On a trip to Belarus, Ilya Denisov visited two medieval castles. After that, the designer and illustrator from St. Petersburg wondered what the logos of well-known companies and companies would have looked like back then. His research on the subject yielded no results. “So I decided that I’m going to be the person designing these logos,” he says. The illustrator, who also works under the pseudonym Ilya Stallone, thus combined two of his greatest passions: art and history. “Medieval branding” is what he calls the series of medieval logos that he shows on Instagram, among other places.
Tinder, Instagram, Mercedes and co in a medieval look
There is a lot of thought and creativity behind each of his works. Not every modern logo is suitable for a medieval version. “Back then, most people couldn’t read, so descriptive images played an important role,” explains the artist. The logo must depict its function visually – in contrast to the designs that are popular today, which usually rely on minimalism and simple lettering or individual letters. Ilya Denisov transforms these presentations into expressive, colorful versions. He not only uses classic figures and symbols from the Middle Ages, but always allows a touch of irony to flow into the pictures.
The illustrations only show well-known companies, “since the awareness of the logo is an important factor for its recognition”. His works are met with great enthusiasm on social media. Even some of the companies whose identifying marks the artist reinterpreted took notice and shared their respective medieval logos on Twitter. “I received a lot of feedback from well-known brands, including Lacoste, Puma, Windows, Burger King and Audi,” says Ilya Denisov. A selection of his works can be seen in the picture gallery – including this sternlogo, which the designer also gave an antique rebrush – with a smiling face taking center stage.