It seems like everyone's down on the US phone carrier's new logo. But is this knee-jerk reactionism, or is it a misstep?
The new logo has caused instant controversy
Verizon this week launched a new logo design (above), which it describes as "a cleaner, more human design and the checkmark, the universal symbol for getting things done, uniquely expresses the reliability of Verizon".
Designed by Pentagram, it's certainly much simpler than the previous logo, shown below. Gone are the italics and 'go faster' red stripes; in comes a more business-like, upright, all-black Helvetica type, with a thin checkmark at the end.
The old logo
The release of the new logo was somewhat overshadowed by Google's new logo in the same week. But it's now hit the headlines again due to T-Mobile boss John Legere wading in with a pithy tweet (see below).
The rival CEO's schoolyard name-calling has given rise to the #NewVerizonLogo hashtag. And while Legere wasn't actually talking about the logo design itself, many creatives have hijacked the trending hashtag to express their disapproval...
However, Michael Bierut, partner at Pentagram's New York office has defended the logo, saying the company hadn't wanted a complete redesign but an update that would allow it to scale easily across different media.
"It isn't intended to be clever or flashy," he told Adweek. "It's really supposed to acknowledge its role as being ubiquitous as a kind of brand with a big footprint and one that isn't trying to add to the visual noise around us."
So what do you think? Is the Twitter backlash just knee-jerk moaning at anything new, or could Pentagram have done better with this one? Let us know your views in the comments below!
Get the Creative Bloq Newsletter
Daily design news, reviews, how-tos and more, as picked by the editors.
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
