Chapter 20

Corporate Identity was important for companies during the 1950's, as well as their visual systems. Visual systems were important for the image of the company and help it reach the goals they wanted to achieve. Giovanni Pintori was among the first desginers to help develop visual identification. He worked for Olivetti, which wanted to promote their image of industry and engineering. Pintori achieved this well with the way he made his complex designs feel so simplistic by using small elements as a harmonious whole. At this time, the most well known and developed corporate identity became CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) because of its president, Frank Stanton, and art director, William Golden. Golden was the one responsible for the CBS eye that is so well known still today. He believed that the designers job was to make sure that the message meant to be expressed was done so accurately and well. Another designer for CBS was Georg Olden, who was important to the development of tv broadcast images. He learned how to design on-air graphics to suit the way television would display them and became the first prominant African American graphic designer. Paul Rand started doing trademark design and used simple, universal shapes in order to make them last. He redesigned the IBM logo into what is used today. He also designed the Westinghouse Corporation trademark, ABC and the NeXT computer logo. Many other companies underwent corporate identity changes with Lester Beall and Chermayeff & Geismer Associates. The general principle behind every designer and their design was to make the logo memorable to the viewer to keep them coming back to it and to recognize it anywhere, while keeping it simple. Transportation signs were also getting a facelift around this time. The principles were similar too. A lot of important information needed to be communicated fast and easily. To accomplish this, each transportation system developed symbols to unify communications internationally. This was also applied to international events like the Olympics, designed by Lance Wyman.
I think the coolest part of the chapter was reading about the MTV logo. It was the first of its kind to be as versitile as it was since it was so simple. The network could give it different personalities for any and every occasion and need. I think it is the ultimate design because it can be anything you want it to be or need it to be, while still meaning the same thing. The identity doesn't change, just the way it looks.
Why were there so many different designs for the Olympics?