What's in a LOGO...

What’s in a logo?? That which we call a ‘Superbrand’ by any other logo would do as well.

Hey… now please don’t laugh at the titles of my posts. Try to understand how difficult it is for me to bring those deformed sayings/poems etc. into the right shape.

Anyway… coming to the point… I was trying to analyze some of the logos (not the usual ones which have already been analyzed umpteen number of times and a sizeable amount of web space is full of such analysis). The first set of logos that I’ve chosen are that of the most prestigious business schools of India… The IIMs.

Able to find out any similarities?? Let me do the honors. A careful look suggests that most of these logos are:

Complex (can’t even think of reproducing it by hand)

Circular/semi circular in shape (depicting the world/completeness etc.)

Having a Sanskrit tag attached to the logo (as the motto)

Interpreted more in terms of traditions/values/region (rather than Fin/mark/Ops)

Far from creativity and attractiveness

Sacred and hence never changed (At least till now none of them have tried it)

Before expanding our horizons to more of such logos, let me just quickly do an analysis of the IIMK logo (personal involvement you see). The description written is subject to my own perception and might not be in sync with that of the creator of the logo. The ‘bow and arrow’ has a connection with the great epic ‘Mahabharat’ where Arjun’s determination and focus was depicted while using his bow ‘The Gandeev’. So it’s a symbol of determination, focus, training, concentration, aim and likewise. The book is for knowledge, education and learning. The ‘coconut tree, boat and sea’ represents Kerala… the God’s own country.

And regarding ‘Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam’ which means ‘Diligence leads to Excellence’… IIMK shares this motto with following other institutes:

IIT Kharagpur

Madan Mohan Malviya Engineering College, Gorakhpur

MDI Gurgaon

VNIT Nagpur

If we zoom out a bit taking in more of “Government institutions” into our view… we’d find that more or less this is applicable to almost all of the IITs and many of the NITs as well. I won’t say that it is only particular to the government institutes but it is quite prominent. I don’t know whether I should be deducing conclusion based on such itsy-bitsy researches but seems like when it come to bureaucracy, things just follow a pattern set during the initial course and it becomes a bit taboo to go out of the flock.