Design History

The current NBC identity was put into action in 1986. It was a refinement of the previous “proud N.” The logo previously had twelve feathers and an N composed of negative space. Chermayeff & Geismar were hired on to enhance the design. The head of the peacock was turned to face the right rather than the left. This suggested the network looking to the future or moving forward optimistically. Rather than making a white peacock and placing it on top of the feathers, the feathers created the peacock in negative space. The twelve feathers were simplified to six. The six feathers represented the six divisions at the time; News, sports, entertainment, stations, network and production. They chose to use the primary and secondary colors for the feathers for aesthetics. To solidify the logo identity they specified all guidelines and colors using a chart for cmyk, rgb, pantone. There is great importance in color specifications because the colors in the logo make the logo. Like the CocaCola red or Marlboro red. The font face they chose was univers. After NBC officially recognized it as its new identity, different variations were made for special events and holidays. For example, the all green peacock for St. Patricks day or the red white and blue design for Fourth of July. 

 

Chermeyeff and Geismar is a design firm based out of New York. Tom Geismar and Ivan Chermeyeff are graduates of Yale University. Pretty smart guys with enormously large clients. They have done identites for  NBC, Mobil, PanAm, Armani Exchange, University of New York, PBS, Showtime, National Geographic, Chase, and Univision. They started up their design firm in 1957 and have become pretty well known designers. They were awarded the AIGA medal in 1976 for their outstanding work. In 2007 Sagi Haviv joined the firm as the third partner. The firms outlook on design is pretty interesting. Although they work with big clients they are huge on staying true to their designs. They don’t like to compromise their design by producing something the clients want if the firm cannot stand behind it. Although a lot of their designs seem simple and straightforward, there is a lot of conceptualizing that goes on during their process. Everything has a reason for being in the design, which is awesome. In addition to the Large client base that pays ridiculous amounts of money, they also do probono work. In an interview with Geismar he said that as of late, most of their work and clientel has been non profit organizations and government funded programs. In contrast to doing famous design work they also do environmental installations. These guys are well rounded artists for sure.