Sandi Vincent collated a nice Flickr set of vintage logos. The designs appeared in various publications between the 1950s and early 70s. Here are a few that stood out for different reasons.
Near East Emergency Donations (NEED)
Look how needy those two ‘E’s are. By Arnold Saks/Peter Kramer. From the Graphis Annual 68/69.
Seen well before the 1986 version of the WWF panda. From Gebrauchsgraphik No. 3, 1956 (Sandi also shared an interesting set from this advertising/art magazine).
The lines mightn’t scale too well, but it’s the simple, relevant idea — Lucidity was a company that specialised in plastic/acrylic dimensional design and lighting fixtures. By Alan Mitelman. From Communication Arts, Volume 11, No. 5, 1969.
Reminiscent of the lovely Spratt’s ‘dog’. By Gil Drexhage. From 1967 Communications Arts, Vol.9 No.6.
No words needed. By Julian Swift. From Graphis Annual 67/68.
Timeless (mentioned previously). By Gerald Barney (disputed, I’m unsure). From the Graphis Annual 66/67.
Full set here.
More vintage design in the archives with these old vehicle wordmarks.
Comments
My favourite is the Aquastat identity. It reminds me of the Monkees logo or the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. Utterly groovy!
Such a great resource. Thanks for sharing, man!
These guys (and gals) seemed to be way ahead of their time. I wonder how these logos were received internally and by their customers. And Mark, I so can see the Mystery Machine …
I really love the Lucidity logo. It isn’t a place that most graphic designers would normally go out of concern for legibility and making it pleasing to the eye. But I can imagine the designer playing with font, size and overlap to get to this beauty. The relevance to the client’s industry and the uniqueness of the piece are genius.
Just a small correction. It’s Panda Shoes, not Banda. The symbol alone confirms this.
Thank you, Carlo!