Creating the Amigas corporate identity
When Escom bought the remains of Commodore, the newly founded
Amiga Technologies faced a huge task resurrecting the Amiga. One of
the first tasks was to create a new corporate identity that
separated the Amiga from other platform. This commentary, written
by Karl Jeacle explains how his discovery forced Amiga Technologies
to alter their proposed logo to the more familiar stylized Amiga
logo.
The article has been altered slightly from Karl's original
piece, changing some graphics so the page will loader faster. A
foreword by Dr. Peter Kittel has also been added to tell the AT
side of the story.
Foreword by Dr. Peter Kittel, then employee at Amiga
Technologies GmbH
The startup time at Amiga Technologies was a very busy time. So
many things had to be brought into place before this new company
could really begin to operate. Early we had re-established the
connection with Scala. We did not only talk about software and
hardware, but also about things like corporate identity and design
styles, as Scala had a very competent designer in their team. So
that designer [Bjorn Rybakken- AHG webmaster] was also invited to
the opening press conference of Amiga Technologies in Frankfurt on
30 may 95 to address his ideas to the whole public.
Yet in this talk, he surprised us all with much more ideas than
he had shown us before. He had designed eye popping cases, found
unconventional names for the computers (one proposal was "The
Bensheimer" a la "The Boesendorffer" grand pianos, as we were sited
at Bensheim), and last not least a new logo. It was just the letter
A in a highly abstracted form, a triangle. He then sliced the
triangle in three bars of differing lengths and left the choice
between using them horizontally or tilted by 60 degrees. He
preferred the former, and we quickly found out that the latter was
nothing else than the existing logo of sportswear company Adidas,
so no way.
Only several days later I learnt from an Amiga newsgroup that
also the horizontal version did already exist, as the logo of
Scientology. People had also faxed us a flyer by Scientology with
that logo. We all talked a number of times about the issue, some
people were not as concerned as others, but in the end we thought
we better avoided any such hassles and started searching for a less
critical logo. The search ended in the stylized AMIGA name in the
Bodoni font.
Karl Jeacle's Commentary on his part in deciding the
design that would represent the Amiga.
The Beehive Logo
At the first Amiga Technologies GmbH press conference, several
pictures of a new design for an Amiga tower case were released. The
design had a small `beehive'-like logo which was obviously intended
as a new symbol for the Amiga.
When these pictures were distributed on the Internet, much
discussion ensued on the Amiga-related Usenet newsgroups. In
general, people liked the design of the tower case but were unsure
about the small triangular logo.
The Dianetics Logo
A few weeks after seeing the pictures of the new tower case design,
I came across a flyer for L. Ron Hubbard's book `Dianetics'.
Hubbard founded a religion called Scientology many years ago, and
in recent years it has gotten a lot of bad press and has been
accused of being a cult.
Aware of this, I decided to scan the flyer in and post the
following message to the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.misc:
Path: broadcom.ie!not-for-mail
From: kj@broadcom.ie (Karl Jeacle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Scientology/Dianetics logo == Amiga
Technologies logo
Date: 24 Jun 1995 16:57:29 -0000
Organization: Broadcom Eireann Research Ltd,
Dublin, Ireland.
Lines: 442
Message-ID:
<3shg5p$7qd@sylvie.broadcom.ie>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sylvie.broadcom.ie
I came across this flyer the other day for
L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics book used by the Church of Scientology,
and to my surprise found that the Dianetics logo is the same as
that of Amiga Technologies GmbH!
Attached below is a jpeg which I've tried
to keep as small as possible (18Kb). At the very bottom of the
flyer in small print (not visible in jpeg), it says: "DIANETICS and
the DIANETICS Symbol are trademarks and service marks owned by RTC
and used with its permission". I don't know who RTC are.
I thought this was a pretty bizarre
coincidence, and perhaps it means that Amiga Technologies won't be
able to use the "beehive" logo which so many people have been
complaining about.
Karl
--
Karl
Jeacle //
kj@broadcom.ie \X/ KJ
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View Image of Dianetics Advert
(134k)
There were a number of replies to my posting. Some people were
clearly concerned about any link being made between the Amiga and
the Church of Scientology, while others (perhaps slightly misled)
were saying things like "Praise the Lord! The Amiga is
saved!''.
A couple of days later, Dr Peter Kittel of Amiga Technologies
GmbH posted this reply:
Path:
broadcom.ie!ieunet!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!xlink.net!wega.fibronics.de
!odb!ganesha!combo.adsp.sub.org!peterk
From: peterk@combo.adsp.sub.org (Dr. Peter
Kittel)
Subject: Re: Scientology/Dianetics logo ==
Amiga Technologies logo
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Reply-To: peterk@combo.ganesha.com
References:
<3shg5p$7qd@sylvie.broadcom.ie>
Lines: 16
Message-ID:
Date: 26 Jun 95 14:50:50 MEZ
Organization: Private Site
In article
<3shg5p$7qd@sylvie.broadcom.ie> kj@broadcom.ie (Karl Jeacle)
writes:
>I came across this flyer the other day
for L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics book
>used by the Church of Scientology, and to
my suprise found that the
>Dianetics logo is the same as that of
Amiga Techologies GmbH!
Shit. This is bad news.
>Attached below is a jpeg
Thank you for the effort.
--
Best Regards, Dr. Peter
Kittel //
Private Site in Frankfurt, Germany \X/
Email to: peterk@combo.ganesha.com
Now re-employed at Amiga Technologies GmbH in
Bensheim, Germany
Stay cool, not cold (Cool bleiben, nicht
kalt); H. J. Friedrichs
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This was encouraging, perhaps the logo would be changed. It was
still unclear, however, what the outcome would be. Was Peter Kittel
thanking me for just bringing it to his attention or were there
plans afoot to design a new logo? A few days passed, and another
post from Dr Kittel answered the question:
Path:
broadcom.ie!ieunet!EU.net!Germany.EU.net!nntp.gmd.de
From: peterk@combo.adsp.sub.org (Dr. Peter
Kittel)
Subject: Re: simple questions yet to be
answered
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Reply-To: peterk@combo.ganesha.com
References:
<19950626.7AE5568.12EA2@julian.slip.uwo.ca>
Lines: 99
Message-ID:
Date: 29 Jun 95 19:48:13 MEZ
Organization: Private Site
In article
<19950626.7AE5568.12EA2@julian.slip.uwo.ca>
kadc@julian.slip.uwo.ca (Kevin Allan Donald
Carter) writes:
>Here's some simple questions that I've
yet to see answered officially:
[DELETED FOR CUGI ARTICLE]
>Logo
>----
>Has the prototype logo been accepted as
final?
No. Now that we learnt that it's
practically the Scientology logo, we won't use it.
[DELETED FOR CUGI ARTICLE]
--
Best Regards, Dr. Peter
Kittel //
Private Site in Frankfurt, Germany \X/
Email to: peterk@combo.ganesha.com
Now re-employed at Amiga Technologies GmbH in
Bensheim, Germany
Stay cool, not cold (Cool bleiben, nicht
kalt); H. J. Friedrichs
|
How about that! From just stumbling across a logo that looked
similar to the proposed Amiga logo, to a post from an Amiga
Technologies employee stating that a new logo would have to be
chosen...
The Amiga Wordmark
So what would the new logo look like? A few days later and Gilles
Bourdin, Amiga Technologies Press Officer, issued a press release
which said:
The logo from Frogdesign has finally been chosen. It is
a simple and elegant symbol that will from now on accompany the
Amiga and its fans.
Frogdesign states about the brand : ``The Amiga Wordmark evokes
both a classic and elegant feel as well as modern look. Bodoni, the
font selected to build upon is a classic font. Further refinements
involving the manipulation and subtraction of serifs and the
addition of the red square create a progressive, yet elegant logo.
the red square represents technology and adds energy to the logo by
implying a sense of motion.''
There have been mixed opinions about the new logo in the Amiga
newsgroups. Many people feel that the original Amiga checkmark
would have made the best logo, and that there was no need to design
a new one. There was also criticism of how the new logo was created
--- was it really necessary to employ a graphic design company to
cut a few serifs off a Bodoni font?
Despite this comments, the Amiga Wordmark logo has been chosen
as the definitive Amiga logo, and so we all just better get used to
it.
Reproduced with permission. Thanks Karl!
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