I'm back

 

Hello. It's me, Ben. I'm back.

I'd like to say thanks very much to Matt who managed 14 posts in 22 days,  the longest guest stint we've ever had at NDG. He did a stellar job; as you guys seemed to have noticed judging by the comments.

My favourite posts were the on-street kerning, the awesome giraffe floral dalmatian combo and the debate about the most reproduced image. On that last post, Russell once asked me what the oldest logo still in use today was. Which is a similar question. As Max points out at first I assumed it was the Christian Cross. But after a bit of desk based research I reckon it's the four letters SPQR which come from the latin Senatus Populusque Romanus and means "The Senate and the People of Rome".

It's still used in Rome's coat of arms, on civic buildings, public fountains, and (just for Michael Johnson) manhole covers.

The exact date of it's origin is unknown, but it was obviously pretty soon after the foundation of the Roman Republic and therefore before the crucifixion of Jesus and therefore presumably before the cross was used as a symbol by the Christian church.

Although it's not a logo as we know it today, it's definitely a word mark and it has recognition and meaning which therefore more than qualifies it as a logo.

Anyway.

Back to business as usual. I'm off to Mumbai on Friday to speak at the Kyoorius Designyatra. (Designyatra literally means Design Pilgrimage.) There are some awesome speakers including Erik Spiekermann, Michael Wolff and Sir Martin Sorrell. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to talk about yet but I think it's going to be along the lines of 'Things I passionately believed last year that I don't believe any more". If I can make the title less clunky.

I'm pretty excited to be going out there. I'll try and blog while I'm there, even though I'm only there for 29 hours. Hopefully I'll bump into Jamie the pigeon.

Oh yeah, and I'll blog about that poolside newspaper up there in a bit.

Comments

[Neil Martin]

Interesting theory about SPQR. However, as you mention, it's also used on manholes but it's set in a different typeface and I would think that would mean that it's not the word mark that's important but the letters themselves. Doesn't that mean that SPQR is not the oldest logo, but possibly one of the oldest brands?

[Tom]

Oh God.

[Ben]

Neil, good point. I think they still use the serif version, I just couldn't find a picture of it!

[Ben]

Tom, good point.

[davidthedesigner]

Funny, I had you down as an infinity pool sort of guy.

Oh, welcome back by the way.

[David Airey]

A tip for Mumbai:

When you arrive at the airport, opt for one of the air conditioned taxis — not because of the heat, but because it takes around two hours to reach the business district, and many of the traditional taxis have windows that are jammed open, leaving you at the mercy of the street teenagers who like to "wet slap" you on the journey.