We’re fans here of saying that we aren’t Dr. Nos; we try to create a symbiotic relationship between creatives and their lawyer counterparts.  But more often than we realize, the advertising world affects the legal one.  I may not yet have a decade in the legal business, but I can spot trends when I see them.  Pitching for RFPs, national and international offices, mergers, social media…what seems to start in the ad world soon infiltrates other service providers like the legal industry.

Currently I think the biggest and newest advertising trend to hit the legal world might be one-name branding.  Especially when firm names can read like a page from a phone book.  That’s right, maybe Dewey Billem and Howe will soon just be HOWE (focus groups determined that BILLEM was a little too controversial).

I mean, look at the ad & design world where one name monikers have become normal.

Fallon McElligott Rice became Fallon McElligott, which became just FALLON.

Yamamoto Moss became known simply as YAMAMOTO.

Ogilvy & Mather’s logo only uses OGILVY.

We’ve got CAPSULE, KNOCK, OLSON, MONO, PERISCOPE, SPACE150 and more.  This trademark attorney is still fascinated by the fact that Space150 changes their logo, website, and business cards every 150 days, but I digress from my point. Aside from Olson though, none of these are last names on doors.

And now the bedrock of Minneapolis ad agencies, Campbell Mithun has just become MITHUN…with a new Tetris-like logo with what features a new umlaut in the name.  DuetsBlog fans, how do we feel about this new logo?

As opposed to the other named partner examples, this one chose the latter name.

While these one word creative agency names have been happening for years, the legal community is starting to move similarly (although DuetsBlog clearly was ahead of the trend).  Dorsey & Whitney’s logo just says DORSEY.  Lindquist & Vennum primarily uses LINDQUIST in their logo.  Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom just uses SKADDEN for their logo.  Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe only emphasizes ORRICK in theirs.  Foley & Lardner’s logo has FOLEY front-and-center.  The list goes on.  Branding is partly about selecting a good name, right?  But whose name?

So as trends from ad agencies hit, what might be next for other service industry providers like law firms?  The recent purchase of Olson by a consultancy firm may foreshadow a new business model for the future of some of these providers.

What creative agency trends do you think we need to start seeing in the legal community?