Keeping Your Brand On Trend
Accent was established in 1990; we’re currently in our fourth decade of on-trend design. Being on trend means evolving with ever-changing and developing styles, whether design, technical or social. Gone are the days of a logo remaining unaltered for 20 plus years; to stay current, we must adapt. Although this doesn’t mean a complete overhaul every year, small, subtle changes can make all the difference. So let’s delve into the Accent archives and discuss our logo and the evolution of style.
1990
To understand Accent’s first logo, we need to begin with the 1980s and Memphis Design. Memphis was hugely influential throughout the decade, showcasing bright, bold colours and geometric shapes. At the end of the decade, the Memphis style dominated commercial design. The most recognisable and defining type styles included italicised fonts in neon colours.
1997
The 1990s saw the rise of digital technology and the mainstream internet. In these early days, designers used skeuomorphism to help people adapt to this new digital world by using real-life objects onscreen to help people become accustomed to the interface, such as a floppy disk for saving and a bin icon for deleting. In design, depth was added with gradients, drop shadows and faux textures.
At the end of the 1990s, digital design was in the ascendance and resulted in a cleaner appearance, a welcome change after the preceding scruffier years.
2005
Less is more. Into the early 2000s, minimalism became on-trend. Simple, watermarked logo design marked a distinct change in advertising and laid the foundations for the decades to come as people became more comfortable with the digital world. The 2000s were boom years for branding (especially for the tech giants), and logo design was at the forefront of a brand’s success.
2010
The popularity and range of mobile devices exploded in the 2010s, and as a reaction to the tech-driven world, vintage styles were everywhere. However, minimalism was not done, and Accent adapted to a clean, typographic logo with minimal distraction to the core message. We kept this logo throughout the decade, and it worked well alongside flat illustrative imagery.
2020
Although we’re at the beginning of this decade, already we’re seeing a resurgence of 3D illustrations, monochromatic palettes and bold typography. Accent’s most recent logo draws from these trends. We’re ever-evolving, and our logo communicates this.
If you feel your brand is being left behind or needs a little on-trend sparkle, we’d love to chat about how we can help you adapt and evolve towards 2030.
Article by Karen
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