Robin Good: Excellent PBS video illustrating through the faces and voices of several brand designers the history and role of logo design. From prehistorical times until today logo design has been always an activity characterized by the need to communicate easily and effectively what a person or an organization is about and (in some cases) the character and the traits its stands for (think of aristocratic or noble shields).
"Utilizing a silent vocabulary of colors, shapes, and typography, logo designers give a visual identity to companies and organizations of all types."
"Logo designers need to have a sense of what the company wants his personality to be, and then it "manufactures" this mask... and the logo is essentualy a mask, an identifier, that stands in for who you are"
Featured in the video:
Stephen Heller, http://www.hellerbooks.com/
Sagi Haviv, http://sagihaviv.com/
Kelli Anderson, http://kellianderson.com/
Gerard Huerta, http://www.gerardhuerta.com/
Great visual gallery of examples commented in real-time by those who made them. 8/10
Video: http://youtu.be/x3jTSB2ez-g
(Thanks to MarketingHits for uncovering this gem)