BY Armin

Chrysler gets Heavy

The only thing more exciting than a large merger — and the ensuing identity design — is the occasional demergeralization. It’s like a divorce on steroids times hundreds of millions of dollars. The latest case, as you may have heard, was the separation of DaimlerChrysler, formed in 1998, as Chrysler Holding LLC in the U.S. and Daimler AG as its German counterpart. — nicely down the middle, just like any good settlement. Chrysler, now blatantly dubbed “New Chrysler” (New Coke anyone?), has revived its old logo, the “Pentastar”, for the new chapter in this company’s life.

Pentastars, variations on a theme

The Pentastar (a pentagon, broken up as a star) was originally designed by Lippincott & Margulies (now Lippincott Mercer) in 1962 and has, despite the merger, been a part of the company for more than 40 years. On the Chrysler blog — a light attempt at the corporate transparency trend — Robert Stanley, “vice president and Chrysler account executive at Lippincott & Margulies,” the design is creditedrecalls the project, and explains how the moniker came to stick, “One of the execs called me up and asked ‘What do I call this thing?’ And I said, ‘Call it the Pentastar.’ That’s where the name came from.”

“Medallion” logo from the 1920s, also used in the newer logo

The Chrysler symbol was a ribbon like those awarded at country fairs, emblazoned with the Chrysler name and two “thunderbolts”, which were actually Z’s in honor of Chrysler engineer Fred Zeder.
— Nice summary of the Chrysler logo history

Before the Pentastar came the “Medallion” logo, which has also been an on and off part of the Chrysler identity, for the past eighty years. Most recently as a blink-and-you-will-miss-it detail in the last Chrysler logo, which was used mostly as the hood ornament on Chrysler vehicles. And like other automobile companies, Chrysler has adopted the tradition of translating, literally, a physical object as a corporate identity mark and, in this case, it has taken it to monolithic levels… Just look at this animation; the only thing missing is 2001’s theme song.

The original Pentastar had five triangles which floated independently in a pentagon shape, broken by a five-pointed star in the middle.

The new Pentastar, with some changes by Trevor Creed, Senior Vice President — Design, conveys strength and precision by fusing the ends of the five triangles to enclose the star and complete the pentagon.

You say tomayto I say tomahto. It’s still a star in a pentagon with massive dimensionalization regardless of how much reverse psychology you use. However, after experiencing now more than three years of this new method of “identity improvement,” I’m not as easily startled anymore by it, and I was actually surprised to read Tony Spaeth’s finger-waving comment: “I have seldom seen so graphic an expression of how far we have fallen, in 45 years, from the skill and confidence of modern design.” I’ve definitely seen worse. *cough* ups *cough*.

Chrysler did the right thing in drawing from the equity it had in its Pentastar and it acted how most organizations do: by doing what others in the marketplace have already done. And in the automobile industry that means metalizing your logo. And to some, this may be cause for irreconcilable differences.

\n\nThe only thing more exciting than a large merger — and the ensuing identity design — is the occasional demergeralization. It's like a divorce on steroids times hundreds of millions of dollars. The latest case, as you may have heard, was the separation of DaimlerChrysler, formed in 1998, as Chrysler Holding LLC in the U.S. and Daimler AG as its German counterpart. — nicely down the middle, just like any good settlement. Chrysler, now blatantly dubbed \"New Chrysler\" (New Coke anyone?), has revived its old logo, the \"Pentastar\", for the new chapter in this company's life.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners