Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Something I've Been Wondering for a While

Is the arrow between the "E" and the "X" intentional, or is it serendipitous, a hidden corporate logo easter egg of sorts?
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4 comments:

Persephone said...

I've never noticed that before!

9:28 PM
Old Dog said...

Wow, neither have I. It is like the figure-ground drawings used in psychology to demonstrate how remarkable perception is.
I think that it was luck (although the graphic designers probably saw it), because we know that reading is "overlearned." One of my favorite tasks to demonstate this is having color words printed in a different color.
RED (in blue) GREEN (in yellow) etc. Try it with a string of colored words and then try to just say the color(i.e., "blue," "yellow"), you'll start laughing at the difficulty.

9:44 AM
DogMom said...

This was pointed out to me a few years ago and once I saw it, I couldn't believe I ever couldn't see it! It was intentionsl:
Arrow in FedEx logo actually makes a point
Ask a stupid question

By Mike Pulfer, mpulfer@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Question: “There has been a debate (over) the FedEx logo. There is an arrow ... between the (second) letter "e' and the letter "x.' The challenge has been finding if Federal Express intended to include this arrow in their logo or, as some people believe, the arrow is just a result of the font and spacing of the letters. Furthermore, some people say arrows aren't used to represent speed or promptness.”

Answer: Little is left to chance in the world of marketing and advertising and, especially, corporate identity. The arrow, in this case, didn't just happen to be flying through some highly paid art director's studio.

“The arrow was indeed intentional as a secondary design element,” says Federal Express Corp. spokesman Jess Bunn. “If the viewer sees it, it's a neat, interesting visual bonus. If the viewer doesn't see it, that's OK. It's still a powerful logo.

“The arrow is intended to communicate movement, speed and thedynamic nature of our company,” he said.

The blocky purple and orange, upper- and lower-case letters were created as the new company logo in 1994, “when we decided to modernize our entire look,” Mr. Bunn explained.

“It was what customers called us anyway,” and “we could enlarge the logo in the same amount of space and create a bigger impact.” (The old logo required nine additional letters to spell out Federal Express.)

“The vibrant colors — including plenty of white as a background color ... communicate our basic attributes . . . personal, certain, inventive, and ... we know how to connect our customers in the new global economy.”

5:46 PM
DogMom said...

Have I mentioned that I love your blog? I check it several times a day. Thank you!

6:59 PM

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