LOGO DESIGN BLOG   LOGO DESIGN REVIEW

Today I came accross a little known fact dealing with the FedEx logo. There is an arrow nestled into the design between the ‘E’ and ‘X’. I find it amazing that for the thousands of times I’ve seen the logo, I’ve never noticed it before. And probably most people–especially those outside the design community–never see that aspect of the design either.

FedEx logo designer Lindon Leader said the arrow represents speed and precision, two of the company’s greatest attributes. This may be the best example of subtlety in logo design today.

You can read an interview with Mr. Leader on The Sneeze and learn more about the process that went into designing one of the world’s strongest and most award winning marks in the world today. It is very interesting and is a good illustration of the amount of work and thought that goes into designing strong, lasting logos. You also get a good sense of the creativity necessary to excel in the graphic design industry.

My favorite question from the interview is one probably everyone who just barely saw the arrow in the logo would want to know: Why make the arrow so subtle?

Mr. Leader’s response: ‘The power of the hidden arrow is simply that it is a “hidden bonus”. . . [and] not “getting the punchline” by not seeing the arrow does not reduce the impact of the logo’s essential communication.’

True enough. But why didn’t I see it before?

Source: The Sneeze - Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2006 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Logo Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.