Atari Logo Evolution
by Shiuming Lai
I originally started writing this article eight months ago, but never quite got my thoughts together, between producing the magazine each month. In some ways it's also good, because recent events about the subject have completed a chapter that looks stabilized for the foreseeable future. As the headline says, I am referring to the famous Atari three-pronged “Fuji” symbol, of course.
Where corporate emblems are concerned, the Fuji symbol is rare in that it could claim synonymity with a multi-million dollar industry. To this day, where the company of that era no longer exists, it has made its mark in history and is fondly remembered for the fun it brought.
Note that I'm still only talking of the Fuji symbol. The complete Atari logotype consists of the symbol, and company name in what has now become known as simply the “Atari font” to many people. What is also interesting is that the logo's two elements can be combined in two different ways to suit the graphical balance of the required application. There is the “rectangular” form with the Fuji on the left and “Atari” on the right, mostly used on product labels and badges (or banners, as shown below), and the “square” form with a large Fuji on top of the Atari name, commonly seen on Atari arcade machine cabinets, also perfect for T-shirts.
So why this article? It really came about after many years of noticing something quite elementary: the Fuji symbol is extremely difficult to reproduce in the correct proportions. Ever tried to draw one by hand? Its very simplicity is both deceptive and the essence of its effectiveness. In short, if not produced correctly, it looks like a cheap imitation. Conversely, it's not so bad if deliberately stylized, but the closer to the real thing it is without actually being correct, the worse the amateurish looking effect.
Thanks to the internet, never has been seen before such a proliferation of suspect Fuji symbols. I was glad to see I wasn't the only one, when I saw that Atari.org offered once and for all a correctly proportioned Fuji symbol for download in various graphic file formats.
Atari Computer GmbH
In Europe, Atari's computers were more successful than on the company's home turf, America. Particularly during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the German market was a huge driving force behind the ST computers. Rainbow colours were out, and the new identity was mostly blue and white, with dashes of grey, reflecting the more business-like nature of these more powerful, newer generation systems. Incidentally, Apple Computer also used rainbow colours in its fruit logo from way back in the early 1980s, then went to solid single colour some time around the advent of its translucent G3 systems in the late 1990s, before settling on its present “Aqua” style.
Germany's significance in the scheme of the Atari logo is shown below. In nearly all of the German-produced advertising and graphics, the whole design, most notably the font, is thickened, to the point where the apex of the “A” is rounder and the “R” is “closed” (indicated by the arrow). It always made me think of delicious Deutsche Würste. Now any time you see photos of Atari events where the banners show a thick, chunky Atari logo, it's a safe bet to say it was in Germany.
The thick logo was never used, to my knowledge, on the products or packaging, as these didn't originate in Germany. I chose my Mega STE's box as a great example of this contrast, as it has a promotional flyer from Atari GmbH stuck on it.
The Hasbro years
When the toy company used the Atari brand for its “Interactive” division, it made the most radical change to the logo. While casual observers insisted they couldn't see anything different, or didn't mind the change, to established fans it was nothing less than sacrilege. To set the record straight, the correct Fuji symbol is actually a little wider than it is tall, on the Hasbro version it has been forced into a perfect square, and the bottom ends of the side prongs have been thickened. Both of these are responsible for the awkward and uncomfortable, bottom-heavy appearance. Finally, the (some would say stupid) box around it is the most disliked element, certainly from all the people I've talked to. Overall rating: rather square. (…)
Source:
myatari.net
From personal experience, the most difficult part to get right is the curvature of the two side prongs. Not knowing how to construct those curves means the only way is to trace high resolution examples (preferably from official sources) and attempt to reverse-engineer. Visual inspection would suggest that the inner facing edge of the curves could be sections of a circle, but perhaps not so the outer facing edges. Using a pencil, pair of compasses and ruler on an A4 print, a trace for the points about which the hypothetical sections of circle are described confirm this. The outer edge of the curve, tested on the left side, is clearly not part of a circle. That's where it becomes complicated. The geometric construction of TDK's “crystal” symbol, on the other hand, I figured out one bored afternoon at the age of 11.
