9130: C’MON WHITE MAN! Episode 13.

(MultiCultClassics credits ESPN’s C’MON MAN! for sparking this semi-regular blog series.)

Jeff Goodby of Goodby Silverstein & Partners has been spotlighted in this semi-regular blog series a whopping three times. So it only seems fair to honor Rich Silverstein too.

When the iconic advertising agency decided to create a new logo, Silverstein partnered with his shop’s Co-Director of Digital Imaging to invent the graphic on the left side of the image above. However, the identity mark is virtually identical to the monogram on the right, which was originally made in 1905. Here’s how Silverstein described the GS&P rip-off:

From the very beginning, the agency always used the building they were housed in as its identity. As it has grown and is now in multiple buildings and cities, this solution no longer was relevant, but the classic quality of those past identities needed to still play a part in the new identity. That fundamental passion for craft and design is a foundation of the agency. There had to be a sense of the old and the new in the design. … The goal was to create a new identity for the agency that would signal a new era. The design needed to work in static form as well as in motion, and ideally it should capitalise on the shorthand name for the agency: GSP. … After playing around with various renditions of the letterforms—from modern typography to more genre-specific—we arrived at a solution that was born out of classic monograms. The forms are purposely somewhat rough, in reference to hand-drawn type. But we have stripped out secondary decorative elements so it has a more modern, austere feel.

The quote is actually from an entry form Silverstein completed when he submitted the logo for an award in the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Lo and behold, the man nabbed a Design Lion. Which sorta puts Silverstein in the same league as the Boys from Brazil behind the scam Kia campaign—who have been banned from the 2012 festival.

C’MON WHITE MAN!