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• YMCA Changes Its Logo

  By Burkey Belser

  Posted on July 19, 2010 at 2:29 pm

  
  
  

  Last Monday, I was asked by The Washington Times to comment on the change of the YMCA to The Y, a logo that had remained unchanged since 1967. The reporter took good notes so I didn’t have to:

  Burkey Belser, president of Greenfield/Belser Ltd., a well-known brand design firm in Washington, agrees with the updated branding of The Y, with which he was not involved, calling these types of moves a “natural progression.”

  For his company, “our goal is to try not to redesign but to realign with contemporary goals,” he said. “I would say that a name generally suggests some effort on the part of the owner to refresh the brand in the mind of its audience.”

  Mr. Belser also noted that because the group’s activities are so wide-ranging and ecumenical and lacking in a specifically Christian focus, The Y more accurately describes it than a religiously specific term does.

  Research studies also prove that the average person only remembers two- or three-word symbols, he said, and the new one-letter name puts a larger emphasis on youth.

  “I think its the idea that they wanted to be more associated with youth, and it’s possible that their demographic was growing older and they wanted to recapture their youth market,” he said.

  Source: washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/12/ymca-changes-its-logo-to-just-the-y/

  I did mention that the Village People’s rousing song would be forced to be shortened dramatically but the reporter didn’t pick up on my humor. But, we can do it, right? All together now, “Y…! …Y…!” There’s no need to feel down, but it just isn’t the same. On the other hand, I never made the “C” in the right direction anyway.

  Tags:

  Branding 

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  Comments

  Comment from Allen Chichester July 21, 2010 at 6:03 pm

  Burkey,

  Are you ever surprised by the speed by which a new logo is integrated into our collective consciousness, such that within a few days it seems we forget the old logo existed at all? I’m always amazed to see the history of well known symbols and how much they have changed over the years.

  Comment from Mike O’Horo September 17, 2010 at 9:01 am

  Kinda late tot he party, I know. I stumbled across this today. Oh, well…

  Could it be that sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar, i.e., that YMCA belatedly accepted that for it’s entire existence, almost nobody every said they were going “to the YMCA” but “to the Y”? Your brand is what your customers say it is. Your name, as MoFo so refreshingly embraced some years ago and countless more firms have since done, is whatever your customers actually call you.

  It’s always been “the Y.” They seem finally to have grasped and accepted that.

  Pingback from Site of the Week: 99designs and the Gap Logo October 11, 2010 at 10:39 am

  [...] hear in the blogosphere, in the hallways, and on the street, the public is NOT a fan. Unlike the YMCA, Gap has not issued a press release announcing the new logo nor discussed the rationale for the [...]

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