those working in the different strands demonstrates an attempt at objectivity watermarks and airline livery.
In
that Thomson writes about. Then one in the historical and theoretical back- each case the codes for proper use
could have had a visual record to grounds, his taxonomy and visual are foregrounded, for example the
parallel the textual argument. The index which combine to jar with his controversy over Queen Margrethe II
cover, which juxtaposes a halftone value-laden stance. Mollerup displays of Denmark's insignia which contra-
dot screen with a photograph of a little awareness of his own prejudices. venes heraldic etiquette by employing
nineteenth-century type designer for A desire for objective comprehen- both an Arabic '2' and a Latin 'R'
a purpose that is unclear, also misses siveness is continued in the catholic when properly the insignia should
an opportunity to represent the theme description of disciplines which the be entirely Arabic or Latin. The chap-
of the book visually. study of trademarks, and this study in ter satisfyingly concludes where it
Ellen Thomson attracted attention particular, encompass: 'anthropology, began by pointing out the direct link
in the design history community history, heraldry, psychology, mar- between modern and ancient uses of
with several articles drawn from her keting, semiotics, communication marks.
book which appeared in Design Issues theory and, of course, graphic In his analysis of Tunction' Mol-
and the Journal of Design History before design' (p. 11). Design history fails lerup examines the programmatic
the book's publication. As a follow-up to register on Mollerup's disciplinary approach to design using among his
to those articles, this volume is a major scale and, on the basis of the careful examples Newell & Sorrel's 1986
contribution to the design history liter- arrangement of the rest of the text, it work for Intercity: This neat design
ature. It stakes out new territory by is not inappropriate to wonder about manual helped to turn around the
focusing on issues of professionaliza- the logic behind his arrangement of fortunes of Intercity' (p. 47). Moller-
tion and should remain a valuable these disciplines. It is not alphabeti- up's measure of successful work is
source of information and insight for cal, so perhaps it is a value-laden list very much in accordance with the
years to come. of importance, as with ingredients Thatcherite aim to stimulate trade
arranged according to their percent- through design. Later in the chapter
VICTOR MARGOLIN
age presence in food. Nevertheless, he gives an idea of what 'graphic
University of Illinois, Chicago the book contributes to the concerns excellence' means: 'A design pro-
of design history and to existing texts gramme should be a dynamic state-
on the subject. Mollerup's encyclo- ment of aspirations that inspires
Marks of Excellence: The History paedic overview provides an updated employees, helping to improve com-
addition to more personal accounts pany performance and customer satis-
and Taxonomy of Trademarks by designers, such as Wally Olins' faction' (p. 55). This is set against a
PER MOLLERUP. Phaidon, 1997. 240 Corporate Identity and Raymond theorized backdrop which distin-
pp. £45 cloth. ISBN O 7148 3448 3. Loewy's Industrial Design. As we guishes audiences for a design iden-
Marks of Excellence is another contribu- shall see, Mollerup oscillates between tity; as well as representing an
tion to Phaidon's de luxe series on the scientific approach of structural- organization to external clients, it
design and architecture which pro- ism and the dissemination of value visually cements the ideology of the
vides an appropriate platform for judgements characteristic of Olins company for its employees.
communicating through impeccably and Loewy. The six chapters here Perhaps the most original portion of
and generously reproduced images. framed by introduction and appar- Marks of Excellence is the Taxonomy'
The indulgence of the coffee-table atus offer discrete benefits and are which uses theories put forward in the
format is combined in this book with united by their subject matter rather preceding chapters to form a model
an intelligent and comprehensive text than approaches to it. Mollerup's by which we might understand how
to create a reading experience prop- methodology is characterized by a trademarks signify. This takes us
erly saturated with looking. The illus- concept of 'graphic excellence' that beyond mere recognition or subjective
trations are presented in two ways. undercuts his attempts at academic response to a formalized level in
Firstly the text is regularly punctuated neutrality. But even the latter remains which we may sort the 'letter marks'
with opulent full-bleed spreads which largely free of socio-historic contextu- in a logo into a number of categories.
invite the reader to treat trademarks alization required for useful design Recognizing 'non-acronym initial
with an excited reverence akin to the historical analysis. Marks of Excellenceabbreviations' from 'found names' or
fetishism of the centre-fold. By con- is therefore most usefully viewed and 'artificial names' can be combined
trast, illustrations are also supplied in used as an addition to existing texts with an analysis of the visual refer-
a diagrammatic fashion, where trade- and requires augmentation on the ence of a trademark which may con-
marks are reproduced in thumbnail part of the reader for design historical tain 'metaphoric marks' as distinct
sequences which reflect, throughout applications. from the material qualities of 'figura-
the book, the taxonomic structure of The first chapter supplies a 'His- tive marks'. After this, the index of
Chapter 4. These two ways of looking tory' of trademarks including her- motifs supplied in Chapter 7 is bath-
provide a visual correlative for the aldry, cattle-branding, ceramic and etic. The taxonomy does provide an
double vision of the text. Mollerup stonemasonry marks, royal insignia, implicit link between the commun-
182 journal of Design History Vol. 11 No. 2 <Q 1998 The Design History Society
ication theory so clearly expressed in which motifs signify which gives erable cultural convergence in the
and its application in practice. How- special meaning to his use of the word appearance of contemporary graphic
ever, the book lacks an extended ana- 'diagram'. We may compare Moller- design, trademarks from different
lysis of the usefulness and possible up's analysis with a journalistic ex- geographical areas often retain some
applications of such an impressively ample: form of regional quality' (p. 72). This
involved taxonomy.
In 1964, the new-look British Rail was statement remains undeveloped in a
Mollerup is a designer, showing unveiled in the guise of a snappy logo, book which is fascinating partly for its
several examples of his own work in striking blue-and-grey colour schemes,
the text, yet he neglects to present global source material, creating a
Swiss-style typography and, rather inap- sense of cheated frustration in the
design as an activity, instead support- propriately, Germanic uniforms. The
ing an outmoded concept of design as logo was adopted from the Dutch interested reader.
a term for finished products. The national railways, and the new lettering, Nevertheless, Marks of Excellence
'Development' chapter at the end of Rail Alphabet, was dearly a modified describes not only the most valued
the book appears to offer an escape version of the well-established Helve- contributions to modern trademark
from this static model of design, but a tica. Yet the overall effect was as compel- design reproduced here, but is equally
series of finished published solutions ling as it was forward looking. apt as a description of the text itself.
presented over many years lacks the Following the lead of London Transport
Mollerup's publishing record dwells
immediacy of working development, (the London Transport of fifty years
ago), Britain's railways now had a cor- on issues related to the theme of the
such as those for Wolff Olins' British
Telecom logo of 1989-91 held in the porate image to match their stop-go new text. Titles including The Corpor-
Victoria and Albert Museum. attempt to transform the network from ate Design Program and The Visible
a Victorian heirloom into a white-hot Company have fed into a Ph.D. thesis
In addition, Mollerup intends that technological marvel.1
his book will be not only an examina- of which Marks of Excellence is one
tion of, but also an intervention in, the Glancey's expression is suitably result. Insights such as 'some initial
business of corporate identity: 'the looser than that of Mollerup, but his abbreviations seem to provide more
book should also be conducive to account is arguably more thorough in anonymity than identity . . . Huge
encouraging clients to commission its evocation of consumer response companies such as IBM and GM did
trademarks that are both distinctive and in its wider contexrualization not grow big because of initial abbre-
and descriptive, and inspiring than Mollerup's focused approach. viations. They can afford abbrevia-
designers to design them' (p. 11). In Clearly, Mollerup provides a large tions because they are big' (p. 118)
targeting clients as well as designers quantity of trademarks at the are invaluable for their clear conci-
for his readership, Mollerup signals expense of discursive, contextualized
sion. The book may be used by stu-
the problematic translation of aca- analysis. Where Mollerup describes
demic research into, if not populist how the British Rail trademark dents as an introduction to
then layman's terms. works, Glancey supplies an under- communication theory and as a good
The problem of Mollerup's value- standing of its effects. Marks of Excel- example of the application of such
laden approach resides not only in his lence sports two subtitles on the front theories to graphic design practice. It
lack of a definition of the 'excellence' cover and the title page, The History will be useful to designers (sympath-
he refers to (in strong contrast to his and Taxonomy of Trademarks' and etic to Mollerup's taste or otherwise)
laborious working through of a defini- The Function and Variety of Trade- as a self-proclaimed canon of
tion of trademark) but also the way in marks' respectively. Neither pro- approved design selected by a man
which he allows the trademarks he mises discussion of consumer both writer and designer. For the gen-
selects to speak for themselves. For response, although this occurs in
eral reader the book will usefully
example, here is Mollerup's descrip- places, notably where Mollerup
refers to possible erroneous or enhance perception and identification
tion of the British Rail logo which
'wild' readings, using Eco. Even so, of the system, rules and techniques of
appears in the 'arrows' section of his
pictorial index: The official British a study of communication needs the communication through corporate
Rail interpretation of its trademark vitality of heterogeneous consumer identity.
arrows is that they represent two- participation in the creation of mean- GRACE LEES
way traffic on parallel tracks. Arrow ing. University of Hertfordshire
trademarks for transportation com- Because the book functions as
panies are diagrams. They show the something of an encyclopaedia, it
structure of the service' (p. 135). Mol- can be glib or telegraphic in some of
lerup's analysis relates to information its treatments. For example, in a dis- Note
gained from an 'official' source (about cussion through McLuhan of the im- 1 Jonathan Glancey, The logo now
which we are given no further portance of media for message arriving at platform 4', Guardian,
details), and also to his own taxo- transfer, Mollerup reminds us of cul- 'Space' Supplement, 26 September
nomic working-through of the ways tural determinism; 'In spite of consid-
Journal of Design History Vol. 11 No. 2 © 199S The Design History Society 183
