On the Significance and Features of Logo Design

(A) The significance of the logo

In today's society, the role of printing, photography, design, and image transmission is increasingly important. The development of this non-verbal transmission has a competitive capacity to compete with language transmission. The logo is one of the unique ways of delivery.

When people see the rise of smoke, they think of the fire below. Smoke is a natural mark of fire. In the era of underdeveloped communications, people use smoke (wolf smoke) as a special means of transmitting information related to the meaning of fire (such as emergency, emergency, and alarm for help). This kind of artificial smoke is both a signal and a sign. It rises high, spreads slowly, has a distinctive image, and is characterized by significant people. People can quickly see it from afar. The speed and effect of this non-verbal transmission was not as good as the language and text transmission at the time.

Today, although the means of language and text transmission are well-developed, the “signs” that make the public at a glance clear and effective, and are not subject to the intuitive transmission methods of the nation, country, and language, will adapt to the ever-accelerating pace of life. Need, its special role, is still no alternative to any transmission.

A sign is a sign that indicates the characteristics of things. It uses intuitive, salient, easily recognizable objects, figures, or symbols as an intuitive language. In addition to what is marked or replaced, it also has the function of expressing meaning, emotions, and instructional actions. The sign, as a special way of human intuitive contact, is not only ubiquitous in social activities and production activities, but also shows an extremely important and unique function for the fundamental interests of the country, social groups and even individuals.

For example, the national flag and national emblem, as a symbol of a country’s image, have special functions that are difficult to express accurately in any language and writing. The signs, traffic signs, safety signs, and operation signs of public places are intuitive and efficient for guiding people to conduct orderly normal activities and ensure the safety of life and property. Special marks such as trademarks, shop marks, and factory marks have practical values ​​and legal safeguards for the development of the economy, the creation of economic benefits, and the protection of the rights of enterprises and consumers. Various major domestic and international events, conferences, sports games, postal transportation, financial and trade, institutions, groups, and individuals (stamps, signatures), etc., almost all show signs of their own characteristics. These signs play a role of communication, communication, and propaganda from various angles, and promote social, economic, political, scientific and technological, cultural progress and protect their respective rights and interests. The intuitiveness, image, and language-informed barriers of the logo are extremely conducive to international communication and communication. As a result, the internationalization logo has been rapidly promoted and developed. It has become one of the most effective means of visual transmission and has become a common type of humanity. Intuitive contact tools.

(b) The origin of the sign

The origin of the sign can be traced back to the "totem" of ancient times. At that time, each clan and tribe had an animal or natural object that had some mysterious relationship with them as a special mark of this clan or tribe (known as the totem). If the female clan clan uses the snake as a totem, Xia Xi's ancestors use the yellow bear as a totem, and others use the sun, the moon, and the crow as totems. At first, people engraved the totem on the caves and labor tools that they lived in. They later became the flag of war and sacrifice and became the national flag and clan emblem. After the country was born, it has evolved into the national flag and national emblem.

In the production of labor and social life, the ancients have continuously created and widely used various types of marks, such as road signs, village marks, steles, and seals of India and India, in order to facilitate contact, mark meanings, and distinguish the types and attributes of different things. In a broad sense, these are signs. In the tombs of ancient Egypt, it was found that vessels with a logo pattern were mostly signs and names of manufacturers and later changed into patterns. In ancient Greece, signs have been widely used. In Rome and Pompeii and in ancient buildings in Palestine, special signs have been found, such as crescent wheels, grape leaves, and similar simple patterns. The armor worn by European medieval soldiers has invisible marks on the head cover, and the aristocratic family also has a family emblem. In ancient China, the shops of its own workshops were accompanied by signs such as signboards and rice dumplings. There were hidden signs in the paper made in the Tang Dynasty. The use of trademarks in the Song Dynasty was quite common...

In this century, public signs and international signs began to spread throughout the world. With the rapid development of society, economy, politics, science and technology, and culture, now well-designed and highly practical and artistic signs have been widely used in all fields of society and have exerted great influence on the development and progress of human society. Role and influence. A new science, symbolism, came into being.

(III) Characteristics of the sign

1 . Utility: The essence of the sign is its usefulness. Although the artistically designed logo is of ornamental value, the logo is not primarily for the purpose of viewing but for practical purposes. The logo is an indispensable and intuitive tool for people to carry out production activities and social activities. The signs are common to humans, such as public places signs, traffic signs, safety signs, operating signs, etc.; there are signs for national, regional, city, ethnic, family-specific flag emblems; positive for social groups, enterprises, righteousness, activities Dedicated, such as emblems, monograms, logos, social standards, etc.; there is a trademark for a certain commodity product; there are exclusive for collective or personal belongings, such as chapters, signatures, custodial, invoicing, branding, etc. Each has its own irreplaceable unique use function. The sign with legal effect especially has the special mission of safeguarding rights and interests.

2 . Recognition: The most prominent features of the logo are its unique appearance, easy identification, display of its own characteristics, and marking of different meanings between things. Differences and attributions are the main functions of the logo. The various signs are directly related to the fundamental interests of the country, the group, and even the individual. They must not be the same as each other and be confused so as not to create illusions. Therefore, the signs must be clear-cut, easy to recognize and remember.

3 . Conspicuousness: Significantly, it is another important feature of the sign. Except for the invisible sign, the setting of the vast majority of signs is to attract people’s attention. Therefore, the color is strongly eye-catching and the graphic is concise and clear. It is a feature that the logo usually has.

4 . Diversity: There are a wide variety of signs and a wide variety of uses. There are extremely rich diversity in terms of their applications, forms, and means of expression. Its application form is not only flat (almost any plane of the material can be used), but also three-dimensional (such as embossing, garden carving, arbitrary shape of three-dimensional objects or using a special pattern of packaging, containers, etc., etc.). Its forms are those that directly use objects, those that are composed of characters, those that are composed of figures, images or abstract figures, and those that are made of colors. Most signs consist of a combination of several basic forms. Judging from the means of performance, its richness and diversity are almost impossible to sum up, and with the development of science and technology, culture, and art, it is always innovating.

5. Artistic: All non-natural signs that have been designed have a certain degree of artistry. Not only meet the practical requirements, but also meet the aesthetic principles. Giving people a sense of beauty is their basic artistic requirement. In general, artistically strong signs can attract and infect people, giving people a strong and deep impression. The high degree of artistic signage is the need of the times and the progress of civilization, and it is the embodiment of higher and higher cultural qualities and the need of aesthetic psychology.

6 Accuracy: The logo must be accurate no matter what it says or indicates, whether it is allegorical or symbolic. First of all, it should be easy to understand, in line with people's understanding of psychological and cognitive ability. Second, we must be accurate and avoid unexpected or misunderstood solutions, especially taboos. People can see at a glance and accurately understand the mistakes in a very short period of time. This is a sign that is better than language and faster than language.

7. Persistence: Different from advertising or other promotional materials, logos generally have long-term use value and are not easily modified. (to be continued)