Il Sole 24 Ore – Sunday, June 14, 2026
An article by Antonio Romano.
Between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, brands did not yet know they were brands. They were labels displaying the name of the product and its manufacturer. Their primary function was simply to distinguish one product from another. Yet it took only ornate lettering and a few decorative elements to create an unexpected effect: the label became the product’s memory, giving rise to the earliest form of customer loyalty.
The evolution of branding has been built upon this premise. The contemporary brand bears little direct resemblance to its original label. Today, it is a promise of value that extends beyond the logo and beyond the act of selling, shaping experiences, building communities, and fostering a sense of belonging. A brand signals something intangible, something that engages and remains connected with its various audiences in order to create its own world. This seems to be its true purpose: shifting the focus from “what we do” to “why we are here.”
It is therefore clear that design, in all its forms, is the most effective means of representing a brand’s universe. Whether rational or emotional, design becomes a non-verbal language capable of generating impact and, in turn, fostering empathy, trust, and authority among diverse audiences.
All of this happens in a remarkably short span of time, reflecting the limited attention available to twenty-first-century individuals, immersed as they are in an overcrowded communication landscape, both physical and digital.
It is precisely this historical context that has shaped some of the defining characteristics of contemporary branding. The internet changed everything. By removing physical and geographical barriers, the web triggered an exponential growth in the number of brands present in our daily lives: today, more than 93 million trademarks are registered worldwide (WIPO, 2024).
A glance at Amazon’s homepage or an Instagram feed is enough to understand the scale of this phenomenon. As a result, brands are compelled to pursue greater simplicity in their representation in order to reach audiences instantly. Fewer messages and fewer visual elements are required to communicate more powerfully, especially within the limited space of a smartphone screen.
The internet, and social media in particular, has also broken down the barriers between people, creating the illusion of greater proximity and placing individuals at the center of the conversation. The spotlight, once occupied by the product, now belongs to the person. Brands are engaged in a continuous dialogue with their audiences, striving to understand, involve, and persuade them.
As a result, community has come to prevail over individuality, with significant implications for the design of brand identity itself. It is no longer enough to endlessly replicate a logo, nor is it useful to mark every asset belonging to an organization. What matters today is making visible the world to which that organization aspires to belong and the values with which it chooses to identify.
Another aspect, closely related to this shift, concerns algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence, both of which have restored the primacy of language over the visual dimension that dominated the twentieth century. Before encountering a logo, we now enter a brand’s world through words: the words we use to describe what we seek to search engines and AI systems, and the words that, through a name, identify the entity that responds to that request.
In this sense, the brand returns to being a symbol in its original meaning: an object divided into two parts that, once reunited, generates recognition. From this encounter, a story emerges. The symbol becomes a myth—that is, a narrative rich in meaning and values. The brand thus rediscovers the essence of the term mythos: originally meaning “word,” then increasingly “story,” until arriving at its contemporary sense of a “memorable reality.”
Another aspect, closely related to this shift, concerns algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence, both of which have restored the primacy of language over the visual dimension that dominated the twentieth century. Before encountering a logo, we now enter a brand’s world through words: the words we use to describe what we seek to search engines and AI systems, and the words that, through a name, identify the entity that responds to that request.
In this sense, the brand returns to being a symbol in its original meaning: an object divided into two parts that, once reunited, generates recognition. From this encounter, a story emerges. The symbol becomes a myth—that is, a narrative rich in meaning and values. The brand thus rediscovers the essence of the term mythos: originally meaning “word,” then increasingly “story,” until arriving at its contemporary sense of a “memorable reality.”
Ultimately, the contemporary brand brings together the visible and the invisible. Building its representation is no longer solely an act of design; it is the outcome of a process that integrates research, analysis, and strategy to understand what a brand can say and how it can say it authentically.
Design itself extends beyond the visual dimension, embracing sound and scent as well, because engagement increasingly unfolds on a multisensory level. The brand experience is no longer confined to what people see, but encompasses what they hear, feel, and remember.