So long, serif font family? Well, that’s what global fashion houses would have us believe. The often all-caps, wide-spaced aesthetic to covet, seemingly no longer requires fussy strokes, firmly waving goodbye to elaborate lettering. Basically, they’ve gone all sans-serif on the logo game, with only minuscule variations and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Coined as ‘blanding’ by some, who’s digging the new look, you ask? Everyone from Balmain and Burberry to Saint Laurent, Celine (they’ve dropped the accent), and Balenciaga, plus many more major players. The visuals speak for themselves, yet curiously, it’s possibly not until you view a selection of redesigned luxury logos, aligned side by side, that you begin to absorb just how strikingly similar they really are.
The sans-serif industry rebrand collective connotes modernity, minimalism, purity, and simplicity for the current logo landscape. Equally, this cherry-picked typography group also translates and displays perfectly for the digital world, offering crisp definition for screens, both big and small, across the land.
For many of these brands, the unveiling of a shiny new logo comes after decades of iconic heritage. Take Burberry for example, founded in 1856, the quintessentially British fashion house, who hadn’t altered their logo in years. However, under Riccardo Tisci’s creative lead, and a fresh logo from graphic designer, Peter Saville (known for his album artwork for Joy Division), the familiar knight on a horse was erased and the simplicity has ensued ever since.
“Burberry needed an identity that is fluid and able to cross over into all the categories that are required of a big luxury clothing and accessories brand – something to transcend the company provenance without denying it,” Peter Saville told Dezeen.
The contemporary, no-frills logo announcement was made on Instagram, underpinning the shift again being made for generation digital. Although, the redesign gained inspiration from the Burberry archive, with its utilitarian feel, which certainly works harmoniously with the roots of the trench coat.