architecture

Thursday, October 28, 2010

What's in an Icon?

Visiting Santiago Calatrava's website today, I see it's been redesigned. This is the splash page:

calatrava-new.jpg

Does that little icon (I wouldn't call it a logo) go with the designs of the name over which it's located? To me it looks too traditional, like it would be found on the letterhead of staunch law firm or on a napkin at a fancy restaurant or on a box from a custom suit shop...to me, it says anything but Calatrava. Who knows, maybe they'll change the icon or get rid of it entirely. These days it seems businesses will easily and quickly give up their redesigned images.

Update 10.29: As some astute readers have pointed out to me, the symbol is the Calatrava Cross, dating back to the 12th century. It is also used by Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe.

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