Australia-based Wilson Parking; Bank Windhoek, Namibia. Banco Fiat, Brazil, FAGOR Kitchen Equipment, Spain. Rudder Property Group, NYC-based Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Firm; Millpark Business School, Johannesburg, South Africa; NSS Labs, Test-Based Research & Advisory Services, Carlsbad, CA.
Jakarta-based Bank DKI, Indonesia; Rudder Property Group, NYC-based Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Firm; Millpark Business School (OLD LOGO), Johannesburg, South Africa; The University of Plymouth, UK; San Biagio Gruppo Immobiliare (San Biagio Real Estate Group), Pistoia, Italy; Miller Welding, USA; Warner Music Group, USA; Metro Credit Union, Springfield, MO, USA; Warner Music Asia Pacific (a division of Los Angeles-based Warner Music Group), Hong Kong, China; TESCO Mobile, UK; Metro 95.1 FM, Argentina; Ecotec Ltd; Boparais’ Martial Security Services, Mumbai, India; S Recruitment Services, Chatswood, NSW, Australia; Content Marketing Now, Webinars & Conferences, USA; Media Institute, College of Media Arts, Madison, WI, USA; Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Columbia, SC, USA; Synctracks, an independent, London-based production music library, UK; Allianz Insurance Group, Germany; Bank Ina Perdana, Private Commercial Bank, Jakarta, Indonesia; Transar Express Logistics, Spain; Multiplay, Video Game Events and Related Services, UK; North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA; Métro Lausanne, a Transit System for a the small city of Lausanne in Switzerland; Aviation VIP Interior Design, Hebertingen, Germany; i2 Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Design Hotels, Global Marketing Alliance for Design-Oriented Boutique Hotels and Resorts, Germany; Willy Insurance Brokers, Singapore; Walker Corporation, a Property Development, among Australia’s largest private property developers; Air Raid Warden.
The art of capturing an entire company’s ideas, ethos, knowledge and the future in one logo and corporate identity is an integral part of visual branding. Of course there’s more to branding than meets the eye!
Most of today’s organizations are well-versed in this most fundamental of branding-building exercises. Some are still struggling to design an identity that best represents their values and positive traits, while others come up with eerily similar-looking looking designs, albeit representing vastly different organizations, across a multitude of industries and countries.
I consider myself as a visual creature, and the past few years i’ve been on a personal mission to identify suspiciously similar looking Logos and Corporate Identities. Allow me to add a footnote, however, as I’ve learned from past experience; the opinions on the similarities are subjective, representing my views. And my sole intention is simply to demonstrate that we are all inspired by the same things. Now more than ever, thanks to the internet.
To date I’ve come across myriad doppelgängers, look-alikes, wannabes, copies, or plain plagiarism. Sheer coincidence? Or copycats?
Realistically of course, I’m not discounting the simple fact that some may have been inspired by the same ideas. Nevertheless, it’s an ever changing, ever amassing encyclopedia of visual identity that’s just a click away. Here’s a look at some.
There’s an old French proverb: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” first coined by French columnist and novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-1890), which loosely translates to: “The more we change, the more we stay the same.”
Before the internet, we all operated in virtual seclusion and isolation, as individuals in our world. Collaboration only occurred in Multinational Corporations that operated across different countries and cultures. In the business world, ideas and innovation spread in limitation, only to organizations that had the resources and means to communicate
Fast forward to the Internet and Social Media era, connecting the human race like never before in history, like a labyrinth of busy bees.
Facebook, Twitter, Linked-IN, Groupon, and Crowdsourcing are becoming a common part of our vocabulary and lifestyle… through which mediums we are connected through our work, and the objects that inspire us.
And for all digital natives (those born after 1980s when internet and digital revolution was in full swing), life without it is simply unfathomable.
It turns out that being a true original is increasingly difficult, if not virtually impossible.
IDEAS INSPIRING INNOVATION 