Hammer Museum

I mainly focused on the before and after logos wall when I visited the Hammer Museum, the Graphic Design: Now in Production exhibition. This wall showed twelve companies’ or organizations’ logo before they changed it to after they changed it. Below these logos, there is a clear plastic tube that viewers can stack chips in to show which logo they liked more. I feel that in general, logos became more simplified or give a technological vibe to it. For instance, as you can see from the before and after logos, Starbuck’s Coffee changed their logo from having the brand name on the logo to just having the mermaid.

   

For technological vibe, I mean the design looks more uniform and resembles technology brands. For example, Popeyes used to use a font that did not consist of uniform letters, meaning the letters spelling “Popeyes” did not look the same. The two “P”s were not identical, whereas, in the new logo, the “P”s and the “E”s look exacting the same. I believe that in the before logo, the “E”s were the same font, but because the word “Popeyes” was curved, the “E”s did not look the same. Thus, a uniform font makes this logo look more computerized and simplified. It has become more simplified also by making the logo one color, straight, and leaving out the “Chicken and Biscuits” part.

The new logo for Comedy Central really looked a lot different from its original logo. Before, it looked very bouncy and wild from the design of the buildings going from narrow at the bottom to wide at the top. Also, the buildings were not identical either; thus, the style looked more casual and carefree. Now the logo completely changed into just the letter “C” and a circle surround it. The font of this logo is a very regular and quite boring font. I would say this logo is a clear example of simplicity.

            This logo also reminds me a lot of computers and technology because it resembles the style for the power button on a computer. The colors white and black also remind me of Apple products which is known for its advanced technology.

Overall, I think these new logos displays the modern idea of design of making things more simplified. This is in support of what Sparke says about modern design and that it is a “justification for simple, undecorated style favoured by most modernist designers” (Sparke “Design and Culture,” 90). Just glancing at all the changes in logos in this gallery, I would say for the most part, the new logos are much simpler than the old ones and by reading comments and opinions that were also on the wall, I conclude that they prefer a more simple image because it means more sophisticated and it also shows how they find this simplicity very pleasing to look at, rather than finding detailed designs attractive. One comment about the “Popeyes” logo was that “this new look feels more sophisticated…than the overly- excited identity they previously used. Kudos on a job well done” (Roby Fitzhenry from the wall). Another comment that related simplicity with sophistication was one about “Comedy Central,” and that there is now a “level of sophistication that permeates throughout the network” (Evan Stremke from the wall). From this, people feel that simplicity is associated with sophistication which gives simple designs a positive connotation, thus, it would make sense that it’s popular.