Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)

I'll reply to my own [now un-editable] comment to add, by way of balance to that comments somewhat cynical take, that some of the ubiquitous tools and techniques I mentioned have enabled a great many people to participate in these activities, who might otherwise not. The pros and cons of that too are debatable, however I certainly think we can all see some positives in the principle of technology enabling people.

Why is 'old fashioned' bad?

Further, why should a logo even be fashionable? Sure if I get this week's fashionable hair cut it'll be out of fashion next week. So why get the fashionable haircut to start with.

To extend this further, presumably tech companies want to communicate that they are ahead of everyone else. If so why are they following the fashion. If you change your logo to be fashionable today, your communicating that you're a follower, not a leader.

All companies make grand statements about what logos are supposed to do and represent, but then they change the logo, which you can't really infer anything good from if you take those statements at face value.

Naivete back in the 20th.

Before: let's commission a designer to make a cool logo / let's make a cool logo.

Now: market research data indicates that 90% of sales went to people who used this font style in their logo so let's commission a designer to make us a logo that looks like everyone else's [1]

[1] with no consideration of the fact that 99% of sellers use that font type in their logo and 85% sales went to market leader who definitely used that font type in their logo, to say nothing of the fact that the logo probably didn't secure the conversion in any cases

I wrote an extensive article about this: https://www.velvetshark.com/why-do-brands-change-their-logos...

Since its publication it even got featured in a Spanish textbook, and I get tons of traffic to it all the time. The topic seems very much valid for the last few years, with no sign of change.

The main reason seems to be to look good (or even readable) on mobile, but it seems that it's more of a bandwagon than a proven good strategy.

> Why is 'old fashioned' bad?

Why do people fall in love? It's just human psychology.

> Further, why should a logo even be fashionable?

Because it's aesthetic, and aesthetics follow fashion. Again, it's just human psychology. It's what people like.

> Sure if I get this week's fashionable hair cut it'll be out of fashion next week.

The fashions we're talking about last for years, not days. Think 70's hairstyles vs. 80's hairstyles. You'd keep your hairstyle for many years, same as a logo lasts for many years.

> So why get the fashionable haircut to start with.

So you look good and have aesthetic appeal. So people want to date you, and in the business analogy, people want to buy your products.

> To extend this further, presumably tech companies want to communicate that they are ahead of everyone else.

No, they want to communicate that they're up-to-date and the right solution for you.

> If so why are they following the fashion.

Because that shows they're up-to-date.

> If you change your logo to be fashionable today, your communicating that you're a follower, not a leader.

Who said anything about being a leader? Yes, of course you want to follow the fashion. That shows you're up-to-date. The question isn't about being a follower vs. a leader, the question is about being up-to-date vs. being out-of-date. Being out-of-date is a bad look for any company. You want to be up-to-date.

> All companies make grand statements about what logos are supposed to do and represent, but then they change the logo, which you can't really infer anything good from if you take those statements at face value.

Sometimes the new logo is a new way of representing the "grand statements" but simply updated for the current fashion, reflected in the current design language. So you absolutely can infer that they're staying true to their values.

On the other hand, sometimes company values and priorities and "grand statements" change, because the older ones aren't right anymore. In which case a new logo can reflect those changes too.

In both cases, what you can infer is going to be valuable if they did a good job with the logo.

Hope this all makes sense.