1,000 Marks

A collection of 1,000 symbols and logotypes designed by the Pentagram partners from 1967 to the present.

The 1,000 marks featured in this book represent the diverse range of identity work created by Pentagram partners past and present. Since its inception over fifty years ago, Pentagram has designed marks for everyone from multinational corporations to start-ups, government agencies, nonprofits and social enterprises, clubs,
societies, individuals, districts and even whole countries. Regardless of your identity, an original mark that you can take ownership of is the starting point for communicating who you are and what you do.

There are many approaches to creating a distinctive logo, and all of them can be seen here, from bold typographic wordmarks to pictorial symbols and more abstract solutions. Printing them in black and white helps us see them in their purest form, highlighting the contrasts and occasional similarities between them.

The practice of design has changed radically since 1972, but its concerns remain the same. The deceptively simple exercise of designing a mark for a client, and the elusive quest for timelessness that it entails, are still central to the challenge that graphic designers face today.