1,000 Marks: by Pentagram

A collection of 1000 symbols and logotypes designed by the Pentagram partners from 1972 to the present.

The biggest part of what Pentagram has done for the last fifty years has always been creating brand identities for clients from many different industries and continents. The humble mark is central to all of these well-honed identities – often acting as shorthand for the brand itself. Marks are everywhere – they enter our collective psyche, they’re part of the cultural landscape and they symbolise the relationships we form with brands.

The 1,000 marks featured in this book represent the diverse range of identity work created by Pentagram partners past and present. Since its inception, Pentagram has designed marks for everyone from multinational corporations to start-ups, government agencies, nonprofits and social enterprises, clubs, societies, individuals, districts and even whole countries. Regardless of your identity, an original mark that you can take ownership of is the starting point for communicating who you are and what you do.

There are many approaches to creating a distinctive logo, and all of them can be seen here, from bold typographic wordmarks to pictorial symbols and more abstract solutions. Printing them in black and white helps us see them in their purest form, highlighting the contrasts and occasional similarities between them.

The practice of design has changed radically since 1972, but its concerns remain the same. The deceptively simple exercise of designing a mark for a client, and the elusive quest for timelessness that it entails, are still central to the challenge that graphic designers face today.