Logos of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent
The current era of logo design began in the 1950s. A paradigmatic contemporary logo is the Chase Bank logo, designed in 1960 by Chermayeff & Geismar, considered pioneers of Modernist graphic design in the United States. The Chase logo was “the first truly abstract logo†of the contemporary era. As would happen with many subsequent corporate logos, mass media advertising was used to link the logo with the bank in the public mind, while its simple, distinctive form, free of specific cultural or other connotations, was well suited to represent a complex, multinational corporation.
Today there are many corporations, products, brands, services, agencies and other entities using an ideogram (sign, icon) or an emblem (symbol) or a combination of sign and emblem as a logo. As a result, only a few of the thousands of ideograms people see are recognized without a name. An effective logo may consist of both an ideogram and the company name (logotype) to emphasize the name over the graphic, and employ a unique design via the use of letters, colors, and additional graphic elements.
The Coca-Cola logo is identifiable in other languages, here written in Cyrillic.
Ideograms and symbols may be more effective than written names (logotypes), especially for logos translated into many alphabets in increasingly globalised markets. For instance, a name in the Arabic language would be of little help in most European markets. By contrast, ideograms keep the general proprietary nature of the product in both markets. In non-profit areas, the Red Cross (which goes by Red Crescent in Muslim countries) is an example of an extremely well known emblem which does not need an accompanying name. Branding aims to facilitate cross-language marketing. The Coca-Cola logo can be identified in any language because of its standard color and well known “”ribbon wave”” design.
Some countries have logos, e.g. Argentina, Spain, Italy, Turkey and The Islands of The Bahamas, that identify them in marketing their country solely for tourism purposes. Such logos often are used by countries whose tourism sector makes up a large portion of their economy.
from :www.wikipedia.org”