Intel’s new logo “leaps ahead”

intel Slogan: Leap ahead

Intel changed its 37-year-old logo as part of a major rebranding that will emphasize on the company’s shift away from the traditional PC business into consumer products.

The California-based company will discard its “dropped e” logo, used since its founding in 1968, and replace it by an oval swirl around the word ‘intel’, with the tag line “Leap ahead”. The company will also retire the “Intel Inside” advertising logo it has used since 1991. Both made Intel the fifth-most valued brand in the world, according to Interbrand.

Update: about Intel’s new font

Intel New Logo - Rebranding 2006
intel viiv logo
Intel New Processor Logos

Creativebits.org writes: Another trendy and overused graphical device is introduced into the new logotype. The partly straight, partly rounded corners. It looks great at this moment in time, but it will make the logo age quick. The color is still blue, but not the electric one. A more humane shade is chosen. Nothing fancy, nothing too flashy. Overall, there is nothing exciting about the new logo and it’s a safe transition from the old identity.

What is more – the company also will unveil a series of other logos to create brands around “platforms” of technologies as well as individual chips. For example, the “Viiv” logo will be associated with its living room desktop computer brand that will make its debut early next year.

Intel chief executive Paul Otellini initiated the search for a new brand when he hired Eric Kim as chief marketing officer in September 2004. Kim helped Samsung build its brand into a worldwide powerhouse. “This was a cultural change where Paul (Otellini) said nothing is sacred,” Intel spokesman B. Calder said.

The rebranding had to be done since Intel’s name and brand were associated with microprocessors, even though the company’s technologies stretch into personal computers, communications, cell phones, handhelds and set-top boxes. Secondly the collection of Intel logos for specific products had become a mess — the company has 18 logos for its products.

The new campaign starts with a major TV and print advertising campaign that begins next week in advance of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Calder would not say how much money Intel will spend, but he acknowledged the figure is likely to run into the hundreds of millions.

Intel refused to divulge which agencies have won the advertising contract and also declined to comment on the cost of replacing the logo but insisted that it is just a “small part” of its planned advertising and marketing spending in 2006.
Advertising industry sources said that the rebranding might cost tens of millions of dollars.

About Intel’s new font
I like the typo and initially thought Intel had come up with their own typeface but as it seems they have just modified the “Neo Sans”, a font-family developed by Sebastian Lester in 2004 with two faces: Neo Sans and Neo Tech.
Intel’s font combines elements of both faces, for example the “g” out of the Neo Tech font and the rounded edges.
According to various design sources on the web, the agency Futurebrand developed Intel’s new branding.

Intel's New Font: Neo Sans
above: intel’s new font-face
below: Neo Sans + Neo Tech
picture by fontblog.de

Memorabilia: More about the “Intel Inside” jingle

4 comments

Comments are closed.