Fare thee well, Cingular brand

The freshly-redesigned AIGA has a touching goodbye to the Cingular "Jack" logo:

Jack and the Cingular brand identity contrasted with other phone brands. According to Koval, its competitors “were about all about [airtime] minutes and sound quality. We made it about linking and communication and self-expression. We wanted a human symbol and made it a character.” When Jack arrived, mobile phone logos “were stiff and bold and italicized, red and blue. We took a totally different approach—soft and lowercase and orange. ” Jack’s replacement is the blue marble, the kinder, gentler AT&T globe logo introduced in 2005. The maker of the marble, which replaced the previous, two-decade-old AT&T logo, is the firm Interbrand, whose parent company wears the sinister Hollywood moniker Omnicom. That original orb, by Saul Bass, was nicknamed the “Death Star” as soon as it arrived on the scene in 1985. But that was because AT&T was already seen as an empire, not the lethal weapon menacing Princess Leia’s republic. AT&T is an old-line company, with roots in the 19th century—a company, after all, that still has the word “telegraph” embedded somewhere behind its initials.

Link: [ Bell System Memorial ]
Wikipedia: [ Cingular Wireless ]