This goes back to December when I was back home in Mexico City. My dad subscribes to a bunch of design magazines, as a consequence he gets all the calls for entries for every competition. We are sitting there and I’m going through the Art Directors Club’s entry form and my mom says “Why is Albrecht Dürer’s signature on that thing?” What? “Yeah, that’s his signature” No way “Way.”
This obviously shows how far my attention span reached during Art History 101. So I do some research. The current ADC’s logo comes courtesy of Design Machine and is deemed as the “Millenial logo.” I also find out that they have been using Dürer’s signature as their logo since 1920. Perplexed I kindly emailed the ADC to get more information. Here is some feedback I got:
- “Albrecht Dürer and Art Director have the same initials.” That, I was able to figure out on my own.
- “Albrecht Durer was considered an appropriate model because he was, in their view, the first commercial artist, that is, he sold his prints on the street directly to the public, rather than working on commission.” Right… but… well… ok.
- “It is a good design.” It is a lovely signature.
- “There is an expectation to return to the familiar AD logo in the near future.” I see.
Let’s recap: an organization that’s devoted to promoting, encouraging and recognizing creativity snags an artist’s signature for their own identity? I’m not sure how I feel about that. Yes, it’s a great tribute to a great artist, but what about originality? Not very original I’d say.
well, that's a load of crap...they try and put theirselves off as the be all end all of design annuals. even their cutrrent call to entries the box that the book is in uses crumpled up entry forms to CA and print and others for it's packing material. very pretentious. for them to rip off one great artists signature to make their logo is unacceptable. i am sure there are plenty of other things they could have done with and 'A' and a 'D'.
On Jan.23.2003 at 10:44 AM