Hasta La Ideas

Today on The Moment (well, in a moment today, anyway) Steven Heller investigates the new logos introduced by the Obama administration last week. Here’s a nice taste:

What’s also interesting about this logo is that its goal is to become obsolete. Just as the W.P.A. was retired when the Depression was over (and World War II began), the ARRA logo is tied to the fate of the economy. “Hopefully, the recovery effort will work so well and so quickly that we’re no longer in recovery but back at full strength and don’t need it,” Juras said. “The sooner it becomes a historical artifact, the better.”

Meanwhile, what does he hope these marks accomplish? “I would say that we are more interested in how people who know little or nothing about design respond to them in their daily lives,” he said. “That is to say: Does the logo give the truck driver or the grocery store clerk or the plumber a little more confidence in our economy? Does a young kid derive some hope for the future by stenciling it on her lunchbox? Only time will tell, I suppose.”

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