New:
United Way of America's
United Way logo
Launched:
May 20, 2004, when the new identity system was presented to its Chapters and on the web site.
Story in brief:
United Way is a cooperative association of some 1400 legally independent "chapters" in towns and cities throughout the United States, and (via United Way International) has presences in 44 other countries. Their common purpose has been to help both charities and donors by consolidating the "ask." Thirty years ago a cacophony of United Way and Community Chest brands was somewhat quieted under a new 'rainbow' logo, designed by the prolific and near-great Saul Bass office. But over time, design compliance eroded (it didn't help that the Bass mark requires 4-color reproduction, often unaffordable). By 2003, only 11% of Chapters were using an approved version of the rainbow logo; brand anarchy ruled again.
United Way, its social environment and its constituencies were changing too. There were reputation problems (local but broadly damaging misbehaviors), and signs of donor desires to make more targeted donations. Under Brian Gallagher, the leadership identified a new and hopefully more compelling mission, more focused on the end results of charitable funding than on fundraising itself... "to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities." Success will now be measured by "community impact," which moves United Way more directly into the goal-setting and performance metrics aspects of charity operations. That's a real identity change.
With EVP (Marketing) Cynthia Round, Gallagher commissioned FutureBrand both to signal this identity change, and to correct technical flaws to enable a more consistent thus stronger United Way presence.
Credits:
CEO - Brian Gallagher
Logo design - FutureBrand's David Weinberger
First Impressions:
Gains and losses, but it's a net gain. Barely?
I must say I never liked the old symbol. Granted, its message of caring support was unmistakable, and delivered with emotional impact. But the red-blue gradient looked like a muddy printing error, and the little figure came from a different graphic vocabulary than the hand and rainbow. Thus messiness and clutter... not a thing of beauty. Why can't we have it all, excellence in both content and form?
The new symbol is certainly cleaner, but emotionally weaker -- and less important. "Caring support" is less evident, perhaps because the hand is no longer so bluntly a hand (it could as well be landscape) nor the source of a rainbow, and the larger Y-figure seems less needful.
But the symbol is now subordinate. The new mark is actually the rectangle in which "United Way" dominates; the simpler circular symbol merely adorns.
As for the wordmark element, in our post-modern era the Bass sans serif letterforms (which may not have bothered me ten years ago) now do look awkwardly dated; the new wordmark's serifs are curiously more contemporary.
All in all, the new mark is a net gain for technical reasons... for form, not content. Yes, it's different, and this will briefly signal "it's a new United Way" but the design in no way explains the difference (that's too much to ask). Simply because it is easier to use, correctly, it will be better used and will therefore have greater impact.
Old Logo from Saul Bass (Mamoru Shimokochi), 1973...
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