Think About It

We’ve talked before in this space about a logo serving as the first introduction to the personality of a brand. Good logos are not marvelous works of art. They communicate an idea, evoke a feeling or do both. And they’re usable in all media, recognizable in sizes huge and tiny, effective in color or black and white.

As simple as that sounds, creating such a mark requires a fair amount of ingenuity. But some companies choose a far simpler approach. They simply model their identity after a well-known brand.

We happened upon two such companies recently, both while driving around metro Atlanta. In each case, the identity caught our eye – not for its brilliance, but because we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

The first is BeltSouth in Powder Springs. We’re not sure if BeltSouth is in the business of upholding trousers or making machines run smoothly, but we’re confident they’re not a telecommunications company. However, BeltSouth has chosen to fashion its identity as an almost exact replica of BellSouth. POV has started an office pool on when the telecom’s lawyers will come crashing down on this Powder Springs imposter.

The second is Eastern Motor Cars, a Tucker-based company that has elected to model its identity after that of long-defunct Eastern Airlines. You may recall Eastern’s symbol – a blue oval with an airplane suggested by a single horizontal white line and a second line at 11 o’clock. Eastern Motor Cars transforms the plane into a car by adding two circles and a third line.

Even if Eastern Motor Cars were somehow related to the bygone airline – which we suspect isn’t the case – this logo is a bad idea. Same with BeltSouth. What these marks communicate is the idea that “there’s absolutely nothing unique about our company, so we’ll just make ourselves look like someone you know. Ha, ha.”

Logos aren’t everything. But they’re something – that first introduction to what you are. BeltSouth and Eastern Motor Cars have elected to make their introductions in costume. As if every day were Halloween.