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The H3 BNSF scheme is taking over cars.
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*uc*s, doesn't it? Apparently the BNSF is going with all due speed to put in that swoosh, or to use my terminology ban the warbonnet. <br /> <br />What is so special about block-italics of BNSF? General Electric put its initials (GE) on the top of Rockefeller Center in italics. The public doesn't much care for it, though. GE went back to its "monogram" logo and even named the credit service that. <br /> <br />As for GE's problem child, NBC, they use all kinds of logos: the 1940's "chimes" logo that goes back to the NBC Red radio network; the "snake" ("NBC" spelling itself out in one motion, the drawing never leaving the screen [1959]), the "Peacock" of course, concurrent with the shift to all-color broadcasting (mid-Sixties); and the more stylized Peacock of recent years. <br /> <br />As far as I remember, the only logo National Broadcasting left alone after its introduction was that crazy, blocky "N" that some high-powered design firm came up for them in about 1976--that was the one that looked very much like the "N" that a Nebraska PBS outlet had designed for themselves earlier. <br /> <br />And what, pray, is so great about the swoosh? I mean, it was cute when Michael Jordan was advertising with it ten or fifteen years ago, but it is SO tired and overused. My bank uses one. My produce stand uses one. Value City, a local department store, uses one. And on and on. Hardly a symbol of daring modernity! <br /> <br />Conclusions: (1) No one, not even graphix people, are quite as cool as they think they are. (2) Heritage works. An anhistorical motto like the new swoosh may cause RR people to think they are being extra cool, but in the public's eye (and that includes most shippers, I'd wager), recognizable trademarks are not to be jettisoned. (3) When a railroad's company store offers only the latest logos (and here BNSF seems to fit), that line is in effect going to some trouble to throw away money. <br /> <br />I know the April 11 board meeting put BNSF on track to paint the new design on as much stuff as possible. I won't deign to call it Heritage Anything, because as the writer so well remarked in a posting above, "Heritage" has nothing to do with it. <br /> <br />Heck, why can't the BNSF incorporate the old -- I think it was Northern Pacific -- circle with red and black "yin" and "yang" kind of symbols? Would look great on freight for exort to Asia and send a message two. <br /> <br />Is it worth bothering Mr. Rose again about these issues. Or is this a totally done deal and the paint-overs couldn't even be phased in more gradually? <br /> <br />allen <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
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