Nothing more than a plain, three-by-eight grid showing the numbers zero to 23, it has been described by its creator as “a proclamation of anonymity”, while the distinctive white stitches that hold the labels in place inside garments were apparently designed to be easily unpicked, “thus rendering the item unidentifiable”. Like the man himself, the logo of the hermetic Mr Martin Margiela’s namesake brand doesn’t give much away. A logo can tell you a lot about a brand – but sometimes, the story behind it can tell you even more. Just google.) But for every logo dreamt up in the lab with a six-figure price tag, there’s one scrawled onto the back of a napkin that winds up being just as successful. Or London 2012, whose £400,000 logo was compared to Lisa Simpson performing a lewd act. Think of Pepsi, who in 2008 splashed an estimated $1m on a new logo that looks to all intents and purposes the same as the old one. Little wonder that big businesses spend so much money on getting them right. To distil a company and everything it stands for down into one single, simple symbol. What would Batman be without the bat symbol? Superman without the “S”? And if a logo can transform a man wearing his underpants on the outside into a superhero, imagine what it can do for a brand. What do the numbers on a Margiela label mean? How did Maison Kitsuné get so foxy?.Īs any overpaid, overcaffeinated marketing guru will tell you, a good logo is a powerful thing.
