Which is the best way to communicate a company's brand identity.. A. Typography based logo OR B. Hidden Concept based logo?

My bet goes with the Hidden meaning Logos.. They are the representatives for the brand, but at the same time, the additional thought provoking nature of them fascinates the user and embeds the brand image into the minds of the consumers and clients in a much much better way. For ex. : The FedEx logo has an arrow hidden between the letters E and X. Lindon Leader designed this famous logo in 1994, as Senior Design Director at Landor Associates, San Francisco. It was a result of a work where more than 200 logos were designed before the designer arrived to this solution. It won over forty logo awards worldwide. http://Amazon.com That yellow arrow is not just a smiley. It also suggests that you can buy everything A to Z on Amazon http://Touchtalent.com As mentioned in one of the previous answers : A brilliant effort in using the logo to showcase their growth and creativity. www.ibm.com If observed closely, the IBM logo, also known as “Big Blue”, generates a message of “Equality”. The Big Blue IBM logo, with its lower right parallel lines, highlights in the shape of an “equals” sign. Furthermore, the term “BIG” in the Big Blue IBM logo refers to the company’s size in the market share, whereas, the “BLUE” is the official color of the eight-bar IBM logo. The SUN Microsystems logo is a wonderful example of symmetry and order. It was a brilliant observation that the letters u and n while arranged adjacent to each other look a lot like the letter S in a perpendicular direction The star in three corners represents the Mercedes-Benz dominance on land, sea and air. The apple is a reference from the Bible story of Adam and Eve, where the apple represents the fruit of Tree of Knowledge, with a pun on ” byte/bite”. Rob Janoff, said in an interview that though he was mindful of the “byte/bite” pun (Apple’s slogan back then: “Byte into an Apple”), he designed the logo as such to “prevent the apple from looking like a cherry tomato.” Reference :- http://www.buzzfeed.com/ivanr4/great-logos-with-a-secret-meaning-1uq3 http://mokokoma.co.za/the-meaning-behind-12-famous-logo-designs-you-will-see-today/

First of all, design it's not an aboslut and hard-result discipline. It's not science. It's design. So, don't expect a "just one answer". Also, it would depends of the kind of product you're selling. Even with that kind of division you're making, there are a lot of subdivisions. For example: the IBM logo doesn't have any "hidden message", just that it looks like a "digital" logo. So, it's more a "visual" than a "symbolical" solution. The amazon, The nike it's an iso-logo, not just a typography logo, so it couldn't be in the same as this ones. The Marvel logo, I think it's more abstract than, let's say, the Walt Disney logo, that wants to respresent a hand-made, artistic and fantasy typography. Anyway, I don't like "hidden messages". I prefer typographies.

A hidden concept logo almost always has an upper hand compared to usual logos. It (Hidden concepts) always comes in handy when you want to amuse your guests at a cocktail party. And when your business grows, yes, people will talk more about your logo than usual ones. Simply because there is more to talk about your logo. Hidden concepts also helps you to start a conversation with almost anybody, maybe a potential client, employee or investor. Stories are always good, have one for your logo too. It's hard to have one, but totally worth it!

It depends on the company and the situation. Saul Bass preferred to have a combination of both. Many of his logos (Girl Scouts, Minolta, Quaker, AT&T, etc.,) have a pictorial, somewhat abstract symbol paired with a somewhat simple typographic representation of the company name.

I agree with some answers already posted. I think the question is too shallow. How can this one be better than the other? It is never about which method is better. It is about which method is the most suitable for the company. Each has its own function, and represents the company in its most suitable way.

it depends on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_equity you already have. If you are a starting company or little known brand, chances are your non-name logo won't do much. If you are in the stage that your logo is readily recognized, then by all means that is much stronger. Think Nike's swoosh or Apple's apple. Obviously that kind of recognition is priceless. That's like the holy grail of brand equity. But as you can guess that is extremely hard to build.

Its always better to have a logo that says, what they do, especially, if the brand is new and they want people to know about their business. In today's scenario its easy to get brand visibility due to media and social media. What I was talking about in the first stance is, Baskin-Robbins, have 31 flavors, and they just thought to show it off in their logo, making it strawberry pink in color.

That is purely based on the product and its users / clients / customers. In certain cases the hidden concept based logo - the brand managers has to spend time, money and energy much much more compared to typography based logo. Preference also based on the products only. You can't take IBM and FEDEX into hidden concepts - They are crying out their name openly. I prefer typography based logo - as ts requires lesser time to create a brand equity.

hidden concept logos, it obviously keep the brand in trend for ages , but typography likes varies with generations, now the retro types are trending!