The Ubiquitous Paula Scher

I wonder how many people walk around New York City, saying "hey! that there is a Paula Scher," identifying her work in the same way people would say "hey, did you see that Van Gogh the other day?"

I googled Paula Scher, and it turns out she is everywhere. Now, I know just because you have a large portfolio does not necessarily mean that you can be easily identifiable anywhere, but Paula Scher has a certain hidden-in-plain-sight kind of presence in New York, at least to those who are or were not aware of her involvement. One of my favorites out of her logos is her design for the New York Philharmonic:

The New York Philharmonic's new graphic identity designed by Paula Scher.

It was also pretty fascinating to find out that Paula Scher was involved in these everyday package designs too:

        

Good Busy Design

In 1924, the President of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) , Thomas J. Watson Sr. changed the name of the company to International Business Machines, or IBM, the abbreviation we know today.

The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was established on June 16, 1911. This January, IBM started celebrating its one hundredth year and anticipation of its centennial birthday this summer with a plethora of articles on icons, playing on the word's definition as a representative symbol while acknowledging the company's iconic innovations. Each of the company's innovations, listed under "Icons of Progress" is represented by their own pictorial interpretation, which takes the shape of the number 100:

IBM Logo Design for its Centennial Birthday

In their "Icons of Progress" section they also celebrate IBM's belief that "good design is good business" by paying tribute to the company's original design consultant, Eliot Noyes, and artists who worked on his corporate design program. These artists included Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Paul Rand and Isamu Noguchi. 

Who are you?

Remember my Doctor Who themed Art Nouveau post from February? Well, recently the BBC decided to redesign the television show's logo.

One major characteristic of the show is that the character of the Doctor can regenerate every cell in his body if mortally wounded, resulting in a drastic (but not too entirely different) change of appearance and personality. This ability helps the Doctor to "escape death" in a way, although he has said that regenerating is almost like dying since the person he becomes as a result of the regeneration is often distinctly different from the previous Doctor.

Lost yet?  Here's how it is related to the visual identification systems we've been studying in chapter twenty of Meggs' History:  so far the Doctor has regenerated a total of eleven times, and each time the show has aired with a different Doctor, it has been introduced with the appearance of a revised logo in the opening credits. The latest logo is composed of the letters DW, which come together to take the shape of the Doctor's time traveling box, the TARDIS.


In 1960, Norman Ives stated that a symbol's function as a logo should:

convey with a clear statement or by suggestion, the activity it represents...The symbol, besides being memorable and legible, must be designed so that it can be used in many sizes and situations without losing its identity (Meggs 403-4).

This is particularly important in an extremely visually engaged culture, since symbols are practically competing against millions of other symbols for the dominance and permanence that William Goldman achieved with his pictographic CBS eye trademark from 1951.

How Not To Revise Your Identity

On the television show Community, which takes place at a community college called Greendale, the dean tries to promote an environmental initiative for the school's green week by changing the college's name and logo.

The London Underground

Harry (also referred to as Henry) Beck and Edward Johnston: both of these men have worked on graphics for the London Underground. Harry Beck was the designer of the map for the Underground, and Edward Johnston was hired by Frank Pick to create a typeface and symbol for the transportation system.

London Transportation Logos

This was one of the original maps of the Underground from 1933:

Harry Beck's design for the London Underground Map in 1933.

And this is a much more recent and modern interpretation of the London Underground system as of this year, 2011:

Chromaroma from Mudlark on Vimeo.