The Pacific Telesis Group – What's the concept?
A look at the concept behind Greg Silveria and Donald Bartels 1984 logo for The Pacific Telesis Group.
In 1982 an antitrust lawsuit resulted in the divestiture of AT&T’s local operating subsidiaries. This resulted in Pacific Telesis Group becoming one of several regional telephone companies in the United States serving California and Nevada.
Landor & Associates developed a logo and design policy for Pacific Telesis Group that would help separate the company from AT&T and also link the Group’s subsidiaries.
Coinciding with this was a period of deregulation in the telecoms industry. This allowed the Pacific Telesis Group to expand into new areas of technology.
The themes of expansion and connection form the founding principles for the design of the new logo.
Based around an asterisk symbol derived from a telephone keypad the logo reaches outward, alluding to the group expanding into new fields. And, through the logo’s application, often placed at the centre of wordmarks, connected the holding company with its subsidiaries.
These subsidiaries included Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, the local regulated phone companies, PacTel companies and as well as the Group’s non-regulated communications businesses.
Repetition Logos
Repeating the same shape can be used to imply further meaning. Techniques such as tessellating, stacking and mirroring each carries their own individual allusions. A tree becomes a forest, a person becomes a community, a book becomes a library.
In the repeated stacking of an ‘M’ Maurizio Milani calls to mind corrugated cardboard for manufacturer Mingazzini & Figli.
This techniques offers designers an opportunity to create a simple visual puzzle, inferred or felt not explicit nor ‘read’, inviting curiosity and instilling a logo in the memory of the viewer. The approach derives more from just a little more, just by duplicating, meaning and distinction are arrived at whilst maintaining simplicity.
You can find hundreds more repetition logos to learn from on LogoArchive. Search “repetition”.
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