sold beer to have a sign, or their alcohol would be confiscated. Due to the high rate of illiteracy during the time period it only made sense that the signs used pictures to display what their name was instead of words, which would be added later.
With his invention of the printing press in 1440, Johannes Gutenberg was granted the title of Father of Modern Logo Design. The growth of his invention made the production of printed materials more common giving authors and printers of the material a need to claim ownership of their work through symbols. By 1580 various printers were using logos to identify their works and it was common place to see logos everywhere.
Skipping forward to the industrial revolution, mass production of printed materials allowed changes in the structure of printing presses to make them quicker and more efficient. Chromolithography, colored printing, came to the US in 1840 and allowed for more appealing printed labels and logos to better sell products. Along with the height of the industrial revolution came the development and growth of the middle class, which helped build a disposable economy. With the growth of the economy businesses began to grow and establish themselves creating logos to better identify themselves against the others around them. One of the most common logos to see nowadays was built during the height of this era. In 1885 Mr. Frank Mason Robinson designed the Coke logo kicking off the formal start of the modern era of logo design. A whopping four hundred forty-five years after the invention that is recognized as the start of the modern era, the modern era actually develops. A mere twenty-eight years after the creation of the first modern logo commercial logos have become an everyday sight in the US and Europe. The year after logos stretched past commercial market back to the roots of logos with the creation of the Olympic Flag.
This post was made to highlight the fact that logos aren’t just for business but that they are a testament of time deeply rooted in the growth of humanity adapting to the needs of the user beyond what many people know them to be used as.