- Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the American corporation
was viewed as leading the way toward
a great big beautiful tomorrow.
Corporations embodied the values of the 1950s: conformity,
order, hierarchical power structures, and security.
Employees expected to work at the
same corporation for their entire career.
With hard work they would climb the
corporate ladder from the mail room to CEO,
slowly providing a better life for their family.
Before the 1950s, corporate identity
was a rather casual affair.
Divisions often created their own version of logo
and were autonomous in their design choices.
A group of ten executives might have
ten distinctly different letterhead designs.
As corporations grew and expanded,
the lack of visual consistency became a problem.
Creating a cohesive identity program
solved multiple problems.
Functionally, for example, an entire company now
used one business card or letterhead design.
This allowed for centralized purchasing
of printing and reducing costs.
In marketing, one logo and visual style maintained
a clear and unified message in a competitive landscape.
Logos designed in the 1950s and
60s were hard-edged and simple.
Reproduction quality was variable from a
well-printed brochure to a low-end newspaper ad.
Sharp and clean forms work best across the spectrum.
Saul Bass's identity for the bell system which
became AT&T is a good example of the progressive
simplification that evolved into a masterful icon.
A corporate identity system expanded a
designer's role from only designing a logo to
creating an overall branded look.
Chermayeff and Geismar designed the Mobil logo in 1963.
The previous name Mobil Gas was shortened and the
simple logo was the foundation for a major overhaul of
all corporate communications, advertising, and signage.
And an identity program could unify
thousands of employees and increase stock values.
It could re-position a company in a new medium
like the CBS identity designed by William Golden in 1951.
As he was driving through Pennsylvania Dutch Country
he was inspired by the hex symbols in the shape of
a human eye painted on shaker barns.
The new mark moved CBS from
radio broadcasting to television.
After Golden died in 1959, Lou Dorfsman
took over as creative director.
He evolved the identity with a singular typeface, CBS Didot,
and the black and white palette.
Dorfsman proved that a strong identity system could
be varied and exciting across a wide range of materials.
Paul Rand designed several of the
period's most recognizable marks.
The IBM logo evolved from the former full name
of International Business Machines.
Rand recognized the power of a more
efficient approach: the shortened acronym.
He continued this idea with the
American Broadcasting Company which
uses the same abc logo fifty years later.
The mark is a series of almost
identical circles in the negative spaces,
the letter forms, and the containing shape.
The simplicity is one of the reasons for its longevity.
Rand's UPS logo also shortened the United Parcel Service
to an easier name and used a simple rectangle
and bow shape to communicate parcels.
Large scale identity systems introduce the identity manual.
These guidelines maintained a cohesive system
with a set of rules for usage.
They were distributed to creative departments and
outside agencies to maintain a singular vision.
Some corporations went to extremes
to maintain a cohesive voice.
In one instance all executives were required
to wear white shirts and black ties,
No personal artifacts were allowed on a desk,
and a template existed to make sure everyone's
desk lamp was at the exact same angle.
Questions about the dehumanizing aspects of the
corporation gained momentum by the late 1950s.
The idea that corporation was the key
to a golden future began to disintegrate.
The monolithic aspect of a rigid
corporate identity system began to evolve.