History book well recorded the fact that a millennium ago, the Asian world was a place of great empires and large capital cities. In Southeast Asia were the kingdoms of Srivajaya, Pagan, Angkor, Champa and Dai Viet. China went through dynastic changes but was strongly linked to the rest of Asia. India had empires as well such as the Kushans, the Sultanates and the Mughals based at Delhi, as well as the Cholas and Vijayanagara in the south. Likewise, Central Asia had Genghis Khan’s empire, the largest the world has ever known, and it had the empire of Timur.
Stewart Gordon, in his 2008 published memoir entitled “When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors and Monks Who Created the ‘Riches of the East’” stated that the populations of these realms were, in many cases, larger than the whole of Western Europe. Asia was a vast world of contrast, from deserts to mountains, from monsoon rain forest to dry plains. It held a bewildering variety of cultures and languages of the likes of many local religions and varieties of Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism that spread across wide regions.
But it was its networks that made the great Asian world unique. Bureaucrats, scholars, slaves, ideas, religions and plants moved along its intersecting routes. Family ties stretched across thousands of miles. Traders found markets for products ranging from heavy recycled bronze to the most diaphanous silks. Asian empires tended to promote linkages and connections to other kingdoms in several ways. Often their own territories crossed “natural” ecological boundaries and brought together regions and societies in unexpected ways.
As Stewart Gordon noted, a millennium ago, the Kushans, the Afghans and the Mughals established empires that successfully ruled both sides of the formidable Himalayas. The South Indian Chola kingdom built a navy and conquered the islands of Sri Lanka, Java, and Sumatra, politically tying together India and Southeast Asia. Genghis Khan ruled both the steppe and large areas of agricultural China.
Administrative continuities generally promoted trade between ecologically different regions: the trade in horses from the steppe to the plains of India, in rice from south to north China, in steel from Damascus to Afghanistan. The big states also produced widely used currencies, such as Chinese cash and silver dirhams, and established standards for normalizing local weights and measures.
They also frequently organized postal systems for reliable communication. One could send a letter from Mangalore and have it arrived in Cairo in slightly over a month. A letter of introduction went from the far western border of India to Delhi and back in less than two months. Although the big capital cities such as Delhi, Beijing, Baghdad, Vijayanagara, were impressive and often many times the size of any European city of the time, the importance of medium-sized cities cannot be over emphasized.
These empires, by and large, rose by the expansion of power of a regional family based in a medium-sized city their regional capital. When empires fell, they generally devolved into regional successor states. The regional capitals usually not only survived, but also they thrived. Medium-sized cities thus remained long-term sources of demand, learning, and patronage, and in addition, they produced the bureaucrats necessary to run an empire.
Cities, large and small, needed basic food, fabric, fuel and building materials. The elite of these cities attracted the more sophisticated trade goods of the Asian world. The Chinese urban elite generated an almost insatiable demand for ivory, both African and Southeast Asian, which found its way into religious statues, pens, fans, boxes and the decoration of furniture.
According to Stewart Gordon, their demand for the most aromatic incense in the world was filled by incense logs and bushes from Southeast Asia and India. The demand for elegant clothes and beautiful colours in population centres of the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia pushed discovery of and trade in new plant dyes. The urban centres were also places of specialized manufacture that created trade opportunities and employment for these skills. Cities produced books, artwork, fine fabrics, sophisticated musical instruments, jewellery and scientific instruments, all of which were in demand throughout the Asian world.
Syria’s capital Damascus developed steelmaking to such a high art and in such quantity that traders brought its products to all parts of the Asian world. Damascus blades were just as ubiquitous in Indonesia as they were in Central Asia. China produced prodigious quantities of ceramics that were traded across the Asian world, from the Philippines and Japan to the west coast of Africa. Trade mattered. The volume and variety of trade affected much of the population of the great Asian world.
Tropical spices and medicines moved north to the plains of India, west into the Middle East and east into China. These medicinal plants were not “discovered” by doctors in cities, but much less by the traders who brought them. These spices and medicines were first discovered by the forest dwellers who experimented with their local profusion of plants. The great Asian world included not just traders and courts but reached deep into the forests of Southeast Asia, the hills above the Malabar Coast, and the pearl beds of Sri Lanka.
Stewart Gordon noted that trade served the spread of the universalizing religions. Ritual objects and books of both Buddhism and Islam came from specialized centres and moved along both water routes and caravan routes to Tibet, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Trade in the great Asian world included the exotic, the prosaic and everything in between. At one extreme, a giraffe was somehow transported from Africa to the imperial court of China.
At the other extreme, fish paste produced on the coast of Thailand and ordinary Chinese iron cooking pots were regular, profitable items traded to the islands of Southeast Asia. Rice, the most prosaic of foods in India, China and Southeast Asia, became a high-status food across the steppe world. Every ship and every caravan carried a range of goods from the precious to the mundane.
The Asian world and international trade
Which type of logo fits your business?
By Aschalew Tamiru
On the weekly Capital newspaper, I have been writing various branding articles; Misconception about Branding, Basics to Successful Branding, Why Do Brands Matter and Can anything be Branded are among others.
In those articles, I was trying to discuss and show basic and practical facts of branding, how brands benefit customers and companies/firms, important elements of branding and so forth. Now, it’s vital to pick one of the most important elements and “face of a company” called logo in brief. Some branding scholars acclaim that in the anatomy of a brand, the logo is representing the face of a brand.
As I have also attempted to mention in my previous articles, a logo might be a name, term, symbol, mark, sign, etc. that represents a company, a product, or an idea. Once a company has identified its brand’s values and characteristics, the company needs to decide on elements of the brand including the logo that will fit its business better.
Most branding scholars agree that more than other elements of a brand, a logo has the power to be impressed in a person’s mind. They also advise logos shall be developed in such a way that it is unique and memorable with colour and font.
There are various types of logos companies can choose from. Whichever the company chooses, we should make sure that the logo has an emotional appeal that connects with the customers and the public at large. Some world’s renowned brands have done this successfully and harvest what branding pays for their efforts.
Companies should always put in mind that logos are a part of people’s everyday life. People see various types of logos in every walk of their life such as on their way to office, in the supermarket, in business and recreation centres, in the hospital, etc. To get visible among the public and get the best benefits out of a good brand or logo, the types of logo with the accompanied unique nature shall be best understood by the company.
Various Branding scholars classify logo types differently. I choose to focus on the six common types of logo categories with the accompanied examples that are used widely among firms with their unique advantages to help determine what logo is the best fit for the brand.
Letter Marks or Monogram Logos
Letter marks or monogram logos are logos that consist of letters, usually brand name initials. IBM, CNN, HP, EBC… logo are best examples of letter mark logos. They are the initials of a few famous businesses with rather lengthy names. With two or three words to remember, they have each turned to using their initials for brand-identification purposes. So it makes perfect sense for them to use monograms or letter mark logos to represent their organizations. A letter mark is a typography-based logo that’s comprised of a few letters, usually a company’s name initials. By utilizing just a few letters, lettermark logos are effective at streamlining any company brand if they have a long name. For example, how much easier is it to say and remember NASA versus the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, IBM versus International Business Machines, CNN versus Cable News Network and EBC versus Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporate?
Because the focusesare on initials, here the font a company chooses and creates is very important to make sure the letter mark logo is not only on-themeor writing with what a company does, but also readable when it is printing on various promotional materials such as banners, stickers, business cards and the likes. Also, if a company is not an established business it may add its full business name below the letter mark logo so people can begin to learn who the company is right away.
Wordmarks or Logotypes Logo
Similar to a lettermark logo, a wordmark logo is a font-based logo that focuses on a business’ name alone. Wordmark logos work well when a company has a concise and distinct name.
Wordmarklogos are built entirely of the word or words that make up the company’s name. The main focus here is typography, obviously. This style of logo strongly ties a brand’s visual identity to the name of the company. Because of this, companies have to choose and create, the font carefully. The shape, style and colour of the words convey almost as much meaning as the words themselves.
We may think of Visa, Coca-Cola and Google logos as examples of Wordmarks logo. The name itself is catchy and memorable so, when combined with strong design and typography, the logos helpto create strong brand recognition.
When to use letter mark and wordmark logos:
Branding scholars recommend companies toconsider a letter mark logo if the business happens to have a long name. Condensing the business name into initials will help simplify the design and likewise customers will have an easier time recalling the business and the logo as well.If companies want the tie between their name and visual identity, but have a really long name they might go for Letter mark logo.If a business works in an industry where shortening a name to initials is common.
A wordmark logo is a good decision if the company enters in a new business and needs to get its name out there, it is important to make sure that the name is short enough to take advantage of the design. Word mark logo may not go with a company that have too long names.
A wordmark logo is a good idea if the company has a distinct business name that will stick in customers’ minds. Having its name in a great, designed font will make the brand appealing and distinctive.
Both letter mark and wordmark logos are easy to replicate across marketing material and branding thus making them highly adaptable options for a new, and developing, business.
Brand Mark or Logo Symbol Logo
It is a pictorial logo. It’s probably the image that comes to mind when most people think of “logo” the iconic Apple logo, Nike and Pepsi. Each of these companies’ logos is so symbolic, and each brand so established and well-known among the public, that the mark alone is instantly recognizable. A true brand mark is only an image. Because of this, it can be a
tricky logo type for new companies, or those without strong brand recognition, to use.
The biggest thing to consider when deciding to go with a Brand mark logo is what image to choose. This is something that will stick with the company and its entire existence. The company needs to think about the broader implications of the image it chooses.
Mascots Logo
Mascot logos are logos that involve an illustrated character. Often colourful, sometimes cartoonish, and most always fun, the mascot logo is a great way to create the business’s own brand spokesperson, spokes-character. Ethiopian children’s Tv and Eveready battery are a good examples of Mascot logo.
When to use Brand mark and Mascot logos:
A Brand mark logo alone can be tricky. It’s effective if the company already have an established brand but that’s not a hard and strict rule. We can use brand marks to the company’s advantage to convey what the business does graphically if the company name is too long, and they can also be used effectively to convey a desired idea or emotion.
A Brand mark logo however may not be the best idea if companies have a plan to make changes to their business model in the future. We may start off selling pizzas and use a pizza in the logo but what happens when we start to selling burgers, or Ethiopian traditional foods?
A Business can think about creating a mascot logo if it’s trying to appeal to young children or families. Branding scholars acclaim that one big benefit of a mascot is it can encourage customer interaction so it’s a great tool for social media marketing as well as real world marketing events such as exhibitions and carnivals.
It is important to remember that a mascot is only one part of a successful logo and brand, and companies may not be able to use it across all their marketing material. For example, a highly detailed illustration may not print well on some promotional material such as on a business card.
If companies want their brand to give off a serious vibe, brand scholars advise that mascot logos are not commendable.
The Combination Mark Logo
A combination mark is a logo comprised of a combined word mark or letter mark and a brand mark log, or mascot. The picture and text can be laid out side-by-side, stacked on top of each other, or integrated together to create an image. Most logos of commercial banks in Ethiopia have the combination mark type of logo Bank of Abyssinia and Awash Banks are among others.
Because a name is associated with the image, a combination mark is a versatile choice, with both the text and icon or mascot working together to reinforce the brand. With a combination mark, people will also begin to associate the name of the company with Brand mark or mascot right away. In the future companies may be able to rely exclusively on a logo symbol, and not have to always include their names. Also, because the combination of a symbol and text create a distinct image together, these logos are usually easier to legally register (trademark) than a Brand mark alone.
The Emblem Logo
An emblem logo consists of font inside a symbol or an icon. Similar to combination mark logos, emblem logos combine images with text. The difference is that Emblem logos encapsulate these design features within a frame or border, whereas combination logos do not. Emblem logos are often more detailed than other types of logos, and include fine line work and small, detailed imagery. Emblem logos also rarely use a mascot. Dashen Bank, Starbucks and Addis Ababa University have Emblem type of logos.
When to use a combination mark and Emblem logos:
A combination mark logo is a great choice for pretty much any business out there. It’s versatile, usually highly unique, and the most popular choice of logo among prominent companies.
Branding scholars advice that when brands want to convey a sense of tradition, history and/or longevity, they shall use emblem type of logo.
An emblem’s traditional look might be favoured by lots of public agencies, universities and schools but it can also serve any prevailing private business quite well, especially those in the food and beverage industry, we might think of beer labels and coffee cups of Kaldis and Starbucks.
Various articles and books published on branding are used as references.
Aschalew Tamiru was a full time lecturer at various universities, currently he is working with Dashen Bank, as Marketing and Customer Experience Director.
Aschalew holds MA in Marketing Management from Addis Ababa University and certified for Management Consultancy from Ethiopian Management Institute. He is a writer of Make a Difference with Customer Service book. He can be reached by aschalewt21@gmail.com.
Mulumebet Kebede
Name: Mulumebet Kebede
Education: MA Chemical Engineering
Company name: Mulu Candle
Title: Manager
Founded in: 2018
What it does: manufacture and sell candles
HQ: Goro area
Number of employees: 12
Startup Capital: 50,000 birr
Current Capital: Growing
Reasons for starting the business: To be self sufficient
Biggest perk of ownership: It makes me happy
Biggest strength: I am committed to what I do
Biggest challenging: Working place rental price
Plan: To export my products
First career: None
Most interested in meeting: Elon Musk
Most admired person: Haile Gebreselassie
Stress reducer: hanging out with friends
Favorite past time: Partying
Favorite book: To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Favorite destination: Paris
Favorite automobile: Bentley
Habtam, Lemlem & Selemon secured wild cards for Belgrade
After the fifth and final Gold level meeting of the 2021 World Athletics Indoor Tour brought the series to a close for another year, 11 athletes including three Ethiopians have booked their place at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.
African Athletics championship 800-meter Bronze medalist Habtam Alemu, 2017 Rabat 1500m bronze medalist and the 2017 world under-18 champion Lemlem Hailu and 2017 World U-18 gold medalist Selemon Barega are the three athletes to represent Ethiopia in the much-anticipated Belgrade Indoor Championship.
It means several national teams for next year’s World Indoor Championships will be boosted by the success of their athletes on the World Indoor Tour. Usually only two athletes per nation per discipline are allowed to enter the World Indoor Championships, but a wild card entry allows for a third athlete to compete. The final decision about entering an individual athlete for the World Indoor Championships, as always, rests with the athlete’s national federation. In addition, each of those 11 athletes receives a winner-takes-all US$10,000 bonus.
Women
60m……………….. Javianne Oliver (USA)
800m……………… Habitam Alemu (ETH)
3000m……………. Lemlem Hailu (ETH)
Pole vault……….. Iryna Zhuk (BLR)
Triple jump…….. Liadagmis Povea (CUB)
Shot put…………. Auriol Dongmo (POR)
Men
400m…………….. Pavel Maslak (CZE)
1500m…………… Selemon Barega (ETH)
60m hurdles…… Grant Holloway (USA)
High jump…….. Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA)
Long jump……. Juan Miguel Echevarria (CUB)
