posted
Oh, about the arrow. I noticed it a long time ago when I was weeding the FedEx logo. I never thought it was a planned part of the logo, just a happy accident. They certainly didn't highlight it if they were trying to make that part of their image.
I don't think there is one thing that proves a person's character. Like Dan said, it all counts toward a total score. Incidents occur like minor rudeness that are just isolated because someone has alot on their mind. Now if someone is rude over and over, then I consider them a rude person.
I pride myself on remembering peoples' names. My best indicator about a person is whether I remember their name. If someone is rude when I meet them I don't make any effort to remember their name. If I've met them five times and I don't know their name yet, they have most likely been rude each time and I'll never want to know them. There are of course exceptions to this.
Now putting salt on something without tasting it is odd to me, but maybe the person really likes salt and knows themself enough to know they'll like it no matter how salty it is. In that case that kind of self knowledge would be a good thing. It's just efficient. Why waste time tasting the food then salting it? Maybe Ford was concerned with how much money he would spend on salt in the cafeteria.
quote:Originally posted by Dawud Shaheed: well, for sure the fed ex arrow has gotten them some buzz. And that's the key to advertising. It's Amazing to me how they can go through 200 logos and come up with something that simple at the end. How many variations of that logo can one come up with?
posted
I always put steak sauce on a steak, no matter how fine a cut of meat it is. I'm a condiment freak, and that's just the red neck in me. I don't put ketchup on my eggs, though. I know some folks that do that.
posted
...I still say it's a sh!tty way to judge character... I also think the arrow was a happy accident! Love....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Our brains were designed to interpret real world objects in three dimensions.
It is only a recent development wherein humans spend an increasingly large percentage of their waking hours communicating via two dimensional methods such as printed pages and tv/computer screens.
The ability to perceive an imbedded shape in a series of common letterforms is not a question of character or ethics, but is more a function of logical thinking and problem solving.
Two different and very distinct areas of the brain control these functions.
I would consider it a mistake to infer a lack of virtue based on a persons lack of visual perception or interpretive ability.
*spellink error* x2
[ May 06, 2007, 10:08 PM: Message edited by: Steve Purcell ]
-------------------- Steve Purcell Purcell Woodcarving & Signmaking Cape Cod, MA
************************** Intelligent Design Is No Accident Posts: 900 | From: Cape Cod, MA | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I'm in full agreement with Dan's assessment of the "arrow" and character.
Regarding the salt story?
Henry Ford was assuming the prospective employee had never tasted a steak without salt - which to me, is in itself a very close-minded assumption.
Most likely, someone the age of employment had likely tasted meat earlier on in life and decided they preferred it salted.
I highly doubt the prospective employee sat down at the table and said, "Wow, this is awesome - I've never had a steak before", and then proceeded to salt it. Very unlikely.
In my case? I just plain like salt. To me, everything tastes better with it than without it....
Well, that's my take on it anyway...
Edit: Just for the record - I don't know if the Henry Ford story is true or not. This is a story an old boss always recounted. It's possible it might not even be true - but it's interesting as a comparitive.
posted
I've seen that arrow since day one. And don't feel bad Jill, I've NEVER seen one of those optical illusion things no matter how hard I try.
Dan, you'd be amazed at how many alternatives the big branding houses generate. I once read a case study on the update for the GE logo and they did a ton of them all to wind up with something that the average Joe wouldn't even recognize as being different. I mean, how else are they going to justify charging the insane amounts they do?
And I don't care how good a steak is, I'm putting pepper on it goshdarnit!
-------------------- Paul Bierce - Designer pabierce@hotmail.com www.paulbierce.com Posts: 330 | From: Dix Hills, NY | Registered: Jan 2005
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First of all, for all the thoughful replies, whether you agree or not, thank you.
I'm going to try this one more time, because apparently I'm not getting my point (or arrow) across. What bothered me about the arrow was not whether he could see it - it was the negativity he associated with the question. In the interest of full disclusure, I never noticed the arrow in the logo, either, until I was asked to look. But I have to wonder about someone who gets p*ssed off and insulted by merely being asked to look at something from a different perspective.
And kudos to Steve Purcell - I was not entirely comfortable with calling this a test of character per se, as in character as it refers to ethics. I think using the word character, in this context, was a bit of sloppy mental shorthand on my part; what I'm looking for is an word that describes the element of a personality that describes a willingness, or lack thereof, to look at a problem from a different point of view.
This client not only couldn't see the arrow, he refused to even consider the existence of the arrow. Just as he refused to consider the existence of an alternative solution to his sign project. And no, he won't be back. Since then he has contracted with a competitor, who (he says) can give him what he wants for less than 25% of my initial estimate. I tend to think he had this quote before we had our meeting, and that I was essentialy rolling loaded dice, but that's just a guess. Or he could be lying, but to speculate on that would require that I question his character, after all.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hey Cam... I get your point exactly. I know a couple of people who are just like this guy. They think their way is the only way, and refuse to even consider any other options... even if it's fairly obvious there's a better way to do something. They'd be the same way, if they'd hadn't already seen it, it must not exist and why look for it.
And I agree with the liquor store owner, a business person better have his mind open for new ideas, ways of doing things and advise from others if he expects to last long in today's competitive environment. Severe closed-mindedness (did I just make a new word?) will be a handicap.
And Jill, when I first saw the arrow, I was curious whether it was on accident or designed, so I took several different flavors of Futura and recreated the effect.... if you adjust the kerning on FedEx, you could instantly see the beginnings of an arrow, but it never made a perfectly shaped one like their logo, until you do some pretty good tweaking on the E and the x.
I don't think they thought of it BEFORE they did the logo, but like it said in the article, someone noticed it partway through, and they did tweak it to intentionally include it.
-------------------- Jon Jantz Snappysign.com jjantz21@gmail.com http://www.allcw.com Posts: 3395 | From: Atmore, AL | Registered: Nov 2005
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You're right Jon, in that the interview posted above has the designer talking about how he had to tweak the actual letterfont to get the arrow to be perfectly displayed/placed as it is.....
and he also talks about the very subtle nature of it in comparison to the many variations he worked up for the company....
-------------------- Todd Gill Outside The Lines Potterville, MI Posts: 7792 | From: Potterville, MI | Registered: Dec 2001
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Cam, I figured from what you typed at the start, that "seeing the arrow" was a metaphor for being prepared to take an alternative stance toward something.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote:Bruce Bowers I always saw it and figured it was probably one of those accidental things that got tweaked in on purpose. It is especially noticeable when you look at the logo upside down.
quote:Jillbeans I never noticed the arrow until today. But then again I could never see the image in those weird magic illusion pictures either.
Actually, the FedEx arrow was part of the design, and there's an interesting story behind the FedEx logo. Search for "FedEx" in the following page.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Rolling On The Floor]](graemlins/rolf.gif)
![[I Don t Know]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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across. What bothered me about the arrow was not whether he could see it - it was the negativity he associated with the question. In the interest of full disclusure, I never noticed the arrow in the logo, either, until I was asked to look. But I have to wonder about someone who gets p*ssed off and insulted by merely being asked to look at something from a different perspective.
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