Chrysler LLC

New:  Name and logo, resurrected (with modifications)

Launched:  August 6, 2007

Story in brief:
As you probably know, Daimler just sold 80.1% of Chrysler to privately owned Cerberus. Acting CEO Tom LaSorda evidently chose not to engage professional identity counsel, instead entrusting brand planning and redesign to internal (presumably car design and marketing) design resources.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Vice Chairman and President Tom LaSorda
Identity design - credited by Chrysler to Trevor Creed, SVP Design

First Impressions:
I have seldom seen so graphic an expression of how far we have fallen, in 45 years, from the skill and confidence of modern design.

There is nothing in the new mark that is consistent with a corporation of stature and quality. The symbol is a picture of a thing, a metallic orifice of a vaguely threatening nature. It memorializes the Pentastar without, however, recalling its strength. The wordmark, in a graphic language unrelated to the symbol, feels lifted from a car model nameplate that itself seemed intended to evoke a retro personality, which it now imposes on this "new" corporation.

The nail in this coffin is to clutter what easily could have looked truly new (as the 1962 mark still does!) with extraneous type (and a ruled line) saying "the new!"  If have to say it, and you can't show it, can you really be it?

Meanwhile Daimler Chrysler has until October 7, when its stockholders will be asked to approve the elimination of Chrysler from its name, to think about design and identity. It will be interesting to see just how new they choose to be.

Other comments:
Thanks, Roger van den Bergh, for spotting the 1986 lockup I  first dated 1962, and crediting it to Steve Gilliatt and Irv Suskind at L&M.