JKR

1. “Iconic” is a devalued expression.

True icons are cultural high water marks. Being first, “best” or most distinctive in their category imbues them with iconic status. Old master or avant-garde, icons come to define their particular field by finding the universal in the singular:

But “iconic” has become a devalued superlative. Many brands claiming iconic status are just deluding themselves!

True icons break the mould. Geri Halliwells’ dress cannot properly be described as iconic against this standard (although it often is). In 2007 Asda described their lovely £2 chicken as “iconic” showing just how glibly the phrase is being used.

Similarly, the recently launched LG flat screen “Scarlet” looks quite nice. LG heavily promote it as “Iconic design” (akin to describing the X-Factor as “the greatest show on earth”). It’s just a good screen with a red trim. Why does this over-claiming matter? Because if clients take “iconic” to mean “stylish” design, they are setting the bar too low for themselves, and will fail to produce brands which stand the test of time

So if many pay lip service to being “iconic”, what does the word actually mean?

The concise Oxford Dictionary defines Icon as:
1 a devotional painting of Christ or another holy figure. 2 a person regarded with particular admiration or as a representative symbol. 3 a symbol or graphic representation on a VDU screen.

To apply this to branding is a little more convoluted, but here is an attempt: Iconic branding involves a distinctive graphical or stylistic property, which symbolises values and attributes and thereby creates a charisma that surpasses a brands’ need to explain itself literally.

It’s a bit of a mouthful, but the end results speak more elegantly than any written definition can:

What this actually means is that looking distinctive is only the tip of the iceberg – iconic design is informed by actually having a compelling point of difference that the design dramatises. If you are the same as everyone else but in a quirky colour, it’s not going to make you iconic in consumers’ minds, whatever you might hope.

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