What's in a logo? A lot, as Sebi and Nokia give a digital twist to theirs

In favour: Clean, simplistic logos that reflect a modern outlook, enjoy visibility on digital platforms

Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) unveiled a new logo, which presented the abbreviated letters in a staccato burst that broke away from their intertwined selves in the old symbol.

Prior to the market regulator, a similar exercise was carried out by telecom multinational Nokia, which shed its old logo that spelt out the letters unambiguously to adopt a new one in which an N, K or A appear to have missing limbs.

In both cases, the minimalism and fonts reflect a digital embrace that was due for old entities — Sebi is 35, while Finnish Nokia is 157. Nokia’s last logo change itself was 55 years ago.

Brand and design experts agree that organisations may at times require such revamps to mirror a changing world, but it is their success as enterprises that dictates the fate of their logos.

Sujit Das, executive creative director of Gurugram-based marketing firm Kreativ Street, points out that logo designs are of several types, including the letter mark of which Sebi and Nokia are examples.

Other types of logos are word mark (Google’s G), pictorial mark (Twitter), abstract mark (the Nike Swoosh), mascot logo (KFC), combination mark (Puma, which has the letters as well as a leaping puma over it) and the emblem logo (Starbucks).

“Logos are the face of a brand. Consumers aspire to have the products/service in their lives,” says Das, adding that in today’s digital environment, many iconic brands have revised design elements. “Gone are the designs that had a 3D look or gradient colours. Today, the logos are clean and simplistic. Due to the limited space in the various digital platforms or websites, the visibility of the logo becomes critical. So, the solution is to simplify the logo,” he adds.

Das, however, feels that Nokia ought to have focused on its product design instead and retained the old logo as the new version is “trying too hard to be modern”.

According to Itu Chaudhuri, lead partner at Delhi-based Itu Chaudhuri Design, the new rendering of the Nokia letters in the logo is avant-garde and suggests a projection of originality and youthfulness. “The (incomplete) lettering style is also relying on the fact that they are such a familiar name you won’t miss it; in that sense, it’s quite confident.”

In the view of N Chandramouli, chief executive officer of Mumbai-based brand insights firm TRA Research, Nokia’s new logo implies a new identity and way of looking at the world. The company, long associated with mobile phones, sells equipment to other telecom firms and, as signalled by the redesign, has pivoted towards selling gear to other businesses now.

“A logo is a visual identity that is supposed to showcase what a brand usually stands for. When a brand is decades old or more, such as Sebi or Nokia (which began as a logging company that morphed into electronics and led the segment for years), it requires a change sometimes,” says Chandramouli. So Sebi, which has built a global reputation as a market regulatory authority, also wished to reflect modernity with its new logo, he adds.

Sebi stated at the launch that the new logo stands for its continuing commitment to being a facilitator in the growth of the economy through capital formation and “retaining its rich tradition of a consultative approach in policy making while adopting the power of data and technology”.

This month, microblogging platform Twitter also changed its homepage icon on its web version — from the popular blue bird to the Shiba Inu doge meme. It was not a permanent change and, Chandramouli argues, was only characteristic of the quirkiness of its CEO, Elon Musk.

“You don’t play around with a logo,” he says, adding that companies have to strictly adhere to brand identities.

Logo change can also be dubious in a consumer market, where many may not feel comfortable with it, he adds. “We may think people buy a product because of a need but it’s also because it resonates. It is a sensitive relationship and a customer can feel disenchanted with such changes because a product is a part of one’s being.”

It is advisable for legacy brands with strong recall to not tinker with logos. Chandramouli cites the example of dairy brand Amul, whose identity is entrenched in the minds of people. “Even if you change a serif in a font, it will be noticeable and people will find it aberrant,” he explains. The suggestion is that unless a company changes its logo to signify a shift or transformation, it can cause dissonance for customers. “You want to seek resonance from the brand identity with consumers who are current.”

Asked whether a logo can swing a company’s fortunes, Chaudhuri says it’s the other way round. “The brand affects the fortunes of a logo. If a company succeeds, the logo becomes famous.”

Sometimes, logos become classic and no longer represent all the qualities of a company, and yet customers do not mind it, he says. For example, Coca-Cola is essentially a carryover from well more than a century ago when the carbonated soft drink major began its journey. “There is also (the shortened) Coke, which is more modern, but you still approve of the classic,” says Chaudhuri.

So, a company’s trajectory decides the durability of a logo. He adds: “The longer a logo survives, the truer it is to the company’s vision. And the longer the company’s vision survives, the longer its image to the world survives.”

(With inputs from Akshara Srivastava)