What is a logotype?

‘expression’ logotype designed by Joseph Ku

One of the earliest was the simple signature which gave credibility to documents and easily identified the owner. This was/is a unique drawing of the letterforms involved. One’s name is insufficient, i.e. there are an awful lot of people with the name ‘Smith’, but is highly unlikely that two of them would sign their name in an identical form. Industry today invests large amounts of time and money not only in creating the company or product name, but also in the design and appearance of that name in the public arena. It is now commonly known as a logotype which is simply a readable and pronounceable word displayed in a unique form.

The role of the designer is to create a set of letter forms which when put together to form a word are indicative of the company and its’ products and/or services, reinforcing the chosen word itself which fulfills the same function. In other word the logotype not only identifies the company etc but discusses various qualities of the company and its products which would otherwise take too much time to relate.