It just occurred to me that I have never met anyone, that wasn’t a designer, that knows about the arrow shape in the negative space within the lettering of the FedEx logo.
So, I sent out this tweet, and then another one .
Instantly, I received replies, and so far a few seem to agree.
When an element of an identity is THIS subtle, does it have a purpose (other than fellow logo designers thinking it’s “genius”) ?
If the vast majority of the market doesn’t even know it’s there, doesn’t that make it useless in its purpose? Without the arrow in the FedEx logo, we would still be left with an iconic identity with the strong lettering, and the recognizable blue and red/ sometimes now green/orange etc. Without the arrow it still does the job rather well.
What are your thoughts?