The Demise of the Classics
Being a Graphic Designer by education, I appreciate the great designers and the marks they left on corporate America. The greats like Paul Rand and Saul Bass, among many others, have created marks and logos that are as much a part of this country as Baseball.
I was saddened to learn last year that UPS had decided to abandon the logo developed for them by Paul Rand in favor of a newer, sleeker, “photoshop-ier” logo. I am not a huge fan of the new logo and I take joy when I see one of the few trucks driving around with the old logo still on it.
Now I learn that AT&T, as part of their merger with SBC, has decided to re-brand themselves, complete with a new logo to replace the classic “globe” that was originally designed by Saul Bass. One look at the new logo will show you the poor attempt at trying to respect the old logo while updating it for the current times. Instead of trying to retain the integrity of the original, it would have been better to just make a complete departure. Especially with a mark as well known as this one.
A leisurely stroll through the comments over at Speak Up provide some of the best feedback on this new logo.
If you want to know the original story behind the Saul Bass logo, I suggest reading Michael Bierut’s “The Final Days of AT&T” at Design Observer.
If you would like to take a look at some of Saul Bass’s best known work, AIGA has an online gallery of some of his most well known designs and logos. I completely forgot that he create the United Way logo.
November 22nd, 2005
What about the insane idiocy of the fact that after spending all of the money to convert former AT&T Wireless customers over to the Cingular brand as part of that merger, Cingular is going to be rebranded as AT&T Wireless. The stupidity just boggles the mind. Here is a link.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051121/tc_usatoday/cingularwillbesoldundernameofatampt
November 22nd, 2005
Yeah, I red about that Greg.
I have been with Cingular since they were Bellsouth Mobility. I hope only the name is changing and not the service.
November 24th, 2005
Hey Jeremy,
I agree completely. However I was sad to see that united way changed their look as well. The mark did not change, but was incorporated into a rectalinear color boxes. The mark survived but the boxed look is horrible. See ya.
November 29th, 2005
What I notice is that the new AT&T logo… sorry, at&t logo, incorporates, in a read-between-the-lines sort of fashion, those “broadcast waves” that are showing up in everywhere with the increasing popularity of RSS/feed syndication. Although, they’re kinda cut up in a stupid way, à la Padme’s costume in SW:Episode 2.