How growing up on a small island made me value good (logo) design.

I grew up on the Greek part of the island of Cyprus in the late 70s and 80s. At the time, there was just one state-owned television station. It was named the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, or CBC. It was later changed to CyBC after a patent infringement with the original CBC, of which some of you may know as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. You would think that the Cyprus Government would want to do a little research before naming their first national TV station and to make sure their call letters were proprietary, but I digress. Note to reader — always do your due diligence when naming your company. Never assume anything.

I will never forget, the programming at the newly renamed CyBC started at 5pm and ended at 11pm weekdays with a little longer schedule on the weekends. On Sundays, we got some hours in the morning too! Start time at 10 am! Woohoo! Reruns of Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny. What’s up doc?

I do have to admit with no TV at all, we were forced to be outdoors, ride our BMX bikes, play soccer on the street, go to the roller rink and build stuff. What a great time we had. As a parent, I look back and contrast my childhood experience with that of my kids growing up on the Westside of 2019 Los Angeles. Stark is an understatement.
Just like any other TV station, the newly minted CyBC sold ads. Lots of them. A lot of these ads consisted of nothing more than an actual photo of some layout of the product. Below is literally a screenshot I found on YouTube of a segment featuring an ad by Bravo!, a local ice cream manufacturer back in the 80s.

What the…? That was it? Yes, ladies and gentlemen. That was an ad on national TV that companies paid good Cypriot pounds for. You can view the clip here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynel_2DnZRo&t=74s

It would appear and remain on your screen for about 30 seconds with a voiceover describing what the product was about. Just like a radio commercial but with a visual. In all fairness, there were British and German brands that employed video and music (imagine that!)dubbed in Greek, but the Cypriot locally produced ones with the static photo, were the most prevalent, most affordable, and dare I say memorable? Yikes! Even as a young child I knew there had to be something better. I also know that if I was ever given the opportunity to design I would do anything but that. Believe it or not, yours truly was featured in one of those “static” ads with my brother and my sister. I will never forget we were modeling a walkman that would be given as a prize to a few lucky winners for my grandfather’s foodstuff company. I remember gathering around the TV the night it first aired. It was so exciting seeing my face on TV. I was no older than 12.

My other early exposure to design were magazines. As a former British colony, Cyprus imported most of its goods, music, fashions, trends and magazines from London. I would devour the pages of The FACE, I-D, BLITZ, amongst others. There were hardly any products or magazines from the US. I believe the first American magazine I flipped through, was a dated Muscle & Fitness or some other Joe Weider variation. Eventually I discovered the newly imported US editions of Esquire (Usually arriving a month late but I never cared). The kiosk / newstand I frequented would only have a handful at a time and I would grab one if I was lucky, and had enough money to pay for it. Perusing magazines was my escape. The images would transport me to an aspirational world of global design, interiors, beauty, and sophistication.

I remember looking at the ads in the magazines and I always knew I wanted to do something creative in the advertising or design field. I wanted to either design the logo, write the copy, come up with the tagline, shoot the product or design the whole ad. I loved studying typography, the logo placement, how the type would overlap a photo, the gradient or how the white negative space affected the layout. I even created little “magazines” of my own, creating ads with taglines and logos of fictitious companies filling up the blank pages of my school textbooks.

The value of good logo design.

I was always keenly aware of the power of good design. Good design affected my decisions and my thoughts and my perceptions of various products. It still does to this day. And as we all know, sight unseen, the perception of a product is what sells it. I am sure you have heard the adage of “good design is good business.” Apple, the most valuable brand of all time is also the most design-centric. Successful companies nurture their brand identities and protect them like a lioness watches over her cubs. Brand equity is priceless. It is no coincidence that a lot of American brands become worldwide household names. It is that laser-like focus on branding and that symbiotic relationship of marketing and obsessive customer service that create this force that becomes undeniable. SWOOSH! and we have victory, or NIKE, as they say in Greek.

Case in point, and since we are talking about logos, I will never forget one instance as a teenager when a friend of mine had just come back from a visit to the United States and brought back with him these plain-looking water-skiing gloves with him. Gloves, yes I know, random right? As a kid growing up on an island I was obsessed with water skiing and any new water skiing accessories of any sort were a big deal. Especially gloves. Great fitting gloves could give you that perfect grip for that perfect slalom. So these gloves were plain and black but they had this cool badass logo on them. I could not wait to borrow them. I had never heard of the brand, but that did not matter. One look at the logo perfectly scaled and embroidered on the side of the right glove and I knew they must be good. And they were. Ahh, the power of a good logo. Either that, or I was a gullible design-minded teen. Did it matter? As a consumer, I was sold.

When I moved to the United States years later I realized that a good logo, a properly fleshed out brand identity was a no brainer if you wanted your company to have a fighting chance.

Every time I approach a new brand identity project whether it’s a product or service, I think of the effect that logo on those simply designed, plain black water skiing gloves had on me as a child. If I could just emulate even a fraction of that feeling for my client’s products, then I am pretty sure my job is done.