Does your company name start with a V? Maybe it should.
V is a powerful letter. It has a natural energy rising up from its “vertex” (the base of the V) in a celebratory outstretching of its “arms”. If you don’t have any better ideas for your logo, and your company name starts with a V, you could do worse than creating your own version of a V symbol.
Here are the five greatest V’s in branding history.
If the Volkswagen V feels very Germanic and engineered, you’re on to something. The logo was the result of an office competition to come up with a logo. The winner of the competition was an engineer named Franz Reimspiess, the same man who perfected the engine for the VW Beetle in the 1930’s. He won 50 Marks for his efforts.
The Vertu wingspan, on the other hand, exaggerates the stretch of a V like a soaring eagle. Not surprising given Frank Nuovo, the chief designer of Nokia’s luxury line also known as the Calvin Klein of mobile phones, brings Italian flair to his work.
The Visa V was a recent update of a 50-year-old classic. After eight months of working with mammoth, process-obsessed brand consultancies Landor and Wolff Olins, the brand was getting nowhere. Internal designer Greg Silveria who recognized the unique serif on the Visa V was its most distinguishing characteristic simply added a highlight to it to create an elegant solution to the problem and break the logjam. Rumour has it, it took him 30 minutes to come up with the idea.
The spontaneous and energetic Virgin V is another example of an instinctive solution. Richard Branson went to see Trevor Key, a photographer, back in the early 1970s about changing the Virgin logo. He drew the current Virgin logo known as “The Scrawl” on the back of a napkin, which Branson bought for a princely sum of 200 pounds. The angle of the logo apparently stems from the fact that napkin happened to be at an angle at the time.
Last, and most definitely least, we come to the Von Dutch V. Popularized by the likes of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears in 2003, the faux anti-status symbol has become an essential part of any hip-hop wannabe’s uniform. However, the true origin of the brand is much more authentic and goes back to Kenny “Von Dutch” Howard, the father of the 1960s custom car culture. He developed the logo as a teenager and used it all his life. Many of his friends are convinced he would now be turning in his grave.
So there you have it. A few happy accidents have made the V into the most powerful letter in branding.
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