Now by this time many of us have seen companies rebrand and change their logos, some ever so slightly and others somewhat drastically. The trend lately seems to be that most companies are going to flat logos. You can see below some companies that have done this.

There are various reasons behind going down this path. Many view it as a cleaner simpler look, ‘less is more’ if you will. A big contributing factor is mobile use, a flat clean logo is much easier to display on a small screen and speaks to the viewer clearly. Other words like ‘minimalist’ and ‘Modern’ get thrown around a lot as well, and I am not here to get too in depth on this, as many bloggers already have. Nor am I here to argue if this so-called trend is here to stay, but rather I am here to give you my unique take on the flat redesign that I find most intriguing: Mack Trucks

The Mack Trucks flat logo redesign made me stop and pause when I saw it. Maybe it was the drastic change of the type face, maybe it was the visual appeal of the new dog, whatever it was I really couldn’t put my finger on it right away.

The more I thought about it I was amazed that a trucking company would take this approach. It is understandable to see tech companies, social media outlets, and restaurants take this angle, but a trucking company! Now this may sound a little judgmental, and I get that, but my grandfather was a truck driver. When I vision my grandfather, like many others might if I said ‘truck driver,’ one might envision a grizzled man, with some type of facial hair, and they just might have a pipe or some form of tobacco on them. Again a little biased here but I feel I am not the only one. The trucking industry itself is close to 100 years old, and Mack Trucks themselves were founded in 1900. Now when I think of a company and an industry like this I tend to lean towards the conservative side and unwilling to make changes like this. Now they have been purchased by a progressive company willing to evolve, but without doing a little research you might not know that.

I admire companies like this, companies that are willing to make advances like this, especially with such a rich history. The best part about this redesign is the fact that not only did they flatten their logo, but they took their mascot, gave him a side profile, and stood him up in a very proud position. This rendering also lends itself to forward movement, and it is appropriate that all their trucks have this dog as a hood ornament. I applaud Mack Trucks for having a willingness to change with the times. Your mascot should be proud and stand tall as he leads the way for you down the highways!

-Brandon Sugihara