The designer’s smile

In times gone by our good old fashioned service with a smile has in recent years been supplemented and, in some cases replaced with a graphic subconscious smile, cleverly integrated to form part of the logo design for these multinational companies.

Amazon subtly takes us from ‘A’ to ‘Z’ while this lengthy grin culminates with the arrowhead reaching its destination and another one of its 304 million happy customers worldwide.

Argos’s corporate identity was designed to reflect the brand’s appeal and customer confidence in the business. Friendly, approachable and dynamic, it positively beams from ear to ear while you wait patiently before making your way to the same collection point as everyone else in the store.

Combining a hand drawn ‘sketchy’ logotype sitting above a jovial somewhat clown-like smile, Hasbro’s brand identity is individual with a sense of fun, putting it firmly within its target market.

Derived from the TUI acronym (formerly Touristik Union International) the graphic device that accompanies the Thomson brand in the UK is more abstract in its form, but a subconscious smile nonetheless. It is more prominent than the typographic element that it combines with, although somewhat disjointed as it is used in isolation on aircraft livery, for example.

When developing a brand identity in a visual world that is increasingly difficult to navigate, clarity is key. Understanding the brand and getting under the skin of the business is important to us. Fact finding then enables us to scope out the possibilities and devise solutions that answer the brief and create a visual identity for your enterprise that provides the foundations for building a successful brand.