Idea for October 2022: merchants’ marks

My idea of the month is merchants’ marks

These are medieval logos - of which there’s a particularly fine crop in Norwich, thanks to the research of the pioneer antiquarian John Kirkpatrick, and his modern counterpart, graphic designer Darren Leader. Darren gave a great presentation on his work this month, in an event organised by Brandland.

These logos are a fascinating mixture of the totally mysterious and the strikingly modern. Most seem to be based on runes - a system of symbols from Germanic cultures used before the Latin alphabet was adopted. Some of them convey not just a merchant’s identity, but also their values, in particular using the mystical ‘sign of four’ - and in that way these really are not just medieval businesses, but medieval brands.