Editing Logo (section)

==History==
Numerous inventions and techniques have contributed to the contemporary logo, including [[cylinder seal]]s ({{Circa|2300 BCE}}), [[coin]]s ({{Circa|600 BCE}}),<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', I, 94.</ref><ref>A. Ramage, "Golden Sardis", King Croesus' Gold: Excavations at Sardis and the History of Gold Refining, edited by A. Ramage and P. Craddock, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2000, p. 18.</ref> [[trans-cultural diffusion]] of [[logograph]]ic languages, [[coat of arms|coats of arms]],<ref>C. A. Stothard, ''Monumental Effigies of Great Britain'' (1817) pl. 2, illus. in Wagner, Anthony, Richmond Herald, ''Heraldry in England'' (Penguin, 1946), pl. I.</ref> [[watermark]]s,{{sfn|Meggs|1998|p=58}} [[silver hallmarks]], and the development of [[history of printing|printing technology]].

As the [[Industrial Revolution]] converted western societies from [[Agriculture|agrarian]] to industrial in the 18th and 19th centuries, photography and lithography contributed to the boom of an advertising industry that integrated [[typography]] and imagery together on the page.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=138–159}} Simultaneously, typography itself was undergoing a revolution of form and expression that expanded beyond the modest, serif typefaces used in books, to bold, ornamental typefaces used on broadsheet [[poster]]s.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=126–134}}

The arts were expanding in purpose—from expression and decoration of an artistic, storytelling nature, to a differentiation of brands and products that the growing middle classes were consuming. Consultancies and trades-groups in the commercial arts were growing and organizing; by 1890, the US had 700 lithographic printing firms employing more than 8,000 people.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|p=148–155}} Artistic credit tended to be assigned to the lithographic company, as opposed to the individual artists who usually performed less important jobs.
[[File:BMC 06.jpg|thumb|left|A coin from early 6th century BC [[Lydia]] bearing the head of a roaring lion with sun rays]]

Innovators in the visual arts and lithographic process—such as French printing firm Rouchon in the 1840s, Joseph Morse of New York in the 1850s, Frederick Walker of England in the 1870s, and Jules Chéret of France in the 1870s—developed an illustrative style that went beyond tonal, representational art to figurative imagery with sections of bright, flat colors.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|p=148–155}} Playful children's books, authoritative newspapers, and conversational periodicals developed their own visual and editorial styles for unique, expanding audiences. As printing costs decreased, literacy rates increased, and visual styles changed, the [[Victorian decorative arts]] led to an expansion of typographic styles and methods of representing businesses.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=159–161}}

[[File:Bass logo.svg|thumb|upright|The first logo to be trademarked was the [[Bass Brewery|Bass]] red triangle in 1876.]]

The [[Arts and Crafts Movement]] of late-19th century, partially in response to the excesses of Victorian typography, aimed to restore an honest sense of craftsmanship to the mass-produced goods of the era.{{sfn|Meggs|1998|pp=162–167}} A renewal of interest in craftsmanship and quality also provided the artists and companies with a greater interest in credit, leading to the creation of unique logos and marks.

By the 1950s, [[Modernism]] had shed its roots as an avant-garde artistic movement in Europe to become an international, commercialized movement with adherents in the United States and elsewhere. The visual simplicity and conceptual clarity that were the hallmarks of [[Modernism]] as an artistic movement formed a powerful toolset for a new generation of graphic designers whose logos embodied [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]]'s dictum, "Less is more." Modernist-inspired logos proved successful in the era of mass visual communication ushered in by television, improvements in printing technology, and digital innovations.