Approved colors, monograms, and logos: what strategy are fashion brands using today?
‘Getting the brand recognized in a second. This is the goal for all fashion houses, which pair their products with specific monograms and representative colors. Tuttavia,logos all seem to have taken the same direction, or rather the same font.
In fact, we talk about the phenomenon of ‘blanding‘ which involves replacing italic fonts with the bold sans-serif font. A standardized style that makes it easier for the customer to immediately grasp the brand name, but risks losing its essence. “The sad truth that all these stratagems, perhaps even effective ones, hide,” says journalist Giuliana Matarrese -is that people prefer to empty a fashion house of its history, including its graphics, rather than reflect on the stylistic legacy and values of those who created it.”
In fact, multiple brands in recent years have abandoned their historic logos to promote ‘cleaner’ versions, from Balenciaga, Celine, Balmain, Calvin Klein, to Bottega Veneta. This is referred to as the ‘Helvetization’ of fashion.
A change that also affects the names of brands such as Ferragamo, which recently removed the founder’s name ‘Salvatore,’ as well as further back in time did Saint Laurent, removing ‘Yves’ and Dior by removing ‘Christian. This phenomenon, in addition to commercial interests, is often associated with changing creative direction, as happened a few days ago with Burberry.
In fact, the brand, to introduce the debut of new creative director Daniel Lee announced a change in brand identity, unveiling a “new Burberry logo that is inspired by the brand’s archives,” but in fact has a similar font to the one before and others. (The heritage and Britishness of the historic brand has been accentuated at the core of the new identity, in which the Latin word ‘Prorsum,’ meaning ‘Forward,’ is featured. Burberry Prorsum was, moreover, also the name of a Burberry line later absorbed by the main line in 2016, featuring the very logo with the knight).
If fonts become homogenized, which is also the result of global digitization that puts the Internet at the center, monograms and colors are there to make brands stand out. This is the case with Valentino, which launched the color Pink PP then named by Pantone as the new pink “Pink PP by Valentino.” The brand had integrated color for its Fall/Winter 2022-2023 collection, covering the entire event of bags, dresses, and shoes in monochromatic palettes. But not only that, because a few months ago he also announced his new monogram named Valentino Toile Iconographe. Anticipated during the fashion show for S/S 2023 in Paris, the founder’s ‘V’ was then officially launched in a campaign to go on garments and accessories.
Insomma,Are colors and monograms enough to distinguish brands, even if the fonts are always the same?
What do you think? Are you pro- or anti-banding?
Article by Giorgia Dallasio
February 16, 2023
