Hipster Branding: Classic logos grow a beard
Some of the best ads to grace our vision are superbly classic in design. One hundred-year-old companies whose logos have barely altered in design as the century has progressed show staying true to the roots of a brand is highly valued.
Mercedes-Benz’s three-point star is an immediately recognisable emblem, a feature of its logo since the two automobile houses merged in 1926.
But if the Mercedes-Benz logo was to be redesigned in this modern day by our most recently bloomed subculture, the hipster, it would become a tad sailor-camp with an anchor placed amongst the design. Why an anchor? Because they’re cool (or uncool, if you’re being ironic).
Swiss graphic designer Dave Spengeler has taken the classic, age-old logos of more than 20 companies, added some bicycles, Helvetica type and vintage feel to the designs and started a tumblr called Hipster Branding.
His Kentucky Fried Chicken logo comes complete with a mustache to match Colonel Sanders’ frames, and for his Gillette branding, Dave has turned back the clock to feature a straight razor.
This 22-year-old aspiring typographer wanted to demonstrate that when companies follow trends in the design or redesign of their logos, they lose their identity and the name of the brand becomes replaceable among the of-the-moment aesthetics.
