Pippa Mackenzie Photography

The power of a logo

Following on from our blog, Be Unique, Be Yourself, Brand! we have had many great comments about our logo and visual identity.

Because of this I got thinking about an essay I wrote at art college (blimey, way back in 1989) about one of the worlds most recognised logos. I don't quite know why I was writing essays at art college as it's not normally what art students are known for. On that note, below is a photograph of one of my art college friends, Gary, doing what art students are more known for, being a bit of a plonka!!! The apple does have some deep meaning which escapes me now. Gary was an extremely talented artist, who sadly had a cataract and was slowly going blind in one eye. Irony can be very cruel. Maybe that was what the apple was about?

Anyway, more about my art college days below but now back to logos. If you were asked to name a recognisable logo off the top of your head what would it be? For me Coca Cola would definitely be one of the first I thought of.

A lot of thought went into the Pippa Mackenzie Photography logo and as with all the logos I've designed over the last 20 years, I've always drawn inspiration from what I learnt at art collage.

So what is so special about the Coca Cola logo/brand? A logo so recognisable across the globe, as seen above. Here are a few weird facts you may or may not know about what is considered by many to be the worlds best logo:

1. The original logo was developed from the handwriting of the company's book-keeper, Frank Robinson, back in 1885.
2. The original bottle was designed to resemble the cacao seed pod and was intended to be recognisable even in the dark.
3. The wavy line seen at the base of the logo (also known as the "dynamic curve" or "dynamic ribbon") was designed when the company introduced cans. The first idea was to create a can in the same shape as the bottle. When the company realised this just wasn't possible they came up with the idea of the dynamic curve. The shape of the line was intended to represent the shape bottle.
4. The reason that our modern day Santa Clause is depicted with a red and white costume is all thanks to Coca Cola. Santa Clause first appeared in Coca Cola adverts wearing a red and white suite way back in the early 30s. Before then Santa only ever appeared in his more traditional brown suite. Now that's the power of advertising for you!

The strength of the Coca Cola brand is such that many of us when asking for a Cola at the bar or in a shop ask for a Coke. The brand has become the product.

So, think long and hard about your logo and maybe one day your logo will become synonymous with photography.

Now, back to art college and an excuse to show a few more photographs that I've just dug out from the loft and scanned... 

Back then I was very much into scrap.

I spent hours in the darkroom developing the image below of my friend, Tom. He was very tall and wiry and I worked out a way of exaggerating this by angling the undeveloped paper under the enlarger to enhance the perspective. In the days before Photoshop, this wasn't easy. I love the way his hands became unnaturally long which mirrored Tom's character as he was very much into making things and went on to study furniture design at Brighton University.

Finally, here's a picture of me at university with my first medium format camera. Unfortunately, they couldn't afford Hasselblads. You can tell I was a student because of the holes in my top.

Ian

My Magic Mouse and Me - a love affair with Apple

Wow, what a work of art! The new Magic Mouse is so beautiful! We got ours last week and we couldn't wait to try them out straight away. As I expected it was as easy to install and use as it was beautiful! With every generation of Apple products (or toys as I like to think of them) they morph into something a little more beautiful and a little more ergonomic. The new Magic Mouse feels so much part of me that I'm wondering if the logo is suddenly going to appear on the back of my hand.

Why do Apple consistently get it right? And what is it they get right? For me the user experience is exceptional compared to that of (clear throat... long pause... eh, hem...) Windows (ew!). Having used both systems I think I can safely say that Mac OS is leaps and bounds beyond anything Microsoft throw at us. Tiger, Leopard and now Snow Leopard can all stand proud and roar through the window of superiority. The fact that Vista, an attempt to be appear more cool, has been replaced by Windows 7 (imaginative!)... it seems that Microsoft have finally realised that cool is not something they do well. If I am to be a little PC (did you see what I did there?), don't get me wrong, Windows does have it's place... but not in the creative arena and certainly not in the digital photographic processing and retouching realm. 

One of the main things about Macs that make them cool is their reliability. On the whole, if a Mac hurts itself, it seems to have the almost intuitive ability to heal. Now that's cool! It does what it says on the tin.

I guess it was inevitable that Mr Gates was going to leave the playground. How was he ever going to contend with the marbles that Mr Jobs had in his bag?  Even after stepping out of the limelight for health reasons, Mr Jobs' creative genius seems to be living on in the ever changing Apple family.

As a brand, Apple has had its ups and downs but since Jobs' return in 1996 and in this century at least, it seems to understand and anticipate the needs of its users. Yes, it has become a global corporation (and much has been said of Jobs the man), and yes it seems hell bent on global comms domination with the iPhone (which you have to say is another work of art), but it does seem to give us what we want rather than tell us what we need.

In summary, as I sit here staring into my iMac, typing on my somewhat dirty, yet still perfectly formed silver/white keyboard, I am happy... happy in the knowledge that all it takes to order my favourite album on iTunes is my magic mouse and me.

Ian