CAYMAN CHEMICAL's logo, reinvented in 1995, hints at the original logo, with the pentagon that forms the fish's eye. "I've always felt that the company logo should have layers of both overt and obscure historical content," says Kirk Maxey, Cayman's founder. "For instance, the tail of the helix fish is maize and blue – Go Michigan!" The helix shape echoes not only DNA but also the scale pattern of an angelfish.
For big companies with a lot at stake, logo design and development is big business. Even for startups, the process today is more sophisticated than it was back in the 1980s. "I do think people still design logos on cocktail napkins, but those cocktail napkins do get handed to designers," says Karen Bergman of BCC Partners, a California company that advises biotech and life sciences companies on branding, communications, and investor relations.
In biotech's infancy, it was acceptable to ...
