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Quick Design History: FedEx Logo #ThrowbackThursday

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Lindon Leader

Lindon Leader designed the FedEx logo in 1994 whilst working for Landor Associates in San Francisco. Today, the logo is absolutely legendary in the design industry. It has received more than 40 design awards and is ranked as one of the eight best logos during the last 35 years.

I think it’s the perfect example of clever negative space as well as bringing to life the idea of FedEx moving forward, speed and precision.

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When Lindon first graduated from design school, he picked up a job alongside Saul Bass. Enough said.

Leader was big on the use of negative space in design. His favourite logo is Northwest Orient Airlines. It’s a clearly visible “N”, but if you look again, you see it’s also a W; part of the left leg of the W is removed. And it’s even more than that: the circle represents the compass, and the white space simultaneously creates a little tick, a pointer, pointing northwest.

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Back to the FedEx logo, during his design process, Leader discovered the arrow whilst testing out two of his favourite fonts at the time. By merging two typefaces together, he was able to tweak and achieve just the right negative space. There were lots of concepts with arrows he had explored, but none where the arrow was hidden. Bingo!

“I’m always asked what it’s like to see your work everywhere, and does it ever get old. It never does.”

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Leader once described his process as: “I slowly begin to remove things. The more you pull out, the clearer it gets. Not everyone gets that; most people don’t. But it’s always the final one that’s far more simple and far more clear than the more elaborate ones I laboured over at the beginning.”

The FedEx logo is timeless and clever, simple and versatile. There’s definitely a reason why it has been so successful over the years.

Who will you meet next week for #tbt? You’ll just have to wait and see!

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