Before Class, Chapter 20: Corporate Identity and Visual Systems

Visual identity became very important at the close of the 20th century. Graphic designers were forced to design complex design systems because of the information age the world entered. With new companies and firms on the rise, corporations obviously wanted to have their own logo and design to represent themselves. I must say, one of the most recognizable logos made (at least in my opinion) is the MTV logo. There has been many different versions of the original design of this logo but all of them have something in common: to achieve the goal of giving MTV its own visual identity. The olympics as well got their own design system too.

CBS was another company that really produced the whole idea of a corporate identity design. William Golden was the CBS art director who designed "one of the most successful trademarks of the 20th century." His logo, which aired and was shown to the public in 1951, was made to look like an eye in the sky. With what CBS and William Golden did was show other corporations and prove to them that visual identity is the way to go to advertise. "A contemporary graphic mark could complete successfully with more traditional illustrative or alphabetic trademarks." This is what CBS did.

Not only did corporations come up with their own visual identity but transportation systems did too. Many airports and other transportation systems use "pictographic signage programs to communicate important information and directions quickly and simply." All of these pictographic images were created by graphic designers. Many of the symbols we see today, such as a red cross which means first aid or a fork and a knife which means restaurants or food joints, are used to help guide people and communicate to them without using words but using symbols instead.