Is the luxury brand logo making a comeback, or can design and quality speak for themselves when it comes to luxury?
Following the hyper-branded era of the noughties, when luxury brands such as Burberry and Louis Vuitton did not hold back on splashing their logos across goods, recent trends in the luxury market lean towards subtle signifiers, with quality and design speaking for themselves.
Louis Vuitton, famous for their leather goods, went through a period of plastering their LV monogram across every possible surface in an attempt to make products instantly recognisable as theirs. Recently, however, Louis Vuitton have changed tack, reserving the signature stamp used only on limited edition goods. Decreasing availability means increasing exclusively, and in the luxury sector, this means increasing demand. Furthermore, the brand has refreshed its logo in line with the recent multi-sensory exhibition Series 3 in London last month. The resurrected monogram logo is clean, slick and most importantly, used only on high-end leather goods, as opposed to entry price products.
Here at Underscore we believe that although the logo is extremely important as an instant signifier for a brand, for a higher-end brand less is definitely more. ‘Stealth signifiers’ rely on the quality of design to speak for itself rather than shout at you. One of our recent clients, the contemporary bespoke coffee roaster Purssells London, has adopted a premium logo that subtly reflects their premium product.
With Purssells looking to delve into the premium market, we approached the brand’s visual identity by building it up from a micro level and concentrating on the details; a bespoke product is all about these subtle but significant differences. We started by pairing a sophisticated serif font with a craftsman-influenced sans-serif font to simultaneously bring a heritage and contemporary feel that is unique to them. The precise and elegant brand mark was then designed to reference the superb craftsmanship of baristas the world over and the heritage of the company’s 19th century coffeehouse namesake. It is a mark that will not overpower, just like the examples above, instead acting as a subtle but instant signifier that will help significantly as Purssells London continues to rise to the forefront of the premium coffee industry.
