Angus’ A-Z of logos: Y and Z
In the final edition of his A-Z of logos series, Pentagram partner and creative director Angus Hyland dissects two very different fashion brands: YSL and Zara.
For the final instalment of my A-Z series, I’m looking at two logos that are both big hitters in the fashion world, but sit at very different ends of the fashion spectrum.
As any self-respecting design nerd will know, the YSL logo was designed by the acclaimed graphic artist A M Cassandre. Created in 1963 for the fashion house established by Yves Saint Laurent (shortly after he was fired by Dior), it’s a masterful mix of serif, sans serif, roman and italic, and exudes understated elegance and class.
It remained in place across the YSL brand until 2012, when then-creative director Hedi Slimane banished the monogram to the accessory line, shortened the name to Saint Laurent Paris and replaced it with a Helvetica Bold wordmark. This move ignited the much-discussed ‘blandification’ trend, where the major fashion houses swapped their well-established logos for something much more generic.
While Yves Saint Laurent is the epitome of elitist high-end fashion, Zara is the epitome of fashion for all. Established in the 1960s, Zara now has nearly 3,000 stores across 96 countries combined with a huge online presence across the globe. Like YSL, it too has a designer logo – by the celebrated fashion art director Fabien Baron. Launched in 2019 and described by Erik Spiekermann as “the worst piece of type I’ve seen in years,” its rounded serifs and ultra-tight kerning definitely raised a few eyebrows in the design community at the time.
It would be easy to lump Zara in with all the other high street brands, but in the same way that it mimics more high-end offerings with its branding, it cleverly combines the aspiration of a luxury brand with the immediacy and affordability of fast fashion. Whereas most of its competitors ship by sea, Zara can get clothes from factory to shop floor in 48 hours. It also deliberately understocks some of the more fashion forward items, making these limited-edition pieces even more desirable. An ever-expanding army of ready and willing influencers create viral products which ramps up the demand even further. And as we all know, when we can’t have something, we want it even more.
It's quite fitting to wrap up this A-Z series with a couple of fashion brands. While other sectors might not move quite as quickly as the fickle world of fashion, branding itself – like fashion – is rooted in the idea of transformation and constant reinvention. What goes around eventually comes around, and it’s a pretty good bet that at some point in the not-too-distant future, in a visionary move by the latest creative director, an ‘archive-inspired’ version of Cassandre’s classic YSL logo will emerge.
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