Svizra launches global black and white logo archive Logobook

Swiss design collective Svizra has launched a beta archive of black and white logos, Logobook, that it hopes will become a valuable resources for designers the world over. The website presents the logo, the designer, and the year or decade that the design was created. Currently presented as a beta version, the collective is looking to source submissions to grow the archive to become a comprehensive survey of the history of logos. It’s Nice That caught up with Svizra to find out more.

How did you develop the idea behind Logobook?

We had the idea many years ago, and to be honest, there are hundreds of interesting logo design resources online, but we wanted to create a dedicated website that is so simple and intuitive to navigate. Something allowing designers and aspiring designers easy access to a beautiful database of original historical logo design concepts, but also to allow non-designers, such as business owners and aspiring business owners, into the world of identity design.

With Logobook allowing such an easy access to this information, for everyone, we can no longer be naive to the fact that some very strong ideas in logo design have already been done before, and in sharing this information, we believe that we are encouraging true innovation in identity design.

Corporate identity design is an art form, and the artists involved in its creation should be celebrated and recognised in much the same way as writers, photographers, illustrators etc. We understand that logos by their very nature cannot be credited when they are in use, so our simple website will allow people to know who these talented creators are.

The Logobook archive is in black and white, which we like aesthetically, but the main reason for this is to make the navigation of the logo concepts as simple as possible, allowing the visitor to study and compare logo concepts in an objective and rational way. This ultimately supports an intuitive way of navigating the designs through our categories, such as letters, shapes, or objects.

Another reason for the black and white logo format is because when companies trademark a logo here in Switzerland, they are always recommended to first trademark the logo in black and white, as this will support them better when enforcing their ownership of the trademark, covering multiple colour variations that might occur over time.

How do you anticipate the collection growing and being used?

We are growing the collection through our discoveries as a group, but also, most importantly from suggestions and submissions sent in by our growing community of contributors. We review and post successful submissions when we can.

The base of the collection comes from anywhere we discovered great logos, from rare out-of-print trademark books and old magazines, to more recent logos coming from open online resources such as logo design websites and blogs.

Is there a criteria for selection?

We look for originality, simplicity, intelligence, charm, and importantly, what the logo communicates in black and white. Quite simply, great logos will always be included. Currently we do not accept full word/text based logos, but we are considering ways to feature these in future. Also, an important note, full colour logos or greyscale logos will not be featured. The rule of thumb is if you think you have a logo that can stand next to the ones on this site, then we would welcome your submission.

How do you see Logobook growing in the future?

At the moment Logobook.com is mostly a reference tool for designers and businesses to not only find inspiration but also to build awareness of what has been done before, and by whom. In future, we would like to continue growing our database of original logos, and ultimately to build a strong community of contributing businesses and designers that will help push identity design into new areas, encouraging more innovation and less repetition.

What is Svizra?

Svizra is the name that we gave our small group of international designers/artists. Our aim is to build awareness of good identity design and to celebrate it as an art form. We all share an obsession for design and art, and most importantly branding, which we define as ‘the art of creating identities’. Also, not to distract from Logobook, but Svizra have a few other projects underway that we are excited to unveil in the future.