[sztc38tg]

I love this change over.

Maybe some of our own bigger&colorful-is-better forum members might take note:


From Today's NYTimes:

A Less-Colorful Seal of Approval
By JAMES BARRON



The Good Housekeeping seal of approval, nearing 100 years old, has had some work done over the years: seven face-lifts, starting when it was only two years old.

“The first one was very nice,” said Louise Fili, the graphic designer hired to remake the seal in time for the big anniversary. “It was downhill from there. The last one, that said everything about the ’90s. Nineties branding was the client breathing down your neck and saying, ‘Can you get the type bigger?’ You get the type bigger by having it burst out of the oval.’ ”

Introduced in December 1909 with 21 consumer products the New York-based magazine had tested — including a washing machine and an electric iron — the Good Housekeeping seal has become an icon in its own right. Since 1941, the magazine has promised a money-back guarantee if products that carry the seal do not perform as advertised.

Several months ago, as it looked ahead to the seal’s 100th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of William Randolph Hearst’s purchase of the magazine in 1911, Good Housekeeping decided it was time for a redesign. It was “a difficult design project,” said Rosemary Ellis, the magazine’s editor in chief, “but a very juicy one.”

Enter Ms. Fili, who wanted to give the seal a timeless look. Her version — black and white, in contrast to the blue and red seal of the ’90s — drops the verb “promises.” And no, the words “seal of approval” have never appeared on the seal.

“The thing about doing any kind of redesign of something that well known,” Ms. Fili said, “is that you have to keep at least one element so people can make the leap. In this case it was the oval and the star, so not just the baby boomers would be able to recognize it.”

There was the little mix-up on the “Today” program, where the 1990s seal was introduced as the new one and hers was shown as the old one, but that did not faze her. “I guess that could be considered to be an insult,” she said, “but I wanted it to look like it had always been there.”