Samsung Needs to Change Its Logo

Company logo has been changed with the stream of the times. The current trend in logo design is probably minimalism, or simplicity. For example, some companies began to remove letter part of their logo and make use of emblem part only (e.g., Starbucks, Nike, etc.), some, on the contrary to this, began to remove emblem part of their logo and make use of letter part only (e.g., Samsung, Coca Cola, etc.), and some turned their former logo into simpler one (e.g., Apple, Instagram, Microsoft windows, etc.). 

Samsung’s (Samsung Electronics Co) logo has been changed as shown in the image above. ‘Samsung’(Hangul(Korean alphabet): 삼성, Hanja(the Korean name for Chinese characters): 三星) means ‘three stars’ in English. So, Samsung adopted three stars shaped logo as its initial one, then it went through several changes. Examining the last change on the image, Samsung has removed oval shaped pattern and used wordmarks only since 2015.

However, this change is not enough. Samsung Galaxy is the best android smart phone so far. But compared to Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy seems to lack something. It is not performance, but something different. And in consequence of this, Apple has many big fans of its products, but Samsung hasn’t.

Then what is this? Maybe there are several factors, and I think that the logo design is one of the important factors about this. Let me give you some examples.

This is the picture of Apple’s iPhone, MacBook, and iPad. Apple’s products are famous for its beautiful design. Imagine that the logo (bitten apple image) is replaced by word mark ‘APPLE’ or its product name (refer to the figure on the right side). Still, they look good. But you can see that it is not as good as before.

The next one is the picture of Microsoft Surface Book. It used Windows logo (not tilted one) instead of its word mark ‘Microsoft’. And it also looks better than using its word mark.

This is also the case for cars. Many car manufacturers use their emblem in front part of the car and steering wheel, etc. It is rarely that car companies use wordmarks only.

So, I think Samsung needs to introduce the new emblem to replace wordmarks ‘SAMSUNG’ used behind its products, especially Galaxy. Then, what kind of the emblem does Samsung need to introduce? I don't have a good answer to that question, but there is one indicator that is helpful to make the new one.

If Samsung wants to make the new one, they don’t have to be tied down to the meaning of its company name, or ‘three stars’. Microsoft may be a good example for this. Microsoft's logo (emblem) has nothing to do with the meaning of the company, but customers don’t care about that. So, Samsung can choose three stars shaped logo, galaxy shaped one, or the new one. The important thing is not the meaning of the logo or connection with its company name, but the excellence of the design.

Coming up with an alternative won’t be easy. However, if Samsung can do it, it will be one step toward a new leap forward.