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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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November 21, 2005 05:55 PM
Broken: New AT&T logo
Link: New AT&T Logo Is Variation on Old Globe - Yahoo! News.
The company said the new logo was designed to look three-dimensional, "representing the expanding breadth and depth of services that the new AT&T family of companies provides to customers." Lowercase type was chosen for "at&t" in the logo "because it projects a more welcoming and accessible image," the company said.
Not necessarily broken, but I always wonder whether all the money that goes into re-branding a huge company is worth it (as opposed to, say, improving the basic service level for customers... why does my cell phone's connection frequently die in the middle of Manhattan, for example?).
I'm also not sure I like the all-lowercase logo, since if every huge soulless corporation does that, then what does it really represent?
I have never understood this obsession by large corporations to change their logo at the drop of a hat. So what if the logo or trademark is ancient? People recognize it! Look at the Gerber Baby trademark, for example. It goes back to the early 1900s. Everyone knows it. The company would be stupid to try to change it. The same goes for technology companies. Rember the RCA trademark "His Master's Voice" with the dog listening to the old Victrola?
Back in the 80s Intel spent a lot to revamp their logo -- the main change was they ended up moving the 'i' and the 'n' a little further apart.
Don't know about you folks, but now that I see the new logo, I'm going to run right out and subscribe to some at&t something or other. I'm outta here. Right now! Yeee hah...... . . . . . . . .
Several times a year it hits home when I realize what obscene money is to be made on some worthless product or service, and that I am not in the business of providing it. This is one of those times. Wonder how qualified (or connected) I need to be to get into the logo-update biz?
But, speaking of cell phone service, just yesterday I talked a Qwest person into crediting my account for the "roaming" charges on last months bill. He said "You have to be careful, sometimes Our signal doesn't reach to the street level between tall buildings or You might be near Our competitor's tower which drowns Our signal" to which I replied "neither of which sounds like My problem."
_@_v - what amazes me is that mcdonalds still uses a corporate identiy scheme and restaurant design that really hasn't changed much since it was introduced back in 1968 - their original 'golden arches' store design barely lasted into their first decade of the franchise.
Ummm....you may not like it, or you may disagree with it, but I hardly see HOW it is broken. I think you have lost focus of what this site is really about...something BROKEN.
Yech! I liked the older one better. It sort of represented the solidity that you expect from a telco. This one is just ugly, now insn't it?
As for lower case, IIRC, AT&T -sorry- at&t were the ones who originally developed the UNIX operating system. Said OS is notoriously case-sensitive, and the vast majority of commands are typed in all lower case (for example, ls, cd, cp, mv). Not only that, but & is used to launch a command into the background (UNIX predates the GUI) and there *is* a UNIX command 'at'.
So there you go.
(BTW, none of this is a critique of UNIX; Linux, a UNIX clone, is my OS of choice)
Your cell phone dies in the middle of Manhattan because you are surrounded by very tall, very dense, wave-halting materials.
But yes, redoing logos is usually a waste of time, unless the company is changing names, going into a different business, or the old logo truly sucks.
> Dilbert:
> http://empeg.comms.net/files/196184-Dilbert_19960611.jpg
> Posted by: Carlos Gomez at Nov 22, 2005 9:23:21 AM
This is pretty much on point. I have always figured that the only people who really benefited from these logo changes are the people who design logos.
As a follow-up to the Dilbert cartoon, I have a friend who previously worked at Lucent Technologies. That Dilbert cartoon was pasted throughoutt he cublicle farm after Lucent got their new logo...
While the new logo is a little boring, there is a reason for it. It's the new logo of AT&T & SBC, the SBC portion is incorporated into the transparency area. It's not rebranding just for rebranding sake, but is instead the reflection of a corporate merger.
Rebranding for rebranding sake, and actually really nicely done is the new John Deere logo, which is about 2 or 3 years old at this point. They changed the dear from landing to taking off, so that it's more forward looking and upbeat. They posted a loss this quarter so... I guess it didn't work. *shrug*
I miss the old look of thisisbroken.com. Now it's more polished but the old design was all about the content. Sigh.... back in my day....school both ways....mutter
>While the new logo is a little boring, there is a reason for it. It's the new logo of AT&T & SBC, the SBC portion is incorporated into the transparency area.
Uh, what? The SBC part is transparent? Now I'm really confused.
I'm thinking maybe the logo consultant REALLY earned that fee: "Hey, we'll merge the logos, only we'll make one TRANSPARENT! How high tech is that!?!"
Okay, what's REALLY broken is that the popup photo is actually SMALLER than the photo at the top of the page!
I still don't see the SBC logo in the AT&T..whoops, at&t..logo.
yeah- i know feel that at&t is accessable to me as an individual with the lower case type- personally I think they would be accessable to a much larger audience if they changed their name to ta&t. its a bit more fun.
Maybe AT&T figured out that potential customers might be somewhat less intimidated by a logo that didn't quite so much resemble the Death Star.
I agree with Shankerton: "they need to get they service better before they go and rename they company"
According to the internal branding instructions the "at&t" is to be written in the lower case only when it's next to the logo. Otherwise, such as in text, it should still be written in the upper case.
Yeah, it's broken. There's no question that the old AT&T logo was a stronger brand. But had they really wanted to be hip and trendy, they would've brought back the old Bell logo (the.. bell with the circle around it), and played up it's retro value. But Ed would not clue in on such; even on this new logo he had to be "persuaded" by the marketing people. I think he should've left it to someone who is more in touch to decide.
Duh is it a new logo? so why does it look so much like the icon that Google put on my desktop when I downloaded their cool 'Googleearth' ?
The thing that is truly broken is not the logo, but rather the fact that ATT has been bought by SBC. SBC/ATT is now the largest telco in the country. SBC has been notorious for mistreating, overcharging, ignoring complaints, of their customers. They own 60% of Cingular (Bell South owns the remaining 40%). They will be delivering TV over the phone lines soon in an attempt to run the cable companies out thereby taking the cable internet customers. SBC/ATT is a monster that needs to be broken up again by the federal court.
**SBC/ATT is a monster that needs to be broken up again by the federal court.**
Oh, yes, let's go through that again. :/
I think it looks alot like alltel's logo...
I used to have AT&T as a cell phone provider and they were the worst all around. They downright LIED to me to get my money several times. Even after I cancelled them and ported over my number to a new company ... after fighting AT&T because they simply didn't want to let me port over the number which is illegal ... they tried to keep charging me for service after the cancellation date ... which is also illegal.
Yeah, I'd say this is definitely broken. When you spend all that time and effort on a redesign on your logo while screwing your customers that's just messed up. I sincerely hope someone from AT&T reads this so they're not surprised when they get laid off.
I made the sad mistake of returning to SBC after the merger. I signed up for local and long distance, AT&T Dish network, and AT&T High Speed Internet. The phone service was fine (maybe they should stick with what they know). The Dish Network was a joke. Every time it rained or stormed the service went out. The DSL was totally unreliable. The last 10 days that I had it it was down for three days and then again for another two.
I switched everything to Charter Communications and am much happier. I truly think cable internet is superior to dsl and much faster. Cable tv also seems to be much more reliable. I have been quite surprised with the phone service. It's every bit as good if not better than SBC. I for one am finished with SBC. I don't care what this company calls itself, it is still just the old SBC with the same horrible customer service, billing problems, and total disregard for their customers. Life is easier without them.
The 3-D image on the “New” AT&T Globe is, in fact, distorted and incorrect. We’re here in CT and I have to tell you, it looks even worse on the trucks. I asked a linesman if he could tell that there’s NO WAY the bottom “cap” of the globe would be visible in a correct, dead-on, 3-D rendering. He said “yup - it’s sad, isn’t it?” The fact that the botched logo made it this far (trucks, billboards) indicates that someone just doesn’t know how to render in 3-D. The fact that it hasn’t been corrected yet is also astounding. Also - with three little lines drawn on top of three little parts of the distorted “backside” image, you can easily make a frownie face.
YES, A FROWNIE FACE.
In summary - the attempt at 3-D on the new AT&T globe has resulted in a botched and distorted image that looks worse as the logo gets bigger.
Someone’s head should roll for this obvious blunder. And then someone should fix the logo.
BTW - I found this forum by Googling the phrase “AT&T logo distorted incorrect”. Maybe Ed W. or his pricey designers will see this too? Let’s hope so, for the sake of the “New” AT&T.
p.s. —- How about that YOUR DELIVERED billboard with the planet for the “O” in YOUR? Oh - how clever! NOT. It just doesn’t work. At all. Again, who’s approving all this? Oh that’s right, the king of the New AT&T (Ed W.). For BILLIONS. How sad.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: MS Word Spelling and Grammar checker | Main | Next: Parking garage ticket dispenser
Holla, i think this is all broken cuz why does they needs all lowercase? if dey had all uppercase i feel like im in jail, but since it in all lowercase i feel good, but i agee they need to get they service better before they go and rename they company. they logo aint even 3d, it dont pop up or nothin. i dont know why they call it 3d it aint 3d
Posted by: Shankerton at November 21, 2005 06:31 PM