At Circumerro International Headquarters (*ahem*), here in Jackson Hole, we speak the shop-talk-jargon of “Brand Identity” every day.
But when working with clients, we’re sensitive to the overuse of vaguely understood industry buzzwords. They can sound presumptuous and inflated. But in some cases, an industry term is useful in summarizing an idea that is difficult to articulate.
Coincidentally, yesterday, such a term crossed my path three times. At Circumerro International Headquarters, anything that happens three times warrants a BLOG entry.
The term is Wordmark. As defined by The Dictionary of Brand (yes, a real dictionary published by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, AIGA), a Wordmark is: the brand name as represented by a distinctive typeface or lettering style; a logotype.
If you find yourself calling your company’s mark a logo and then following-up with an explanation that it’s really just a word, not the kind of graphic one might typically think of as a logo (e.g. the BMW roundel, the Apple Computer apple), then I would consider making use of the term Wordmark. Easy right? As a matter of fact, you might also notice that your company (and certainly the majority of the top 100 brands in the world have) a logo and a wordmark. Hmm.
Thanks for reading.
Matthew