This week, Interwoven—the fabric market put on by the International Textiles Association (ITA) that was previously known as Showtime—debuted its new brand look, including a new logo and magazine that ITA says “represent the merging of ideas through collaboration, connection and innovation.”
Talking to exhibitors around the show, many were not used to the new name, but they were excited about it and even happy to remember that it’s not called Showtime anymore.
Showtime has been the name of the market since the ITA’s inception in 1990, so it’s safe to say it was due for a bit of a revamp.
To the ITA’s credit, I think many in the home furnishings industry would benefit from updating their logos. Not only does a new logo allow you to spread the word about your brand and keep it in front of people, but more importantly, it keeps you current.
If someone looks at your brand and sees an out-of-date logo, they are likely to think less of your business—and bad branding can be worse than no branding at all.
But there also seems to be something happening with modern logos in that many of them are made up of monotonous black and white letters. I realize it’s supposed to be a modern, updated, and upscale look, but it lacks creativity and takes the fun out of original logos.
There are tons of pop culture metaphors for breaking out of a black-and-white world to see the beauty of color, but when it comes to home furnishings logos, that sentiment is becoming harder to find.
Look at Sunbrella’s logo—it’s a bold red-orange color, it has Sunbrella written in a hip font, and it’s recognizable by nearly everyone in the furniture industry.
FedEx and UPS both have unique logos that have identifiable colors and designs that make them almost instantly recognizable.
Or how about Wayfair? That color of purple is so identifiable Crayola might even call it “Wayfair Purple.”
(And speaking of Sunbrella and Wayfair, these are two brands that—in part because of their logos—are recognizable even by consumers. That kind of recognition can’t be beat, and it’s certainly not a prominent trend in the home furnishings industry.)
Outside the industry, consider this: Coca-Cola’s logo, which notably stands out for its eye-catching red and white is recognized by 90% of the global population.
When you take the life out of your logo, you take the life out of your brand. And if you were to look at a collection of logos that were all just black and white letters, would any of them feel lively to you?
We’re told not to judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to logos, that’s exactly what people do. The less one denies that, the easier it becomes to have a unique logo that truly represents your company and allows it to build a deeper relationship with the customer.
And besides the color, visually creative logos don’t come around much anymore. There are rarely images or colorful fonts anymore—it’s all black and white letters with maybe a small abstract shape next to them.
And even when logos get visually creative, a lot of brands prefer to copy other brands, and that results in confusion over both brands.
All of this to say, it’s extremely important to refresh your brand and logo every 5-10 years. Look at it as an investment in your business. You can even find a local artist to draw up a few logo sketches for you, which helps you invest in your local community as well.
In 2022—with the number of artists and graphic designers out there, and the advanced technology we have today —there’s no reason to have a plain black-and-white logo when the world is so full of color.
