I saw a truck with this logo on it on my way home from work the other day.
It caught my eye because I had never heard the word “drayage” before. I glanced at the logo and saw one line crossing the “A” and connecting a truck on the ground to a plane in the sky. That’s all it really took for me to learn the meaning of “drayage” and understand that there’s a company out there that provides it, should I ever be in need.
Later I wiki-ed my new vocab word and found that, just as a suspected, “drayage” is a term used to describe various logistical services in the shipping industry, in this case bridging the gap between air and land shipping.
So, I got all that from this logo. It’s an effective mark. That being said, it’s certainly not the most glamorous or well designed logo I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t really appeal to me aesthetically, but I got the point. It made me wonder if I would have rejected this logo had I been the CEO of Airport Drayage Co. and it was presented to me as the new brand identity.
So many times, bank marketers purchasing design and marketing services see reviewing their materials as “shopping” for what they find to be the “prettiest” or what is most aligned with their personal taste. It’s easy to forget that what you really need to be shopping for is meaning and strategy, and how well the thing in front of you tells your bank’s brand story. Never use the words “I like” when evaluating financial graphic design, because the best choice for your brand may not necessarily be your first choice.
That’s not to say that function and design can’t meet and have a happy marriage, but even as a designer and a longtime lover of “pretty” things, I have to say that function matters most. If strategy and function had not been considered in the making of the above logo, I may have never learned a new word and had my behind-the-wheel epiphany.
