Iconography

Readily Recognizable Mass Iconography: The Power of Product Recognition and Recall Through Logos

We, as humans, navigate this modern world using a vernacular language of abstracted images that represent products. Just think of it, the last time you were traveling long distance on an interstate highway and became hungry, what did you look for? Did you seek a text message that detailed services at the next exit, or did you instinctively yearn for the familiar logo of your favorite restaurant chain?

Take this concept one step further. Now recall making that same trip with a young child, of perhaps three or four years old. At this age they cannot yet read to any extent; but, that same child can literally pick out their favorite fast food restaurant the moment it appears on the horizon! The topic of our paper will examine the key features that make a logo, and in particular logos representing national "fast food" franchises, into the abstracted symbol that represents a product, and is therefore, readily recognizable. We will examine the attributes of abstracted images (logos), the physical shapes that create logos, and the colors, and combinations of colors, that make a logo recognizable. From this examination we will distill the key attributes that give function to logos and create, in our terms, "Readily recognizable mass iconography."

Following are excerpts from the report chapters - full text PDF available upon request

RESEARCH, 1960 THROUGH 1990

We shall start our exploration by examining historical and current, scientific research in the field of image recognition. Furthermore, we will work from the perspective that to evoke the Pavlovian responses which are key to the success of a fast-food logo requires reconstruction of that logo into an intelligible image of the actual product. In effect, the McDonald's arches are not a neon illuminated plastic sign, they are a representation of a specific genre of food that has a nation-wide consistency and certain appeal.

To understand how we humans navigate in a world of icons requires an understanding of how we process visual information. In 1960 Sperling published an article detailing his work in "Iconic memory research". Sperling attempted to show that recognition could be formed from brief exposures to icons. His work detailed how icons were identified thorough attributes such as position, color, and brightness. Furthermore, Sperling's study emphasized that this recognition did not carry over to further abstracted forms such as letters or digits - Sperling, G. 1960 The information available in brief visual presentations... end chpt 1 excerpt

CONTEMPORATY RESEARCH

Throughout the '80s theorists used metaphors of zoom lens and spotlight in an attempt to refine the two-step cognitive process. In the opinion of van der Heijden, in his 1996 article Two Stages of Visual Information Processing and Visual Perception? , there is a fundamental flaw in all these attempts; namely, they examine behavior while failing to examine the experience of the viewer. It is the lack of attention to the subjective experience where, he contends, these theories all fail to produce a concept that explains perception in subjective terms. It is a very measurable quantity to have a test subject pick out and recall the red colored letter, but this is far removed from the visual processing that stimulates a reaction in the viewer.

From our viewpoint, with a background in advertising and promotion, and more specifically the teaching of college students to be versed in the subtle language of visual persuasion, we tend to again agree with van der Heijden. Recognizing an image because it stands out from its background, by either color or shape may be an initial form of cognition; however, mere recognition may not lead to the subjective reaction that is necessary to cause the viewer to take some form of action. Without action to the visual stimuli there can be little more than fleeting cognition. Consequently, if the subject does not react to the stimuli, how can we say that they perceived anything? ... end chpt 2 excerpt

METHODOLOGY

As we stated at the beginning of this paper, the nature of our inquiry was to determine the visual attributes that lend to the recognition of a product logo. In particular we will focus our work on an area of vernacular imagery, that of the fast food logo. We hope to determine at what point the recognition factor of a logo breaks down. From this process we can conclude what are the key visual components of a logo. Furthermore, we want to determine if there is a combination of the attributes of shape and color that raise a logo into the highly distinguishable category of "Readily recognizable mass iconography". To execute this test we will employ a printed survey to determine recognizability of logos at various levels of abstraction.

We began by using the Twin Cities phone book to identify names of "fast food" restaurants. From this list of 12 franchises we conducted an Internet search to determine which ones had a national presence. Our search was now narrowed to nine. From these nine we obtained a copy of their logo from the corporate web site. Next we viewed all these logos simultaneously on the computer screen and discussed their practicality for inclusion in our study...end chpt 3 excerpt

OVERVIEW OF DATA

All test groups were from Brown College. The approximate age range was 18 to 22 years old. Male to female ratio was roughly 50percent / 50 percent. Students sampled were from either the first or second quarter of the Visual Communications program. Each of the tests, with the exclusion of "Logo Identity" was given to two groups, noted as "A" and "B". All groups completed only one test - no groups, or members of any group, participated in multiple tests. Overall, we surveyed a total of 107 college students under controlled and consistent conditions...end chpt 4 excerpt

SUMATION OF DATA

In our opinion we have surmised the following from the test data:

A full color, fully detailed, logo of a nationally represented franchise dose not necessarily rely on the product name to be recognized.
A very high level of recognition is carried by the shape of the logo, provided that some detail is present to define complex shapes.
Recognition of the silhouette varies greatly. For brands with a uniquely identifiable shapes it is high, for brands with complex images it is much lower.
Color alone is a quite poor product identifier, unless your brand is identified by a unique combination that has persisted for some time, such as McDonalds use of red and yellow.

DISCUSSION

We set out to determine which visual factors, if any, were key to the identification of logos associated with products that have a national presence. Citing the early works of Sperling, we see that position - of logo elements -and brightness - or contrast - determines, at least to some degree, the recognizability of a logo. This parallels the results for our "Shape Identity" study, where 96percent of test subjects could recognize the logo when given only shapes of logo elements and tonality. Furthermore, our "Logo Identification" study that resulted in 100percent recognition of every logo tested, coincides with Sperling's findings that letters and digits are not a key to logo recognition.

Our tests were conducted with very brief exposure and reaction time. When practical the test was collected as soon the administrator had reached the back of the room and returned to the front to collect the results. Exposure times were at the most three minutes or less. We sought to elicit a nearly instinctive response to the images. What we attempted to replicate was a response that would call on the "Iconic memory" that Neisser postulated in his 1973 studies...end chpt 6 excerpt

IMPLICATIONS

We feel our study implies that a logo must work at a high level of abstraction. The most successful logos do so by relying upon a unique outline shape. Many times the logo must compete with a high level of background distraction. It must be visible through this visual noise. Its outline shape must be readily recognizable. Whatever the visual theorists may perceive as a cognitive process; as a marketing devise the logo must be recognizable at a glance. From a crowded subway seat, or the windshield of a speeding automobile, the fast food logo must be so unique, that even in an abstracted form, it provokes immediate attention...end chpt 7 excerpt

CONCLUSION

In our opinion, as college instructors who teach courses on visual persuasion, for a product logo to be highly effective it must be recognizable from momentary exposure, even in an abstracted form. Few logos perform at this level. Those that do, stand as surrogates for the product, and can evoke a near Pavlovian response. In a visual culture, such as ours, we are awash with images. However, the images that truly work, do so to such an extent that we learn to recognize them before we learn to read. These clever shapes and colors fall into the realm we call "Readily recognizable mass iconography." ...end chpt 8 excerpt