Every day, Monday through Fridays (sometimes Saturday) I drive up to the Boston Store at Mayfair mall. I see this logo on the side of the building and I know that I've reached my destination for the next nine hours.
In addition to seeing this visual on the side of the building, I see this logo on my business cards, stationary and just about every official piece of company property or web link. I see it so frequently that I don't even see it anymore and certainly don't take the time to observe or analyze any part of the artistic design.
Now, finally taking the time to observe the design, I notice the simplicity of the font and color choices and that the artist who created this logo did not see white space as an enemy.
Because of this distinct font and highly contrasted coloring of black, white and red, this logo is easily recognizable across all of the nameplates of the BON TON umbrella.
Brian Kennedy made the point that visuals are a universal language. I suppose I already knew that, but as the things that we see but don't "SEE," I knew but never really thought about it.
Thinking about it now, this logo is known over many state lines under different names. Other logos and visuals are known globally across multiple language and cultural lines.
Even if you remove the "ESTEE LAUDER" name, just the symbol is recognizable to women worldwide.
Everyone knows what this is, right?
Proof that images are a universal language.
I agree that as Brian Kennedy mentioned, visual literacies need to be reintegrated and added as part of literacy as a whole.
I'd be curious to find out where the next generation would land if standardized testing included "Visual Literacy" in the assessments.
