Art Directors Club new logo minus the art direction

Posted in Branding on November 17, 2009 at 2:55 pm

After nearly 90 years of service to the creative community the Art Directors Club has decided to re-design their iconic logo designed by Paula Scher around 2005 which was an update of Albrecht Dürer’s mark that the ADC had been using almost since its inception.

I have to be honest that the new logo leaves me flat and uninspired and I echo the views of Armin over at Brand New in his assessment of the new logo when he said “The biggest problem I have with the new logo is that it really doesn’t do much. I understand the direction to go with an all-type solution and as an advocate of all-type solutions I don’t complain about that aspect, but why so dull? Why just Franklin Gothic tightly letterspaced? One thing is to “embrace our origins and heritage” but it’s another to ignore and disregard the present or even the future and not offer a new kind of visual language for a new century. For an organization that clearly has its own unique, edgy voice and is well respected in the industry, they surely had an opportunity to create something that reflected that same attitude that they have applied to their annuals and competitions. Dressing it in magenta is unfortunately not enough.”