Character Trademarks

By John Mendenhall

Book Overview

With the growing awareness of the value of character trademark symbols in product design, marketing, and promotion has come a resurgence of interest in these extraordinary icons. The popularity of the California Raisins and other recent examples attest to the appeal of character trademarks in popular culture. From Reddy Kilowatt to Colonel Sanders, there is humor and nostalgia in the humble, often "kitschy" images which have become classics of commercial folk art that every consumer can relate to. This engaging volume contains approximately one thousand trademarks from the past ninety years, as well as a "Hall of Fame" section profiling some of the classic characters with the history of their development. Chronicle Books is pleased to include this remarkable volume in its series of design books, including Trademarks of the 20's and 30's and Trademarks of the 40's and 50's.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877017522
• ISBN13: 9780877017523
• Release Date: October 1990
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Excellent for the purpose it was created for

This is a valuable resource for anyone with an interest in character and trademark design. I value this book precisely for its quantity rather than quality. It is organized by character category, with chapters on anthropomorphic characters, animals, females, males, and child character trademarks. Within those chapters they are further grouped: skunks, birds, chefs, scientists, Scotsmen, etc. A great book for the shelf of graphic designers, animators, illustrators, and others!

Making a mark.

An intriguing paperback of over eight hundred character marks and amazingly NO INDEX. Another reviewer has noted that they are not examples of pristine artwork, well, yes very true but most of them are less than two inches deep and I don't really think it detracts from the books worth.Most of the pages have nine marks and some very clean typography for the captions, there are several spreads through the book with color photos of three dimensional marks and these pages make a neat break from the majority in black and white. If you want to see a whole load of three dimensional trademarks have a look at the lovely 'What a Character' by Warren Dotz and Jim Morton, a book with dozens of color photos of American advertising icons.The chapter on anthropomorphic marks I found fascinating, here designers really had to stretch their creativity to make human forms out of company products. On page fifteen a 1962 'Mr Wirewell' from the Electrical Manufacturers Association was a face within a lightning flash with a service hat on top.A fun book for designers and lovers of Americana...like me.Hey...Chronicle Books, don't forget the index next time!