The Most Relevant Identity Work of the Decade

I gave myself a deadline of January 15 to do a recap of identity work in the 2000s, assuming that it wouldn’t be an editorial faux pas to do a list of this sort well into the new year. So here it is. An admittedly incomplete — it would take months to do this exhaustively — compilation of the most relevant identities of the past decade. The choices are listed chronologically and there is no ranking system, they are simply there as records of the corporations, products and services that shaped the decade and the identities that helped (or didn’t help) shape their perception in consumers’ eyes and minds. The list is heavily American, so I apologize for lack of international inclusiveness to our readers around the world. Three main sources helped me compile this list and I would like to expressly thank them: 1) Tony Spaeth’s Identity Works, whose archives of corporate identity changes go as far back as 1998, 2) Michael Evamy’s Logo, and 3) our own Speak Up, which chronicled most of these identity changes from 2003 until 2006 when it gave way to Brand New. As it was made clear in The Best and Worst Identities of 2009 post last month, you don’t have to agree with the selections below nor the associated commentary but you are cordially invited to — in honor of our first blog — speak up. Hope you enjoy this and please point out any corrections or omissions.

Cingular

Designed by VSA Partners

Just as the majority of the U.S. population transitioned into owning a cell phone by default, one of the most friendly and approachable mobile service providers turned out to be a rookie, Cingular. And actually, I have been a Cingular legacy user since 2001, seeing the brand painfully transition in 2004 and 2005 as it ping-ponged ownership with AT&T. Check out this web site from 2004 that I am guessing someone forgot to take down touting the merger. Cingular eventually disappeared in 2007 dissolving into AT&T, right around the time a certain phone made its debut.

Verizon

Designed by Landor and DeSola Group

At the other end of the visual and personality spectrum was Verizon, a more aggressive and no nonsense provider and brand. Ask designers and you will find out that this is one of the most reviled logos. Poor New Yorkers too, they have to see it anytime they look south unto Verizon’s headquarters.

3com

Designed by Interbrand

Even if you weren’t to compare it to what they previously had — an uninspired blue square — the new logo conveys innovation and complexity and is elegantly executed. I can’t seem to find an image online, but a 3com building near O’Hare airport in Chicago had a beautiful sculpture rendition of the logo outside.

BP

Designed by Landor

Petroleum is a word not just loaded with social, political and economical implications but also, let’s face it, a kind of ugly word. When British Petroleum and Amoco merged, going full force with BP and the Helios icon did the perfect job in distancing the company from the word. Surely, fewer people today know what BP stands for — give it another decade and it will reach IBM acronym levels. This was probably one of the last really great identities by Landor’s San Francisco office, who also had done the FedEx identity a few years earlier.

Amazon.com

Designed by Turner Duckworth

Who would have thought that the modest beginnings of Amazon would balloon into what it is today: A place where you can get everything but hookers. And unlike the rest of the dot-com logos, that were gratuitously meaningless, Amazon brought a smile (from A to Z no less) to designers’ faces.

Pets.com

Created by TBWA/Chiat/Day

Yes, this is not necessarily a logo or identity, but as an icon for the excess of the dot-com era, none stood dumber than the Pets.com puppet. Sure, it made us laugh during the 2000 Superbowl, but the advertising campaign cost a dozen times more than the revenue the company made in its two-year existence.

Napster

Designed by Sam Hanks

While Napster began in 1999, it wasn’t until 2000 when it became not just widely used by every college student in the U.S. but embroiled in a high-profile legal battle with Metallica, among other artists who preferred people buy their music, not share it mercilessly over some nascent tube technology they didn’t quite understand. When Sam Hanks first talked to Shawn Fanning and Shawn Parker, he inquired about the name, to which they replied it involved cats napping, leading to the mischievous cat with headphones. Hanks charged $5,000, and they were hard to collect — lore according to All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster.

Enron

Designed by Paul Rand

Designed five years earlier in 1996 by Paul Rand, the Enron logo became the identity of corporate evil as news of its debt-hiding schemes became known and the logo appeared on newscasts around the clock.

Monday

Designed by Wolff Olins

As a direct cause from the Enron debacle, PricewaterhouseCoopers — one of the consulting firms associated with it — decided to spin its consulting division, PwC Consulting, into its own little company and list it on the New York Stock Exchange. The new company was to be called Monday. The press release described the word as “a real word, concise, recognizable, global, and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results.” Here too is a handy PDF detailing the design thinking by Wolff Olins. However, Monday was never meant to come, as IBM purchased PwC Consulting and absorbed it. This was probably one of the first high-profile non-logos.

Star Alliance

Designed by Pentagram

I really couldn’t care less about what airlines do on their free time or who they associate with as long as they get me to where I want to be on time, and since they can barely do that I really, really don’t care for airlines. And most airlines come together through the Star Alliance, something I have no idea what it does or stands for. But, man, that is one pretty logo.

TiVo

Designed (and named) by Cronan

I admit that I could be off by a year or a few months on this one but, at least according to the U.S. Patent Office, this logo — the second evolution of the TiVo identity — was created in 2002. To be fairly honest, I don’t quite like it, and if it were to be discussed on Brand New today it would probably get chewed up. But in introducing a whole new product category, the little TiVo thingie became an ambassador for change and the killer of the 30-second ad.

UPS

Designed by Futurebrand

I can’t imagine how designers complained about logo changes before blogs. At least it appeared they never had, given the outpour that occurred on (Brand New’s older sibling) Speak Up in March when UPS announced it was ditching its landmark Paul Rand logo in favor of a worthless piece of shield. I am unfairly mean in that last description, as I have come to accept, seven years later, that this change was the right thing to do. I still think the logo, aesthetically and structurally, is irremediable but in terms of its strength to carry such a large corporation with a hefty public presence, it has been quite effective.

Abbey

Designed by Wolff Olins

Now you see it, now you don’t, now you see… That was the story, both visually and existentially, of Abbey Bank. In just over a year after it hit the market as a consumer bank, it was bought by Spain’s Banco Santander, which rolled the bank under its flame identity. Perhaps, well no, surely for the better, as this was a pretty weird identity and a little too reminiscent of Wolff Olins’ more successful blurry effort for Tate.

Altria

Designed by Landor

One of the greatest cases of reinvention, running away from the tainted (and smoky) name of Philip Morris into a nebulous new name with a fresh start. It didn’t hurt that the logo was kind of attractive and abstract enough to mean anything anyone wanted.

NWA

Designed by TrueBrand

It used to be one of the greatest airline icons ever. Designed by Landor in 1988, it was an “N,” a “W,” a compass pointing Northwest, yet it was simple and, simply, amazing. The new one was meant to downplay the “Northwest” aspect as the airline went other places, but was it also supposed to downplay wit and execution?

VH1

Designed by VH1 In-house Team

The discussion on Speak Up raged on for 229 comments and to this day I don’t understand what the VH1 logo is supposed to be or why it is the way it is. Most logos that I hated years ago I have learned to cope with, but not this one. It is continually saved by the work around it, but as a structure it seems as fickle as a house of cards.

The Islands of the Bahamas

Designed by Duffy & Partners

This is the kind of concept — “Just do all the islands as groovy shapes” — that could have gone horribly wrong. Yet, Duffy & Partners’ execution was exuberant and warm. And it made you wish you were in the Bahamas, especially a few years ago when they bombarded New York subways with their ads, filling the visual periphery with all those groovy shapes.

Unilever

Designed by Wolff Olins

In what other logo can you find a fish, a palm tree, a bowl, particles and ice cream? That’s right, nowhere but on the Unilever logo (see all the contents here). Unilever does a lot of things and its logo makes sure you don’t have any doubts about it. Another concept that could have been poorly done was nicely crafted with the help of Miles Newlyn.

YWCA

Designed by Landor

While the YMCA enjoys plenty of notoriety and recognition the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) did not. So why not make it perfectly clear what it does and how it does it. Not all mission statements can be turned into a logo, but this one works.

GE

Designed by Wolff Olins

The best part about this is that it didn’t change. The GE logo has remained technically the same — a spaghetti-like “GE” monogram in a circle — since the late nineteenth century, and Wolff Olins did a great job in building a whole identity around it, an identity that has given GE a vitality it probably never knew it had.

AT&T

Designed by Interbrand

When Saul Bass originally designed this logo, he implied volume by modifying the weight of the lines as they would if they were on a sphere. I don’t think he intended for those same lines to then be spherized, creating a sphere with an abstraction of a sphere painted on it. Also, lowercase? Really? But all is forgiven because AT&T has the iPhone.

The Bank of New York

Designed by Lippincott

Not terribly functional but astoundingly pretty, especially for the corporate identity of a bank. Unfortunately it didn’t last long as two years later it was acquired by the Mellon Financial Corporation and evolved into the weirdly named The Bank of New York Mellon — with a nice enough logo, also by Lippincott.

New School

Designed by Siegel + Gale

It was a pretty hard challenge, unifying eight different schools, each with their own personality under one parent brand. I don’t think anyone imagined that stencil spray painting would inspire the solution, nor become a visual signifier for higher education. Siegel + Gale’s work for the New School was met with some trepidation, but nothing looks more in place in the city of New York (or Project Runway) as this rough-edged aesthetic.

(RED)

Designed by Wolff Olins

Allow me to quote ourselves from Graphic Design, Referenced on this one: For the main brand — the name was selected because red is the color of emergency, which certainly applies to AIDS — RED is rendered in a sans serif typeset within parentheses. For the license brand, (PRODUCT) RED, the logo of the partner is placed within the parentheses and RED becomes a superscript; the combination is meant to be read as, for example, “Apple to the power of RED.” The simplicity of the identity barely hints at the complexity of Wolff Olins’s task: finding a way to create a new, strong brand for (RED) that could be integrated with some of the best-guarded and most carefully developed brands, turning untouchable assets like Starbucks green and American Express blue to red. While consumerism and philanthropy still remain an oxymoron, (RED) demonstrates, through action and design, a possible blueprint for their convergence… well, a (RED)print for their convergence.

Quark

Designed by SicolaMartin

With Adobe InDesign firmly in place in the design industry, there is little reason to pay attention to Quark, makers of QuarkXPress. But when they designed a logo that looked like a dozen other logos, designers paid attention and it wasn’t the good kind. To be continued…

Quark

Designed by Quark In-house Team

Tail between legs, a corporate rep for Quark said “Quark listened to the feedback we received from the design community in relation to our re-branding initiative in September and decided to create a new logo that is both an evolution of our visual identity and a strong representation of the new Quark… Changing the mark to avoid any perception of similarity enables us to further define our unique identity.” Okay, we’ll accept the apology for that first slip-up but now we will take another one for this Googly-Eye-of-Shrek logo, please.

Cisco

Designed by Jerry Kuyper and Joe Finocchiaro

Cisco has consistently had a strong corporate identity, and it could have probably kept on for a lot more years with its last incarnation. But Kuyper and Finocchiaro’s work was an excellent evolution and abstraction that maintained the equity of the bridge while creating a simpler and bolder mark.

Kodak

Designed by Ogilvy & Mather’s Brand Integration Group (BIG)

At the time it was released, it wasn’t clear what was more baffling: the loss of the iconic K logo, or the “a” in the new logo. Interestingly, at least for me, I find this to be one of the most pleasing wordmarks of the whole decade. Simple yet quirky. Bold. Looks great in the new packaging, and I easily forget what the old one used to look like.

Payless

Designed by dg* Desgrippes Gobe

This is the only logo I have written about twice (version 1, version 2) only to get angrier with each writing. I could easily write a third with my utmost disappointment at the loss of Cooper Black and the gain of some silly swirly “P” but I won’t. Not today, at least.

Chicago 2016 Olympic Applicant City

Designed by VSA Partners

Most applicant city identities tend to be, well, half-assed. Undercooked and uninspired. For the 2016 bid by the city of Chicago, VSA Partners created a lovely icon that blended the skyline of the city and its lake to form a torch. However…

Chicago 2016 Olympic Applicant City

Designed by VSA Partners

A few months later, the International Olympic Committee decided to change the rules of the bidding process for cities, with one clause stating that city logos “shall not contain the Olympic symbol, the Olympic motto, the Olympic flag, any other Olympic-related imagery [such as] flame, torch, medal, etc.” Chicago 2016’s skyline torch was now breaking the law. So VSA Partners one-upped the IOC and created another lovely logo, this one taking the shape of the stars found in the city’s flag — the stars themselves signify major milestones for the city, and hosting the Olympics could be another star added.

London 2012 Olympic Summer Games

Designed by Wolff Olins

Boyohboy, was there a more hated identity last decade? I think not. It even carries into this decade and probably into the next. I think the logo is a funny aberration but the identity around it is brilliant and the launch video that some people claimed gave seizures was actually pretty darn cool. We have some screen shots on Speak Up still, if you missed it.

Wacom

Designed by Wolff Olins

I am an intrepid Wolff Olins advocate, but this was just absolutely incomprehensible. If I could just whack it away with a Wacom tablet.

NYC

Designed by Wolff Olins

Designed for NYC & Company, the official tourism organization for the city, this sturdy logo continually takes on a secondary role to the messaging found throughout the city, but more and more, it becomes quickly recognizable — not an easy feat for a city so in love with its I [Heart] NY logo. The range of applications remain to be seen but the potential is there.

Obama ’08

Designed by Sender LLC

No logo has been praised so much in many, many years as has the Obama ’08 logo designed by Chicago-based Sender LLC — get the full story of the development here. It helped that the logo stood for something that people around the world believed in or, at least, wanted to believe in, and they rallied around it with fervor. The way it morphed visually for the different segments of the population was pretty brilliant. And the fact that the campaign engendered such a creative outpour only helped cement this as one of the most iconic identities not just of the past decade, but probably ever. (Time will tell, time will tell).

Walmart

Designed by Lippincott

I went to a Walmart recently, due to a lapse in judgment, and found the new logo to be in complete dissonance with the environment and experience. While the logo attempts to portray a light and friendly personality, the reality is oppressive and unpleasant. It takes more than a starburst to make something luminous, and Walmart has a long way to go before it can shed its monolithic image, better represented by its previous logo.

Xerox

Designed by Interbrand

The press release explained the metallic ball as “representing Xerox’s connections to its customers, partners, industry and innovation,” epitomizing the ability for press releases to spin the reality into a fabric of idealistic concoctions that simply fall flat when read. The typography in this one is passable but the icon is sadly too inconsequential.

Pepsi

Designed by Arnell Group

Hahahahaaaa…hahahaaa. Oh, Pepsi, yes, we are laughing at you, not with you. It could have all been forgotten had it not been for this fateful PDF.

Tropicana

Designed by Arnell Group

This is the only package design in the whole list and I debated whether to include it or not. But as a case of brand identity gone wrong, you can’t beat the Tropicana story. First unveiled in October of 2008, along with a bulldozering by Arnell of the Pepsi beverage line-up, the Tropicana packaging was met with a resounding “Hell no!” from consumers who complained about being unable to find their Tropicana. Four months later, Tropicana announced it would go back to its previous packaging. Most designers cheered that good design triumphed over crappy design but others actually saw doom as corporations now have a precedent in Tropicana of not trying anything new for fear of consumer revolt. As long as new things aren’t so badly designed, I think we can be at rest with the latter scenario.

Nickelodeon

Designed by Nick In-house Team and others

The debate on whether or not the “splat” logo could have lived on remains a hypothetical one. We will never know. But for the time being, a whole new generation of little rascals is being bred on the new Nick identity and, from the on-air package created by Trollbäck + Company, that’s not a bad thing. And that’s just the main Nickelodeon channel, the rest are clicking just as right. So long splat.

Aol.

Designed by Wolff Olins

Given the heated and even angry replies I received to ranking AOL as the No. 1 Best identity of 2009 I will reserve any further commentary on why I think it succeeds and instead I will just plainly list it as one of the most relevant identities of the decade — whether it’s good or bad is clearly up to you.

It’s good, by the way : P

Thanks for reading or scrolling all the way through.

Yves’s comment is:

Very nice recap, thanks :)

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:39 AM

Itsashirt T shirts’s comment is:

strong brands most with strong logodesign

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:44 AM

Chris Thorpe’s comment is:

Interesting list—there’s certainly a bunch of great and terrible logos here. It’s also telling that most of them are for multinationals.

This is also a list of brands with which people interact on a daily basis (with perhaps the exception of the Olympics and a few of the dead companies) and is a good reminder for what makes a good brand.

It can never just be about the graphics—there has to be a substance behind it, and the bigger that is, the better the brand.

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:45 AM

Julio’s comment is:

good job! :D

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:50 AM

buruno’s comment is:

I’m with all of the above. And thank god I didn’t notice that Wacom logo at the time, I would find it unnerving rather than hilarious.

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:51 AM

Kelly ’s comment is:

Great list Armin- what a fun trip through the decade.

I’m glad you included the NWA logo because it kills me every time I am on one of their flights. My drink service enjoyment is ruined as soon as they put the napkin down and I see their new logo - the old one was just so clever. Soon though, they will all be replaced by Delta logos and NWA will no longer exist.

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:56 AM

norwegian’s comment is:

Subjectivity..

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:57 AM

Dale Campbell’s comment is:

I have to agree with norwegian on this one.

Not only about the content of the article, but the agencies involved. There have been MANY well-designed identities by designers who are freelancers.

There are many well-designed, relevant identities created by small agencies for larger companies.

Opinions on Corporate Brand and Identity Work (by only a select few we care to follow or find)

On Jan.13.2010 at 07:23 AM

Curtis’s comment is:

No food chains? I thought Smokey Bones, Ruby Tuesdays, Applebee’s…
but then again… are they the most relevant? Probably worth mentioning…

On Jan.13.2010 at 07:55 AM

Brendan’s comment is:

Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:19 AM

Brandon Oxendine’s comment is:

How about you complainers put together a decade recap of all the most relevant identity work, then come back here and complain about Armin’s…

Great job Brand New. And thanks, this was refreshing.

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:22 AM

Alexander Greyling’s comment is:

Armin I am glad to see that your sanity has returned (sort of) with the AOL ok Aol. aberration. I miss Sochi 2014 – it would have been a nice one to show the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games how it should have been done.

You have also affirmed my dislike for Wolff Olins. When I close my eyes and try and recall their brandmark creations in your selection, I cannot remember anything. Design for the sake of design does not work when your aim is to create endearing and memorable brandmarks and I do not think we will see any of their brandmark creations around in another decade. Sure the monopolies will be around but that does not count.

Quark, VHF1 (and NYPL for that matter) prove that inhouse designers never have and never will be good at brandmark creation, they simply lack the talent, skills and experience.

Alexander Greyling
Author of Face your brand! The language of visual branding explained

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:33 AM

Kyle’s comment is:

” and abstract enough to mean anything anyone wanted.”

Yes but I still don’t know what they are or what they do!

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:35 AM

steve popp’s comment is:

i wish you would have included some explaination behind the aflac debacle. good logo, bad change, semi-good change back, stupid change, sorta good modification, incomprehensible literal duming-up.
i am truly curious what short-sighted rationale can be offered for the abuse of this poor duck and its patient desigb firm(s).

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:39 AM

Dale Campbell’s comment is:

@Brandon Oxendine - it’s not about complaining. You’re missing the point. It’s about the subjectivity of relevance.

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:49 AM

Graham’s comment is:

I’m still a little sketchy on when exactly it became acceptable to use the word “relevant” as an absolute with no context. Relevant to what?

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:59 AM

bjornyeo’s comment is:

great recap.. looking forward now to the next decade!

On Jan.13.2010 at 09:00 AM

Steven Hoober’s comment is:

Star Alliance I have to say actually matters to frequent fliers. It’s essentially a meta-airline, and when you book on (say) United, and get on a (say) Air Canada plane, the little star logo helps reassure you that it’s not just an aberration.

They are good at putting the logo just enough places you can always tell when you are on such an airline, and are starting to play with the branding even more in special cases. E.g. http://www.asiatraveltips.com/newspics/StarAlliance.jpg

On Jan.13.2010 at 09:00 AM

Will’s comment is:

Armin, thanks for the great recap and all of the hard work that went into this.

As for the people who are already harping on what Armin may or may have not missed, quit your bitching.

Of course there has been some great identity work that was overlooked and of course, being written by one person being in one mind, the list is subjective. That is a given.

So, if you want to take your time and compile your own list and critique then go ahead. Just don’t come on this blog and whine about how your own subjective opinions were overlooked.

Armin has compiled a great service with his blogs over the years and I for one am appreciative for the time and effort he has put into it.

On Jan.13.2010 at 09:06 AM

Nina’s comment is:

(The Star Logo is incorrect. Type on the bottom is missing)

On Jan.13.2010 at 10:08 AM

cchana’s comment is:

great article. really like seeing the evolution of logos and identities. nice to see that some logos that feel like they’ve been around forever are only a few years old. guess it shows how effective they are!

On Jan.13.2010 at 10:24 AM

Anthony’s comment is:

Just an FYI on your first entry: that is NOT the real “New Cingular” site. If you check Archive.org’s Wayback Machine you’ll see that there were previous incarnations of the New Cingular site (http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.newcingular.com). Back in 2004, I personally worked a version of the New Cingular site which was aimed at trying to help Cingular “merge” with AT&T (although it has more akin to “being devoured”, as in Chronus with his off-spring). The site that is currently available at www.newcingular.com has a lot of spam links in the footer and, based on what’s available from the Wayback Machine, is probably just an SWF and some code that a spammer grabbed and posted to the site after AT&T let the domain lapse.

On Jan.13.2010 at 10:24 AM

Alex P.’s comment is:

Amazing decade. So many back & forth design decisions. What a circus!

On Jan.13.2010 at 10:31 AM

Tony Spaeth’s comment is:

Thanks, Armin, for acknowledging Identityworks.com. Agreed… you are providing a significant service to the worldwide identity community. While Brand New and Identityworks often tell the same stories, I will leave it to you to explore design execution in greater depth than I can, while I focus my own efforts on digging more deeply into leaders’ strategic intentions.

On Jan.13.2010 at 10:33 AM

pnply’s comment is:

My favorite is the Altria brand. Production-wise though, it’s a pain. We had to match all those colors, on the money, to make the signage. It all paid off when this sign appearred over Will Smith’s shoulder in “I am Legend,” though.

On Jan.13.2010 at 10:47 AM

Alphonse’s comment is:

I’d kill to sit in on some of those Wolff Ollins meetings just to see what the fuck they were thinking. I have a feeling a dartboard is involved.

On Jan.13.2010 at 10:53 AM

FFcommunicator’s comment is:

Quark?

@FFcommunicator
Fame Foundry

On Jan.13.2010 at 11:00 AM

Jo Wilson’s comment is:

The BP one shows off the power but also the cost of advertising - I remember reading somewhere that they spent considerably more on their new green logo and without-the-ugly-petroleum-word identity than they did on their entire renewables research budget.
J

On Jan.13.2010 at 11:09 AM

Martin Boath’s comment is:

I’d have thought ‘relevant’ in this instance meant newsworthy, high profile or iconic. I think, for the most part, all of these logos tick one, two or all three of those boxes. There is obviously a Stateside slant – which Armin acknowledges – but on the whole this is a nice little round up.

On Jan.13.2010 at 11:17 AM

Andrew’s comment is:

Does anyone else find it ironic that the Wacom logo was so obviously *not* designed with a wacom?

On Jan.13.2010 at 11:27 AM

Mary Shu’s comment is:

New headline please:
The Most Relevant U.S. Identity Work of the Decade.

So you clearly have to be an American brand to be considered important.
Nothing from Asia? Australia? Russia? Japan? really?

You must realize that many of your readers are not from the U.S., and so would not have any contact with a lot of the brands listed above (Walmart, Tropicana, AT&T, Payless, NWA etc).

So the question is, how relevant are they really, if only a small percentage of the world even knows they exist.

I honestly appreciate the effort putting this list together, but the title of the article clearly puts a stake in the ground that is false.

On Jan.13.2010 at 11:28 AM

Alexander Greyling’s comment is:

@Alphonse’s
Right on the money! I also suspect the way to the dartboard was a slog and sniff through the white powder.

On Jan.13.2010 at 11:58 AM

EnergonCube’s comment is:

What? No FedEx? It’s Blandor’s best work. Ever.

On Jan.13.2010 at 11:59 AM

Daho’s comment is:

I’ve seen the Amazon logo countless times, and never thought to care about the arrow being there, or that it points to A and Z. Yet i recognize the logo, even though I don’t really care about it. hmmm.

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:21 PM

Jem’s comment is:

FedEx was born in 2000, i think.
It should be acknowledged.

I also would have added ‘Rotterdam 2001’ and ‘Tate’.
Noggin was better than Tivo.

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:25 PM

Rob’s comment is:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in a decade worth remembering. Rules made, rules broken. The wonders of our imaginations never cease to amaze or dismay. Thanks Armin for the multitude of work that I know must have been spent on this list.

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:37 PM

Darrel’s comment is:

I’d agree that ‘relevant’ might be the wrong term here. Perhaps ‘most interesting’.

So, as such, this is a nice, interesting list!

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:39 PM

Spencer Cross’s comment is:

I think it’s easier to appreciate how good the New School identity is when you read through the branding standards guide:

http://www.newschool.edu/pdf/VisualIDGuide.pdf

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:47 PM

grubedoo’s comment is:

@Alexander Greyling

“Quark, VHF1 (and NYPL for that matter) prove that inhouse designers never have and never will be good at brandmark creation, they simply lack the talent, skills and experience.”

Wow! Pretty ballsy statement there Alexander.

In defense of these “talentless hacks” perhaps inhouse designers aren’t allowed the freedom or voice an outside firm would be b/c the company’s not paying extra for their expertise. Sure, it may be more challenging to get an outside perspective when working inhouse and you may not have the benefit of a strategic team working specifically on the rebrand but saying inhouse designers lack the talent, skills and experience … please. That comment is simply unintelligent.

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:52 PM

Req’s comment is:

“Quark, VHF1 (and NYPL for that matter) prove that inhouse designers never have and never will be good at brandmark creation, they simply lack the talent, skills and experience.”

That’s a funny thing to say. As part of an in-house design team I can tell you that the company I work for went to an agency to design a logo that was pretty poor and the then Studio Manager had to work on for something more satisfactory. Even though I wasn’t at the company at the time I can fully agree that the agency produced piece was piffle.

Does Wacom, London 2012 (and Aol. for that matter) prove anything about Wolff Olins?

As for the round up, to bring my post back relevance, very nice. Thank you Armin, though I was a little confused about the relevance too at first, it’s a fine list.

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:54 PM

hankela’s comment is:

I actually did a spit take the first time I saw the new NWA logo. I was on a plane waiting for takeoff and thought it was connected to the rap group N.W.A… http://www.acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/NWA

On Jan.13.2010 at 12:59 PM

RussellUresti’s comment is:

No mention of IKEA? Or was that only relevant to typography nerds like me?

On Jan.13.2010 at 01:01 PM

valt1’s comment is:

Yes it’s a probleme they are a lot of -only- american’s brand. :)

On Jan.13.2010 at 01:07 PM

Brit’s comment is:

Yeah agree, the all American slant is a little short sighted.

I think they have the web in other countries?

On Jan.13.2010 at 01:19 PM

qwertyale’s comment is:

I would like you to mention Citibank logo case.
I’ll never accept that unhappy Paula Scher’s umbrella.
She makes me angry forever.
=(

On Jan.13.2010 at 02:08 PM

Dennis’s comment is:

Did you go into one of the redesigned Walmarts? The kind that has larger aisles and lower shelves? I picked up some money in the summer working at a redesigned store and though I’ve come to hate Walmart I have to give it up for a much improved look.

Plus, the W has those cute touches at the bottom.

On Jan.13.2010 at 02:22 PM

MissingDesign’s comment is:

Thanks, that was a really fascinating read and a great refresh to look back at a decade of branding. :)

The Red campaign is my favorite. I’ve never seen something so convertible w/other brands and at the same time so identifiable and very lovely to look at.
-Deborah

On Jan.13.2010 at 02:22 PM

Paul’s comment is:

Great recap! This post also served as a reminder that I’ve been reading Brand New (in various forms) since 2003… That’s a lifetime in internet-years. Keep up the excellent work.

On Jan.13.2010 at 02:40 PM

Manny’s comment is:

FedEx is a huuuuge miss.

Definitely top 3 of the decade.

On Jan.13.2010 at 03:37 PM

-’s comment is:

What about “swisscom” ?

On Jan.13.2010 at 03:40 PM

Josh’s comment is:

wacom is so f**ked- especially weird as the bamboo tablet has such great typography on the box..

On Jan.13.2010 at 04:41 PM

Michael Bierut’s comment is:

FedEx is a huuuuge miss.

Definitely top 3 of the decade.

Wrong decade. FedEx was 1994.

On Jan.13.2010 at 04:55 PM

Armin’s comment is:

Thanks for helping clarify that Michael.

Also citibank was the previous decade. 1998 I think.

(writing this from phone so can’t confirm).

Re: American slant.
Without trying to sound dismissive: seriously, I would like to see someone put that together. I don’t have the knowledge and resources to do it with conviction. Call it shortsighted if you like…

On Jan.13.2010 at 05:45 PM

Lloyd Winter’s comment is:

I was really impressed by Wolff Olins for the (RED) and Aol logos. They are both really good will probably stick out the most for me over time.

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:26 PM

monomatica’s comment is:

Great recap. So many great ones and so many blunders. Has Arnell even done anything since?
Love this site. Thanks for all the hard work of putting this stuff together.

On Jan.13.2010 at 06:41 PM

Ken Carbone’s comment is:

Thanks Armin. Nice selection. I mostly agree. I’m glad Paul Rand wasn’t around for Enron doom.

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:16 PM

JohnD’s comment is:

Alexander Greyling - ‘Quark, VHF1 (and NYPL for that matter) prove that inhouse designers never have and never will be good at brandmark creation, they simply lack the talent, skills and experience.”

KAN I BYE YOOR BOOK??!!! I NEED TO BE EDUKATED!!!

On Jan.13.2010 at 08:59 PM

Qube’s comment is:

An awesome post, thank you.

On Jan.13.2010 at 09:24 PM

Hans rudolf’s comment is:

Relevant to whom?

On Jan.13.2010 at 09:40 PM

Mary Shu’s comment is:

Armin said:
Re: American slant.
Without trying to sound dismissive: seriously, I would like to see someone put that together. I don’t have the knowledge and resources to do it with conviction. Call it shortsighted if you like…

Hi Armin,

Here is my first pass at a less US centric list. Sorry I don’t have time to write detailed rationals for each choice. (Disclaimer: dates are not confirmed).
PS. I don’t think your list is shortsighted, just the title.

Channel 4 rebrand (UK, 2001, Spin)
- Resuscitating an iconic logo without loosing the iconic part.

Rotterdam 2001 (Netherlands, 2001, Mevis and Van Deursen)
- Early logo as a living system.

MOMAT – The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (Japan, 2002, Keiko Hirano Studio)
- All class

BT, like AT&T but British (UK, 2003)
- Balls?

Shelter (UK, 2003, Johnson Banks)
- Just enough is more

More4 (UK, 2004, Spin)
- Declarative brilliance

Uniqlo rebrand (Japan, 2004-ish, Kashiwa Sato)
- A modern retail brand lands in the US

Moderna Museet Stockholm (Sweden, 2004 Stockholm Design Lab)
- Hand drawn can be modern

Stedelijik Museum CS (Netherlands, 2005, Experimental Jetset)
- Punk Modernism, for a gallery?

Tate (UK, 2005, Wolff Olins)
- Brave

Askul (Sweden, 2006, Stockholm Design Lab & BVD)
- Beauty where it’s not expected (ink cartridge)

Swisscom (Switzerland, 2007-08, Moving Brands)
- Abstract is interesting

One Degree (Australia, 2007-08, Landor)
- Simple and smart

El Banco Deuno (Mexico, 2008)
- Banks can be cool

Esfahan University of Art (Iran, 2008, Alireza Mostafazadeh Ebrahimi)
- A beautiful mystery

Apollo (India, 2009)
- Vivid, Energetic, Unexpected.

and…I always thought the Walker Art Center id was extremely influential (U.S. 2005, Andrew Blauvelt, Eric Olsen, Matthew Carter)

On Jan.14.2010 at 01:12 AM

Chuck Spidell’s comment is:

The Bahamas branding still rocks the block.

On Jan.14.2010 at 06:17 AM

qwertyale’s comment is:

Yes, you’re right, the City project started at 1998 and at beginning it had a big schedulling: end at 2012.

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/7176/picture124.png

On Jan.14.2010 at 07:24 AM

doug b’s comment is:

In response to Alexander Greyling’s post, all I can say is “Physician, hel thyself”. Wow. Your website and book cover say all there is to say about your brand/design knowledge. Perhaps you could benefit from the assistance of an in-house designer.

On Jan.14.2010 at 08:46 AM

Joseph Sims’s comment is:

The Star Alliance logo is attractive, but it leaves me wondering where the light source is… I tried as hard as… as I felt like trying, to figure out the pattern of how they arranged the *pyramids?*, but couldn’t. It seems like the are rotated arbitrarily.

On Jan.14.2010 at 08:59 AM

Alexander Greyling’s comment is:

@doug b’s
So show us your genius or is it confined to the odd misspelled quote?

On Jan.14.2010 at 09:32 AM

Caoimghgin’s comment is:

Just want to say for the record that I think Paul Rand has been ‘taking the piss’ with all of us for the past few decades. I mean seriously folks.

On Jan.14.2010 at 09:38 AM

Juan Miguel Marin’s comment is:

Great recap Armin! loved going back to the heated discussion over the Payless rebranding… another good one would have been the Jack in the Box rebranding by Duffy.

On Jan.14.2010 at 11:34 AM

Tony Nguyen’s comment is:

How can you leave out the Google brand? They do not have the “best designed” logo but its brand is a global behemoth.

On Jan.14.2010 at 01:13 PM

Darrel’s comment is:

From Alexandar Greylings web site:

“If you are from Korea and eat your own pets, the only thing you could do with a brand is rape it, like Daewoo”

And there seems to be at least 20 more pages of gems like that.

Wow.

On Jan.14.2010 at 01:32 PM

Brendan’s comment is:

@Alexander Greyling - Doug B hasn’t positioned himself as the expert here, so he doesn’t have to have better credentials than you.

On Jan.14.2010 at 01:39 PM

nowayjose’s comment is:

Oh, man… I can not believe you included that Obama thing in this! That’s wild.

On Jan.14.2010 at 02:11 PM

underpk’s comment is:

I love Napster, it might be the first thing that I known on the internet.

On Jan.14.2010 at 02:25 PM

Armin’s comment is:

Re: Google

The last large iteration of the logo, as we know it today, was in 1999. So, it didn’t make the cut. But, yes, I considered it.

Mary Shu… Great list, actually.

On Jan.14.2010 at 02:45 PM

Matthew Aebersold’s comment is:

This is a great roundup, and a really interesting read. Thank you for this! I’m blogging about it and directing everyone here to read it.

On Jan.14.2010 at 03:32 PM

Brad Herman’s comment is:

Is it just me or does the ‘a’ in Kodak give a slight visual image of a hand making the picture taking ‘click’ motion? Intentional? Unnoticed?

On Jan.14.2010 at 03:46 PM

Glen’s comment is:

@Alexander Greyling

You have a lot of nerve. Expecially considering you are trying to pettle a book with one of the worst designed covers I have ever seen for branding/design centric audience. Looks more like a cheap parenting book than a branding/design book.

On Jan.14.2010 at 04:23 PM

Christopher’s comment is:

@Alexander Greyling

“Quark, VHF1 (and NYPL for that matter) prove that inhouse designers never have and never will be good at brandmark creation, they simply lack the talent, skills and experience.”

What a nonsensical, ignorant, childish and sweeping generalisation.

On Jan.14.2010 at 04:30 PM

Rico’s comment is:

Glen just about summed it up perfectly.

On Jan.14.2010 at 04:58 PM

hyun’s comment is:

I don’t want to get off topic here but wow… Is Alex Greyling for real?
That book cover is so bad, it’s actually funny. Makes Dr. Zizmor ads look good.

On Jan.14.2010 at 05:41 PM

Kiren’s comment is:

The AOL logo is nothing special if you ask me, maybe I’m blind to what they are trying to convey. I think a certain amount of change is needed to make things fresh again.. I like the new Pepsi logo myself:)

On Jan.14.2010 at 08:29 PM

Just Some Guy’s comment is:

Interesting that there’s not much comment on logo perception within the industry. The Enron logo was widely (and aptly) referred to as “the crooked E”. The at&t logo (what? broken shift key?) is frequently described as “the Death Star.” Probably not what the artists intended.

On Jan.14.2010 at 09:07 PM

Roger’s comment is:

Great post. I particularly enjoyed the Pepsi info.

On Jan.14.2010 at 09:35 PM

Bill Dawson (XK9)’s comment is:

Well done, my friend.

On Jan.14.2010 at 10:43 PM

DMan’s comment is:

As has been observed, there’s also a degree of subjectivity involved in what is considered a good logo.

It’s disturbing, however, how much of the ‘emperor’s new clothes’ effect is at work in the opinions of the design community.

Self-appointed ‘experts’ across the web declare that such and such a logo is good/bad and many, I suspect, go along with it, for fear of appearing not au fait with the ‘rules’ we must obey - or be ostracised as ignorant.

It’s ironic that, in a creative field where individualistic thinking and originality are supposed to be paramount, how little tolerance there is those who don’t follow the latest ‘trends’ or keep their own counsel on what a good design is.

I think we need to stop arrogantly voicing our design tastes as ‘facts’ to be dictated to the community, and recognise they’re just opinions, no matter how prestigious a position we may hold.

Remember an ‘expert’ is someone who knows more and more about less and less - until they know absolutely everything about nothing!

On Jan.15.2010 at 02:11 AM

MSGDS’s comment is:

Thank you for the recap.

On Jan.15.2010 at 09:27 AM

cc’s comment is:

Ten years later, and I still see a happy little penis under amazon.com.

On Jan.15.2010 at 10:07 AM

David’s comment is:

DMan, you world sounds very beige.
Group hug anyone?

On Jan.15.2010 at 11:08 AM

steveballmer’s comment is:

Some of these thinhgs are just plain uninspired and ugly!

On Jan.15.2010 at 03:38 PM

Rob’s comment is:

Why is verizon here? I hate that logo.

On Jan.15.2010 at 06:26 PM

Jason Lenker’s comment is:

A nice recap.
Don’t think they should all be here, but definitely some great ones.

On Jan.16.2010 at 10:28 AM

Pablo Bermejo’s comment is:

Some of them are really ugly.
Best for me: BP and Wacom.
Thanks for the recap.

On Jan.17.2010 at 11:16 AM

Jerome’s comment is:

Fantastic article. Glad you’re able to keep updating your site with continuously insightful and visually appealing content so frequently. Week-end delight.

On Jan.17.2010 at 12:59 PM

Mark’s comment is:

Good stuff.

I enjoyed every minute of it.

On Jan.17.2010 at 08:48 PM

jim’s comment is:

Armin, I know it’s lame, but what’s the font of the headers? (Most Relevant Identity Work …) Been trying to find out ever since “best of 2009” to no avail, please help!

Oh, nice list btw, starts with a favourite of mine

On Jan.18.2010 at 02:12 PM

Armin’s comment is:

Hi Jim. It’s Apex New (Ultra weight, small caps, set in all lowercase). Available at http://vllg.com/

On Jan.18.2010 at 02:19 PM

wisconsin auto accident lawyers’s comment is:

Love the list, thanks for the recap.

On Jan.18.2010 at 02:28 PM

jim’s comment is:

@ Armin, duh, didn’t notice they’ve had an ultra style! Thanks much!

On Jan.18.2010 at 03:14 PM

Jude Stewart’s comment is:

Armin, you’re still kicking ass after all these years! I enjoyed interviewing you back in - egad - 2005 about design blogs for STEP, before that was anything more than a nutty basement hobby. And I’m loving what you’re doing now on Brand New.

I’m blogging now twice monthly for PRINT, mostly about color although with a few digressions here and there. Speaking of Aol above, you and your readers might enjoy a recent post I did rounding up various reactions to the Wolff Ollins redesign - featuring a nod to your sharp analysis of the whole thing:

http://printmag.com/Article/Rebranding-Reax-Aol

Looking forward to bumping into you in the blogosphere again soon!

Jude Stewart

On Jan.18.2010 at 03:55 PM

Wally’s comment is:

what’s wrong with shopping at wal-mart?

On Jan.19.2010 at 11:37 AM

Maureen O'Connor’s comment is:

Thank you for the very informative recap. I enjoyed reading about each of the identities.

On Jan.19.2010 at 02:42 PM

Rod Roels’s comment is:

Ugh. I just realized that the abstract shapes of the london olympic logo are “2012”. Is it me? Does it make the logo any more appealing to me? Not really. Do I think this logo and the prophecy of the Myan calendar that the world will end in 2012 is a coincidence? The more I think about it, the more I think it may not be so…

On Jan.19.2010 at 08:13 PM

Dre’s comment is:

Where’s the Bing logo? :-)

On Jan.20.2010 at 05:38 AM

andresiga’s comment is:

Meh. Very subjective sometimes; but then again, designers tend to think their opinion is truth (myself included; but it stands because “good design” tends to be a shared opinion… making it true?)

On Jan.20.2010 at 11:47 AM

will’s comment is:

you missed one!

museum of london
http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/2/29/Museum_of_london_logo.png

On Jan.21.2010 at 07:33 PM

Andrew Thomas’s comment is:

Is anyone interested in taking these and setting them to music, in the context of a 150 second short animation film? Everyone namechecked, and in fact there might be a small bit of budget too?

On Jan.22.2010 at 03:44 PM

Andrew Thomas’s comment is:

Is anyone interested in taking these and setting them to music, in the context of a 150 second short animation film? Everyone namechecked, and in fact there might be a small bit of budget too?

On Jan.22.2010 at 03:46 PM

Don Carroll’s comment is:

Great review (and great additions by Mary Shu).

On Jan.25.2010 at 06:04 PM

Lisette Yapp’s comment is:

Nice website. My english is not so good. Have you a tip for me to translate? Hope for an answer. Thank you!

On Feb.03.2010 at 06:25 AM

kiramatalishah’s comment is:

Often we forget the little guy, the SMB, in our discussions of the comings and goings of the Internet marketing industry. Sure there are times like this when a report surfaces talking about their issues and concerns but, for the most part, we like to talk about big brands and how they do the Internet marketing thing well or not so well.

www.onlineuniversalwork.com

On Feb.05.2010 at 02:34 AM

SonHouse’s comment is:

@Alexander Greyling…

“Quark, VHF1 (and NYPL for that matter) prove that inhouse designers never have and never will be good at brandmark creation, they simply lack the talent, skills and experience.”

Alex - are you serious? What a pompous, arrogant A-hole thing to say.

BTW the cover of your “book” - looks like a right piece of shite - as though it were executed by someone with neither talent, skill or experience. Did you ‘design’ that, Mr. Expert? Any 12 year old working in Powerpoint could do better than that. A freaking monkey could do better than that.

Here it is for everybody to see..

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22352985/Face-Your-Brand-The-visual-language-of-branding-explained-Sample-Book

It’s a joke - right? I know you’ve got to be freaking kidding.

And you are supposedly giving brand advice?

Nice logo! Holy crap.

On Feb.05.2010 at 09:42 AM

SonHouse’s comment is:

@Alexander Greyling…

“Quark, VHF1 (and NYPL for that matter) prove that inhouse designers never have and never will be good at brandmark creation, they simply lack the talent, skills and experience.”

Alex - are you serious? What a pompous, arrogant A-hole thing to say.

BTW the cover of your “book” - looks like a right piece of shite - as though it were executed by someone with neither talent, skill or experience. Did you ‘design’ that, Mr. Expert? Any 12 year-old working in Powerpoint could do better than that. A freaking monkey could do better than that.

Here it is for everybody to see..

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22352985/Face-Your-Brand-The-visual-language-of-branding-explained-Sample-Book

It’s a joke - right? I know you’ve got to be freaking kidding.

And you are supposedly giving brand advice?

Nice logo! Holy crap.

On Feb.05.2010 at 09:44 AM

DesignNYC’s comment is:

Honestly, other than simply placing logos on this website for the design community to critique, I don’t think Armin & Co. should be creating, nor judging logos. I’m greatly concerned with their lack of taste, and credibility to justify such insulting results.

Shame on you BrandNew.

On Feb.05.2010 at 07:15 PM

DesignNYC’s comment is:

Honestly, other than simply placing logos on this website for the design community to critique, I don’t think Armin and company should be creating, nor judging logos. I’m greatly concerned with his lack of taste, and credibility to justify such insulting results.

Shame on you Brand New.

On Feb.05.2010 at 07:16 PM

Rob Wood’s comment is:

Great article, some very memorable logo designs!

On Feb.18.2010 at 11:39 AM

Maddie Heslep’s comment is:

Interesting this is how some see it. Thanks for a insightfull posting.

On Feb.18.2010 at 01:51 PM

Bob Gantz’s comment is:

Great publish! GA is also my biggest earning. However, it is not a a lot.

On Jun.08.2010 at 12:39 PM

The Brainchild ’s comment is:

Being the branding buff that I am, I really enjoyed your article! Though GE is somewhat old school (in age and appearance), I do still like their logo after all these years.

On Jul.05.2010 at 02:24 AM

Crumpy McStumpy’s comment is:

I’ve had some of the best eyelashes experiences I would like to share…I finally found something that worked but the very first handful of items I were lousy. Let me read a handful of posts then I’ll be back to reveal.

On Jul.08.2010 at 04:41 PM

Judy Milligan’s comment is:

I have had some of the best eyelashes experiences I would like to share…I finally found something that worked but the very first handful of items I used were horrific. Let me study a couple of posts then I’ll be back to reveal.

On Jul.08.2010 at 04:45 PM