Now, About GLAAD’s New Avatar

So you might have seen, if you are on GLAAD’s email list or viewed photos for their awards show, the organization has been sporting a new logo and branding concept for the past few weeks (months?). It’s always a curious process when a brand undergoes a revamp, like Pepsi did, because the mere fact that it believes it needs a new look opens the possibility that something was terribly wrong with the old one. And there will always be folks who love the new look, and those that prefer the old one. But we can say without question that GLAAD’s new logo is about 100X better than its old ink stain wreck.

Which looked like this.

The branding blog Under Consideration offers this thoughtful analysis of GLAAD’s new image:

The old logo was designed by Enterprise IG, and while it had some interesting metaphors going for it — is it a minority joining a majority? Is it various ways of life? — it was probably too ambiguous to hold the attention of the media. In contrast, the new logo is very clear in what it’s trying to communicate, even if some might comment here that it looks like a Wi-Fi icon. Whether it’s communication, connectivity or amplification, the icon works remarkably well and, to sweeten the deal, it even looks great.

It also, we might add, has gay sensibility without being one giant fag mark.

So that’s one thing GLAAD has done well this year.