The Motz of Butz: The Unnecessary Necessity
As Swiss’s head of marketing stated, it was necessary—for reasons of relevance—to give Swiss a new concept and, consequently, a new logo. «Blah, blah,» is all I can add to that. By Theophil Butz, once a star advertising executive (Ringier), now an inspirer, and from now on also a complainer. «Not an easy role, but a necessary one, which I take on here every 14 days.» Please send relevant information to [email protected].
What it's about: Actually, I don't know what it's about. Perhaps Swiss wants to make it clear to us that it is an airline and not a sac knife.
My thesis: New CEO, new CI. It was a necessary change and also a graphically perfect solution to have Karl Gerstner modernize the old, aerodynamic, original Swissair lettering - the tail fin with the cross designed with the two enlarged i-dots parallel to the W. The new logo was also a necessity after the belly landing. The need for a new name and a new logo after the belly landing was also a necessity. It was unnecessary even then that the foreigner Tyler Brule had to design it, as if the Swiss graphic designers had been incapable of doing so. Nevertheless, the solution was perfect.
But now this nouveauté. An unnecessity par excellence. What current reasons have made it necessary to invent a new logo, the CEO Harry Hohmeister has not communicated. I could not imagine any current reason, unless business is good, one is underemployed, and something has to happen. Dear Walter Bosch, you are sitting there as Vice Chairman of the Board. If you had asked me for my opinion, I would have advised you not to change anything for a fraction of this budget. I doubt whether 9 million is enough at all. It's not just the two squares on the engines, but also the lettering on the nose that needs to be changed. In addition, tickets, travel agencies, luggage stickers, the Internet and many other details have to be changed and old things have to be destroyed. A total unnecessity. Let's take a closer look at the new monstrosity.
Gerstner's parallel tail fin has now become a more or less realistic fin, a decapitated, crooked pyramid. Was this intended to make it clear that this is an airline? The "Swiss" lettering has lost its i-dot to make it uppercase. This also did away with the dot on the "i". The whole design has not been created with much nose or has been discussed down to a miserable solution by a 10-member committee. A missed opportunity that should never have been commissioned in the first place. In an earlier Motz, I outlined that Coca Cola's marketing director was later fired because of a logo change. I wouldn't be surprised to see the whole thing corrected back to Gerstner's Swissair logo in three years. With two i-dots. I'm sorry if - after so many people have already been upset about this crap - I'm also adding my two cents. But the deadline for my Motz is a week before publication, and I still couldn't leave the topic as a found food for this reason. The set-up is that the first and business class magazine "Universe" of Swiss (old CI) has printed a 5-page article about Inges and my small winery in Tuscany.
