Guess whose logo is the most powerful logo in the world?

Nowadays, logos are part and parcel of our life. They are around when you walk on the street, when you cook, when you shop and can even sneak themselves in our dreams. Logos are more than just an identification tag of which brand does what. It’s one of the most important visual of a brand identity. All that explains why brands are investing that much on logo designing and how crucial it is to have a good logo. In 2013, an article from the MIT Sloan Review even demonstrated “that effective corporate logos can have a significant positive effect on customer commitment to a brand and even on company performance” (Here is the link of the article: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-power-of-a-good-logo/ ). A logo can influence customer commitment, it means that some customers will be more likely to buy something if their favorite logo is on it. This, once again, emphasizes the importance of the logo. And you know what, a ranking of the most powerful logos in fashion apparel’s industry has just been published!

Every quarters the website Lyst publishes a ranking of the most influential and successful luxury apparel brands in the world. Lyst is an online portal that gathers thousands of luxury apparel online shops. In the last ranking, called the Lyst Index, the company analyzed the data of more than 5 million customers and one of our favorite company, Supreme, won the gold medal of the “most powerful logos”. Here is the entire ranking coming from Lyst website.

Most Powerful Logos 1. Supreme 2. Champion 3. FILA 4. Prada 5. Fendi 6. Gucci 7. Kappa 8. Versace 9. Louis Vuitton 10. CELINE

At first sight, Supreme logo appears as one of the simplest logos ever designed because it follows a basic recipe.

1- Write your brand name in Futura Bold Oblique font in italics (italics is always classier)

2- Change the color of the text previously written to white.

3- Add a red rectangular background.

Congratulations you achieved to design the most powerful logo in fashion luxury apparel’s industry!

When you think twice about Supreme logo, it may not be very sophisticated, it has several strengths. First, it directly links the logo to the brand since you just have to read the logo to directly think of the brand. Second, it is eye-catchy which is in accordance of Supreme mindset. Remember Supreme was born as a skater apparel company, and skaters are recognized to have their own identity and stick with it. It is a kind of “Take if or leave it” mindset. Eventually, and this is Supreme’s logo bigger strength for me, this logo is easily adaptable. Logos have often been the unchanging part of a product. Whatever flavor your Coca Cola is, the logo will remain the same. Whatever Nike sneaker you will purchase, the swoosh would either be black or white and with the same shape. It is different with Supreme’s logo, the color of the background can change, the font can change, and some elements can be added to Supreme logo.

This adaptability is very useful as the brand is known for its countless collaborations. Here are some adaptations of the “red box logo” released by Supreme. I’ve have taken them from an article called “the 19 of the most obscure Supreme box logo tees” on Highsnobiety website. (As usual here is the article check it out, some of the logo adaptation are amazingly creative! https://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/11/03/best-supreme-box-logo-t-shirts/ )

This logo has been designed after the tragedy of 9/11. The brand wanted to pay a tribute to its home country replacing the usual red box with the “Star and Spangled banner”. Supreme name is barely visible (as the brand could not erased it) because in such time “America first” (Woodrow Wilson copyrighted).

Let’s continue with tribute as we explore the logo designed after March 2011 earthquake in Japan (Rings a bell? Right, Supreme is deeply rooted in Japan with 6 stores). Remember this terrible earthquake created a tremendous tsunami that killed thousands of people and led to the disaster Fukushima nuclear plant. Supreme replaced its red box background by a rising sun (Japan being the country of the rising sun) and donated the profit of tee shirt sales to the Japanese Red Cross. The brand achieved to reconcile marketing strategy and humanitarian action, well done folks!

This Supreme logo highly differs from its original look. Red color was switched for black and the font was changed. Supreme designed this logo in 2017 when the brand collaborated with the streetwear brand Futura and to celebrate the Futura art show. I am personally not a huge fan of this one, even though the font reminds me of graffs and hence of skaters (stereotypes, here I am!). Nevertheless, this collaboration was a success and shows the boldness of Supreme designers who are not afraid to completely modify their logo.

To put it in a nutshell, Supreme is managing very well its logo and is not afraid to use it as a stylistic element. The logo has become so powerful that the brand released the “Sample tee” shirts where a black mark is covering Supreme name on the logo, but still we recognize Supreme at first sight.