The Sun Also Rises

About the Author

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Steven Heller is the cofounder and the co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts. He writes the Visuals column for the New York Times Book Review and the Graphic Content blog for T-Style. He is the author, coauthor, and/or editor of more than 120 books on design and popular culture, including the forthcoming New Ornamental Type (Thames and Hudson).

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The Sun Also Rises

by Steven Heller

The Obama logo by Sol Sender is the symbol that keeps on giving. While I don't want to appear like one of those crazy "birthers" who question the President's birthplace, I am fascinated by the separated at birth coincidences that frequently pop up regarding the Obama "O." Thanks to Misha Beletsky, I have in my hand two possible birth twins. Above is a logo designed by Ivan Chermayeff in 1972 for a suburban development in Ohio; below is one done for a cheese company (date circa mid-1970s and designer unknown). In looking around for other example, I found a more recent example (bottom) of a mark directly kidnapped from the Obama O's nursery. And here is a more sinister look at the sun motif.

Additions since original post: The bottom three logos were sent in by eagle eyed Mirko Ilic:

Do you know of others?

Reader Comments

The one aspect for me that made the Obama logo so powerful and perfect that is being overlooked here is that, first and foremost, the Obama logo is an 'O'. In my mind I have to imagine that Sender began the process with needing to communicate an 'O' and ended up with a sunrise over a hill as an beautifully simple recontextualization of that necessary 'O'. Adversely, these other logos all start with a sunrise over a hill as the necessary communication and THEN stylize it to fit the company's brand identity. So from my perspective not only are these logos arriving at an admittedly similar symbol from very different directions but still pale in comparison to the genius double-meaning of the Obama logo.

By Dan Apparatus August 05, 2009

I think it's just a mere coincidence. When I was in school I was to write a paper. Well there were two of us that had to write on the same topic. We made a concerted effort to not talk about the papers, not show them to each other, nothing. In the end, we ended up writing nearly an identical paper. It was almost surreal. It took a lot of explaining but the professor believed our story and all was good. So don't be quick to say that Sol Sender had knowledge of these other logos from 30 years ago.

By bsegafredo August 05, 2009

The sun also rose and set at my agency in the 1970s... We had a logo we called "the tombstone" that we recycled, unsold, about six times before we got a buyer. Same general concept - two hills converging with a sun behind it. We finally sold it to a housing development called Hidden Valley. You'll pardon the pun, but "there is nothing new under the sun." Sunrises are extraordinarily popular images around the globe because they communicate a sense of a new beginning. I've no doubt the Egyptians had a hieroglyph for it.

By Deborah M. Budd August 13, 2009

A nice use of symbol, but somehow I think if the logo was used for candidate Barry O'Bama the results would not have been as notable.

By vanderleun August 11, 2009

I don't know which came first, but Carbonfund.org's logo is very similar to Obama's O. http://www.carbonfund.org/

By b2graphicdesign August 05, 2009

Has anyone seen the movies "Pi" or "The Number 23"? Not to be a smart-ass, because I can't stand anonymous online antagonizers. But, I can't help but think, these are dots, lines and circles people. There are going to be similarities on occasion. They are going to be blatant at times and incidental at others. Next topic.

By foggedout August 06, 2009

Wow, the link is quite disturbing. Wonder how much research the designer did into the logo before making it? There is even a web design program, the name escapes me, that has been using it for quite awhile.

By Kirvi_Inci August 04, 2009