- [Tutor] We've talked about
just how fickle symbology can be,
and why we as designers have such an impact
on the public's eventual perception
of such an apparently insignificant mark.
So, did these marks look familiar?
They should.
Hit the Shift eight key on any keyboard
and you get whatever asterisk
that a particular font is serving up.
And the name asterisk,
basically ancient Greek for small star.
Told you we'd be coming back to that.
They probably look a little bit more like this small star
than this small star.
Every trend report, there seems to be some design element
that volts out of the ether like it's been summoned in mass
as part of a conspiracy.
our last report si enormous use of lightning bolts
and twinkling four pointed stars.
And this year the starring role
was unabashedly stolen by the asterisk.
And it's not like we've never seen a good asterisk logo.
I mean, FedEx Office and Walmart amongst others,
have made strong use of this shape for years.
But this year, whether five, six or eight pointed,
it's now firmly rooted in designers graphic vernacular.
This little symbol is rampant
both as the solo leading character,
and is a bit player in some of these
much more involved logos.
It's no doubt tops of our list with the most appearances
and likely currently in pre-production
in enough brands to keep it around for some time to come.
Most of these marks are using the sin Sarah iteration,
this clean aesthetic scales well
and read universally as a sun, a star,
a flower, or a spark or an idea.
And of course, as a signal of possible omission
or to take note, because this is important.
The asterisk is proving to be much more flexible
than as a character placeholder for passwords.
And visually this symbol can be broadly interpreted
and embellish without losing its imbued linguistic meaning.
The only downside seen here
is the vigilant consumer hit tip downward
kind of scanning for that qualifying footnote.
Here it is, footnote,
whatever this may physically represent for your client,
it indicates that there is something special
or magical here.
And to be honest, it just makes people smile.