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Classic Logos: CBS (1951)
18 August 2017 
Hi MLE,This week our classic logo is the CBS logo. It has always seemed a bit ominous to me, and I was quite interested to hear its story…It is based on the ‘all-seeing eye’ Hex symbols painted on Shaker barns in Pennsylvania Dutch country. I have never heard of these symbols, but some of them are lovely and they look great on their amazing barns.The in-house CBS creative director of Advertising and Sales Promotion worked with a graphic designer using the Hex symbol as a starting point and created ‘the eye,’ as well as two other routes were presented - and the eye was a clear winner.On October 20, 1951, CBS Television unveiled its new logo in station breaks voiced by various celebs: “keep your eye on this eye.”
SuzanPosted in: identities -
Classic Logos: Apple (1977)
14 July 2017 
Hello the MLE,
Ah yes, the ubiquitous Apple logo. It’s always ranking up there with the classic logos of all time, but is this is because it’s really such a great logo, or because everyone loves the Apple brand so much? I really enjoy speaking with clients years after we’ve created a logo for them, I’m always surprised to learn how much emotion is attached to it.Yes, believe it or not, that is the original Apple logo at the top of the post. Designed in 1976, it is Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, of course.It’s interesting that Steve Jobs went to the effort and expense of engaging an ad agency, just one year later to create a more businesslike logo. Evidently the brief was just, “don’t make it cute.”A bite was taken from the apple so that it didn’t look like a cherry. The coloured stripes were a reminder that the Apple II had a colour monitor. This logo was used from 1977 to 1998. After that all Apple design was done in-house and the colours were removed so that the logo could appear very large and not be too obtrusive.
SuzanPosted in: identities -
Classic Logos: Rolling Stones (1970)
3 March 2017 
Hello MLE,
Second in my series about logos which have stood the test of time... In 1970, Mick Jagger phoned the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London and asked them to recommend a student to design a poster for an upcoming tour. John Pasche met Jagger, designed the poster, and a few months laster Jagger phoned back asking for a logo.While Jagger was discussing the logo, Pasche “just had this idea.” The big red lips and tongue seemed perfect as Jagger wanted to wanted to encourage their bad boy reputation and it was blatantly anti-authoritarian. Evidently, it was just a coincidence that they also happened to resembled Jagger’s lips (in a not particularly flattering way, but Jagger did not mind).The logo was first used on the inner sleeve of Sticky Fingers. The cover art was by Warhol, leading many to believe he is also the logo designer.Pasche’s original artwork, a handprinted, 14 inch square, sold to the V&A at auction in 2000 for $92,500.
Have a nice weekend!
Suzan
Posted in: identities -
Classic Logos: National Theatre (1974)
17 February 2017 Hi MLE,
Creative Review design magazine complied a list of their Top 20 logos of all time, and it’s been really interesting to learn about these logos that have stood the test of time. I’ll share with you the main points of each one, starting with the National Theatre logo…
Concept Development- Henrion himself, the founder of FHK Henrion’s London studio pitched a concept, but it was not chosen:
- Instead the concept of one of his design assistants, Ian Dennis, was chosen. Inspiration was found in the “NT” on the cover of one of the trendy magazine’s of 1974, Avant Guard:
- The logo went through a number of iterations, luckily including the removal of a curved outline around the logo, because it was hard to reproduce in hand cut vinyl.- The official version just happened to echo the brutalist architecture of the National Theatre, though this was not intentional, as Denis had never even really seen the building as it was under construction at the time:
Its Success- Practically, it is really great to use. It reads well and looks great in very small and very large sizes. Roughly square, it fits perfectly into landscape and portrait formats:
- Over time, it was decided that the full name needs to be more prominent, so a much less memorable generic logo was created that is used most often:
Have a nice weekend!
SuzanPosted in: theatre identities