Why Luxury Fashion Brand Logos Seem To Share The ‘Same’ Typeface
Images via Logopedia and Wikimedia Commons
In the same way tech companies have gone minimal for their brandings, more fashion brands are opting for all-caps san-serifs, with the most recent make-unders hailing from Celine (previously Céline) and Burberry.
Across the board, swapping for san-serifs brings more legibility to logos even when they’re shrunk. Tech firms value this aspect, since their logos require the flexibility to accommodate several screen sizes. For fashion brands, the bare-bones appeal lets the designs of apparels and handbags take center stage.
However, there’s at least one more reason why luxury retailers are going down the less flashy route, at least for their logomarks.
English art director and graphic designer Peter Saville, who redesigned Burberry’s logo, told Bloomberg that the fashion house’s new Creative Chief Officer Ricardo Tisci had asked for renewed branding that would work equally as well on a gabardine raincoat as it would on a chiffon blouse. They thus settled on a “modern utility” look.
“It looks like it’s been there forever, but it’s still contemporary,” Saville described of the new Burberry branding.
To the untrained eye, these fashion logos might appear interchangeable. However, the more you look at them, the more distinct they become—similar to high-end products, which are often free of bells and whistles. “No-nonsense boldness is the rule,” Bloomberg explained.
Joke all you want about the supposed conformity, but the sleek typefaces are bound to grow on you. As Armin Vit, co-founder of graphic design firm UnderConsideration and critique blog Brand New, described, the aesthetic is “like wearing a black-tie tuxedo”—classically stylish, but muted enough such that it doesn’t steal the show.
After all, luxury isn’t about copying trends. It banks on a kind of value that’s current yet timeless and evergreen.
Why Fashion Brands All Seem To Be Using the Same Font. https://t.co/LUnAuHXRoi pic.twitter.com/i1T5nOKosk
— TFL (@TheFashionLaw) November 21, 2018
[via Bloomberg, images via various sources]
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