Is it just me or did Xerox blow it?

JoeEkaitis said:

Makes about as much sense as General Electric tampering with their legendary logo.

Click to expand...

Or Coke messing with their formula (speaking of which, there is only one non-employee who knows the formula, and my dad knows him).

Looks pretty crappy to me.

As a professional knitter, I'm flattered that they've gone in for the ball-of-yarn look.

It's not an improvement. Everyone seems to have a dumb circle, ellipse, star or collection of squares as a logo. They look like generic graphics you could by from a stock graphics company, but you know they paid thousands for them.

veinglory said:

It's not an improvement. Everyone seems to have a dumb circle, ellipse, star or collection of squares as a logo. They look like generic graphics you could by from a stock graphics company, but you know they paid thousands for them.

Click to expand...

Yep. I work for a major engineering firm. When they started the firm a few years ago they hired a professional graphics designer to do the logo. It's a red triangle. That's it, a red triangle with the name of the firm written beside it. It actually doesn't look too bad, it's just funny that they paid $5000 for it.

Meanwhile twitter got their bird logo as a non-exclusive design from a stock photo site--doesn't seem to slow them down any.

Here's what Xerox says about it.

Here's what some designers think, and insight into how it got tested and released.

Here is a picture of Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro.

It looks like a logo for a some kind of toothpaste, or a colorblind Xbox knock-off...

And the BBC paid over £5m to go from this:


to this:


They'd hardly even used the first one for 6 years before they recommissioned the design.

jst5150 said:

Here's what some designers think, and insight into how it got tested and released.

Click to expand...

I love this part from the link you posted:

The transformation of the logo takes on a new design using not only a new typeface but also incorporates the use of a symbol with the colors red and silver, indicating Xerox is not afraid of the future of technology.

Oh, yeah, that was my first thought too. See the Xerox ball . . . I bet they're not afraid of the future of technology.

The Air Force did something similar at the start of the millennium. Similarly received, the logo won few hearts within the service and without. However, over time, people have accepted it.

alleycat said:

I love this part from the link you post:

The transformation of the logo takes on a new design using not only a new typeface but also incorporates the use of a symbol with the colors red and silver, indicating Xerox is not afraid of the future of technology.

Oh, yeah, that was my first thought too. See the Xerox ball . . . I bet they're not afraid of the future of technology.

Click to expand...

I just thought they were letting us know they're always red when playing croquet.

I kind of like the Air Force one. If you squint it sort of looks like some kind of evil mutant cat.

;-)

alleycat said:

... with the colors red and silver, indicating ...

Click to expand...

Designers' rules:
1. If it's not good, make it big.
2. If you can't make it big, make it red.
3. If in a bind, make it big and red.

alleycat said:

Yep. I work for a major engineering firm. When they started the firm a few years ago they hired a professional graphics designer to do the logo. It's a red triangle. That's it, a red triangle with the name of the firm written beside it. It actually doesn't look too bad, it's just funny that they paid $5000 for it.

Click to expand...

For that price, they better have a vector-based image.

Does anyone know what the Xerox redesign cost? I'm almost afraid to ask.

The current designer's rule is to go all lower case. Way to blend in, Xerox.

The thread subject reminds me of Xerox PARC, their Palo Alto Research Center, where they spent huge amounts of money making fantastic technological things. Steve Jobs co-founder of Apple Computer, toured PARC back in the early '80's and was so impressed he pushed for the development of new Apple products based on what he saw - first the Apple Lisa (interesting, but at $10,000 it didn't sell well) and a year later the Macintosh. The thought was that Xerox blew it by not itself capitalizing more on the technology it had invented. The "ease of use" concepts from Xerox certainly influence Jobs specifically and Apple in general, and quite possibly influenced a much later and very popular Apple product, a portable MP3/digital audio player named the iPod. I can imagine a handwritten sign somewhere in Apple that says "It's the user interface, stupid!"

As for the logo, the round thing reminds me of the AT&T "Death Star" logo that showed up decades ago, and I hadn't even realized they changed/tweaked it four years ago (speaking of going lower case). This blog talks about it and has pics of the new at&t as well as the old AT&T logos, and also mentions the evolving Starbucks logo:
http://www.emvergeoning.com/?p=2033

But other than that, for this "xerox" thing I see red with a white cross. Reminds me sort of the Red Cross? Maybe not what Xerox wants me to think?

veinglory said:

Meanwhile twitter got their bird logo as a non-exclusive design from a stock photo site--doesn't seem to slow them down any.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but what about the Fail Whale?

veinglory said:

The current designer's rule is to go all lower case. Way to blend in, Xerox.

Click to expand...

Is there a name for that? The e e cummings effect, perhaps?

Actually,I suspect making a lower-case logo makes it and the company feel more acceptable/accessible to the young and "hip" who likely text in all-lower-case, and have even learned to see a single all-upper-case word or even three-letter sequence as SHOUTING.

The Ipod was only possible because of the development of the Mp3 player designed by Diamond Rio. The Rio was the first MP3 player - and the first to take on the Recording Industry of America. They fought long and hard for the right to create and sell the technology. The legal fight almost bankrupted them - and when the smoke cleared, and they had won - Apple released the Ipod.

Talk about timing.