New Subway Logo Escapes Shitshow
By Theo Rosendorf on August 9, 2016
Designers love to whine about new logos and this ID for Subway isn’t immune to that. Well, I would like to take this opportunity to complain about Subway’s old logo.
Since 2002 the Subway ID has taken an italicized direction, echoing NASCAR and anything with a gratuitous “dynamic” approach. I imagine it went something like “it represents a subway and subways move and are fast like our sandwiches!” Logos need not bark like a dog.
How about those hokey arrows? At least the old 1968 arrows remained true to form, staying inline with the letter strokes — the strokes were exaggerated to accommodate the arrows. With the post-2002 “super italic-dynamic” version, the arrows sadly morph into stumpy vestigial afterthoughts. Presumably the short lived 2015 version was an effort to fix things. But the new logo, borrowing a lot from the old 1968 version (great mark) considers the arrows instead of passing them over for faux dynamism. Now our prehensile friends can again point with purpose!
Counter to what you might read on the brand identity bitchfest websites — where it’s like YouTube comments for logos — this new Subway ID is modern, pleasantly geometric, and is anything but “boring” as some have parroted. Of course there are those who think a logo needs to scream like Rudy Giuliani. They would be wrong.
Subway’s new identity is certainly heading in a much improved direction. We’ll see how it evolves in the coming months.
Stefan Kjartansson
Meh. https://twitter.com/raind00gg/status/762712258107539456/photo/1
Theo Rosendorf
https://twitter.com/theorosendorf/status/763060235426824192
Brad Ferguson
I have never objected to ‘boring’ logos. Logo bitchfests are boring. And it’s true that a logo need not bark or scream. It doesn’t even need to tell a story. It helps if it’s attractive. But, in the end, the genius of Subway’s marketing apparatus will determine its success.
From my standpoint as a sign goober, the ’68 version worked well on signage. It has good long-distance visibility. It will be interesting to see the branding guidelines for signs for the new logo. Should the background be white or black? The logo should look good as individual channel letters. The arrows-only icon could become versatile. It may never catch up with the McDonald’s arches as a stand-alone, but better late than never.
I like the new logo. But I also like the Veggie Delite on Italian Herbs bread —my girlfriend says it’s boring. What do I know.
Post-Punk Monk
The new logo is indeed the best “upgrade” to the old design yet. I concur with Mr. Ferguson that the key to its readability is the color of the field its set on. White, as we can see, provides insufficient contrast to the gold color. Obviously, the yellow was shifted here to a goldenrod hue because it was no longer contained by either the green or black of yore. I still say that if the new logo was thrown onto a black field it would scan that much better, but the letterforms are strongly considered and quite attractive. In fact, I prefer them to the original logo, which on the right especially, suggested a forked imp tail instead of a subway map.