Posted on 08/19/2014 1:36:54 PM PDT by longtermmemmory
The World Trade Center Has A New, Very Confusing Logo
Cramming in a mind-melting series of visual allusions, the $3 million WTC logo is also an ad.
The World Trade Center has a new logo. Part of a $3.57 million branding endeavor, it's a riff on space and negative space, presence, and absence. It’s like a Rubin vase test, playing tricks on the eye and asking viewers to see what they want to see. Which would almost be poetic if not for the fact that it could also be read as an ad for a luxury shopping mall.
To be fair, Landor Associates, the firm that designed the logo, had the difficult task of branding something that's almost impossible to brand; there are too many conflicting ideas about what the World Trade Center site is, and should be. The logo reflects as much. As the New York Times reports, each of the five bars stands for the five towers in what will be the entire 16-acre World Trade Center complex when it’s complete. The slant of the top half of the logo is at a precise 17.76-degree angle, a hat tip to 1 World Trade Center’s 1,776-foot height
As for the Twin Towers, their shadows are visible in the logo if you look closely enough. The two empty columns in the top half refer to the Tribute in Light, a heartwrenching memorial to the fallen towers that got under way in 2002. Below them, the two white columns allude to the twin pools of the National September 11 Memorial.
The whole thing is also a W which stands for “World Trade Center” as well as the "Westfield World Trade Center," a luxury shopping center that opens next year. (To my eyes, it also bears an uncanny resemblance to the old Wired magazine W.)
According to the New York Times, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the public agency that owns the World Trade Center site, awarded Landor a $3.57 million contract for the job last year.
The logo manages to squeeze in so many references, juggling a landmark, a Twin Tower tribute, and an ad in one, that it feels like it's pandering. But given the wildly competing interests that have informed the redevelopment of the site, this logo just might be the perfect embodiment of a space still in search of its identity.
I’m in the wrong business.
I held back from saying it but I does look like that doesn’t it.
They sure did.
Ditto
It looks like they’ve ripped off the “four-thirds” camera consortium logo. Only by the logic of the WTC logo the new ratio would be 3/2 or three halves. Sorry, if this doesn’t show up, I have never attempted to post an image to Free Republic before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_thirds#mediaviewer/File:4_3logo.png
Looks like a giant tuning fork lined in black to me.
I don’t get it.
W for W. Bush
Whoops. Make that lined in white.
I agree.
Also there is now one building instead of two, it is shorter (calling the antenna a spire and including it in the building height is dishonest), and it has those “chamfered sides” which in my opinion have an awkward, damaged appearance.
That is my impression.
It is all about making WTC a victory for the enemy memorial.
The FedEx logo is excellent.
So funny. On it’s side, it’s a cowboy with priapism. Or just a depiction of Priapus, ancient god of fertility and erections.
Perhaps the Brits are saying Bleep the Public in the nicest possible way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priapus
At least it’s more amusing and has more style than the WTC’s five sterile rectangles.
3/2
The company (large) that I worked for back in the 80s and early 90s revamped its logo. Spent lots of bucks on the design firm not to mention the cost of stationery, signage, etc.
Then someone pointed out that the colors were the same as the colors of the big competitor. Well, more millions on design and implementation.
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