Death. Can’t live with it or without it. It sucks! Death is terrible when someone you love passes. But we’ve also all grieved when, say, a product that we’ve become attached to is put out on the ice flow. The Stone Twins, from Amsterdam, memorialized this grief over things in their book, Logo R.I.P., which was first published in 2003. It commemorated 50 defunct logos; “many included may be regarded as icons of their time or international design classics,” noted Gerech Stone in a recent letter. “The core thesis of Logo R.I.P. is that logos that were once an integral part of our visual culture and lives are worthy of commemoration, or even preservation.”
This year a second edition has been published by BIS with some new tombstones in the logo cemetery, including AT&T, Kodak, Lucent, Xerox and Rand’s Enron. “These ‘obituaries,'” Stone wrote, “ensure that although the logos may be gone, they are not forgotten.” Given the morbidly clever way the logos are presented, I don’t think I’ll forget them too soon.
For more Steven Heller, check out Inside the Business of Illustration—one of the many Heller titles available at MyDesignShop.com.