new AOL logo

Much has been written about AOL’s new logo, debuting December 10th. Just weeks away, this Internet dinosaur will attempt its third re-branding.

Common wisdom has it that the first logo was an inside job; no one has come forward to claim that iconic pyramid with mirrored swooshes and Mistral-like typography. The first logo re-design was done by Desgrippes Gobé, a 3D pyramid-to-pointer-effect and script-to-rounded-sans-serif and the identity went boldly, if not generically, into the future. Next month, as the brand spins off from the Time Warner mothership, the logo will see another reinvention.

The first, and most obvious, change is in the typography. Enough of a household name to go by three letters alone, AOL will now be represented by title case, sans serif letterforms followed by a period. And much has been made of this period, for sure. Sam Wilson, managing director at the Wolff Olins New York office — AOL’s go-to branding agency — claims the period in the logo was added to suggest “confidence, completeness… AOL is the place to go for the best content online, period.” Completeness, yes, when used at the end of a sentence or within an abbreviation. I’ll even go for the end of a phrase, heck, it’s advertising. But at the end of three letters? I would’ve loved to have been in that pitch and heard that rationale hit the fan.

The second change is in the visual representation of the brand, the changing images and backdrop to the letterforms. Counter to the plain and accessible typography, these images represent everything from finger-paint swirls to vignettes of fish. The type knocks out of each of these images in varying degrees of legibility and logic. I get the metal fist (AOL does music) and the scribble (AOL does self-expression) but I’m still wondering what AOL’s going to do with that fuscia blob of brain matter. Or is it bubblebum? Jordan Crane, Wolff Olins New York CD, describes it as “a mix of do-it-yourself and high production values, crazy stuff and elegant stuff… simple and engaging and bizarre — all the things the Internet is.” Again: rationale meet fan.

Tim Armstrong, AOL CEO, in an interview with paidContent.org, supports the decision to launch this unorthodox identity program as an expression of corporate creativity. “The hardest part about brands is everybody’s got an opinion. What really matters is how well you like our products and services… We looked at a lot of different brand treatments. We felt this was the one that captured what was happening at the company underneath the surface. People see AOL as a big turnaround, but there is so much creativity at the company now.”

A campaign rollout is still under consideration. You’ll need to go to the AOL web site to see the changes as the transformation takes place the evening of December 9th and into the 10th. This revolution will not be televised. Instead it will go out to the already converted who will be looking, as Armstrong suggests, for improvements in service and product offerings. If that means that they’re greeted by fish and rockers, and their email is announced in some auto-tune robotic tone, so be it. For the rest of us — and clearly those of us interested in the process and politics of corporate identity — this could be an interesting way to ring out 2009.