Xerox and the Ubiquitous Web 2.0 Logo

Well, it was inevitable.
It was exactly two years ago that Kodak announced changes to it's logo at the CES show.


I'm sure the marketing executives will give you plenty of new speak about "restructuring", and "minimizing footprints", and "synergizing backward overflow", but the fact remains, this is what has come of the old photo-repro business:




Yesterday Xerox announced it's new logo, complete with the shiny reflection and transparency of a freshly licked lollipop. This is, after all, a brave new web 2.0 world, where everything is shiny and glossy, and pushed to your blackberry, or trio (yes and your iPhone, Richy Rich).



The Times has an article about the history of the Xerox Logo.

Is your marketing department feeling a foreboding sense that it's getting harder to keep up with the kids these days?

Does your company look in it's proverbial mirror and count the liver spots?

What you need is a web 2.0 upgrade!

A little glossy logo always helps to stave off the infection of creeping irrelevance.

And it is easier to manage than you might think!

Here is a tutorial, complete with a downloadable plugin, which allows you to "lick" your logo into the 21st century.

Here are some funny mash-ups of old-century logos given a new-century treatment. Designers originally submitted these to the YayHooray forums, and they were salvaged before the website was shut down.


The old Philip Morris Logo


The new and improved Philip Morris logo.

Some others:






Again, these are not real, no calls please.

Building a brand is an arduous and long-term process, and redesigning an identity is usually seen as a last ditch effort on the part of an aging corporation to cling to the walls of Fortune's top (insert number here). Just ask any Detroit automobile manufacturer.

Who knows, maybe these print companies, like the music industry, aren't simply "glossing over" their dismal situation, (ehem) and maybe they are just that genuinely optimistic about their futures.

I for one still like the old Haloid logo