The New New Quark: Evolution In Action

The new new look of Quark, replacing the first new logo debuted in November 2005 (courtesy Quark)

In November 2005, Quark executied a radical reithink of thier logo. Banished from the brand consciousness was the familiar water lily in favor of a distinct graphical approach, complete with the renaming of Pantone 368 as “Quark Green”. Reaction was fast, furious, and, in the case of many creative professionals and logo designers, a right lambasting: as it happened, the “new look” of Quark was nearly indentical to the “old look” of quite a number of companies, most notably the Scottish Arts Council.

Another Extreme Makeover

It seems that Quark, who was noticeable silent after the debut, was taking careful note. Earlier today Quark rolled out its “new new” look, displaying its new logo on its website.

As can be seen above, it is almost as much of a departure from its “new” look as its “new” look was from the old look. A futuristcally-abstracted majuscule Q (but still recognizable as a majuscule Q, versus the previous look, which was frequently confused with a minuscule “a”) with an off-center counter is ensconced in a shimmering “Quark Green” circle that has depth and solidity in its full aspect, and is in turn off center within that circle. Lens flares reinforce the depth illusion, creating a “shiny finish” effect that reminds this writer of some of the more classy automobile logos.

Moreover the off-center elements are all off center in the same direction. By thus creating a dynamic tension down and to the right an attractive visual force happens which makes one think of acceleration forward. Writing at Quark Vs InDesign.com, Pariah S. Burke (also publisher of Designorati), comments:

If Quark desires to connote forward motion, expectation, and excitement, they seem to have hit the target here. Even the typography has been seen to: The capital Q in the word “Quark” has its top and bottom of the tail aligned parallel to the baseline, and this small change gives a more polished look.

The Prodigal Logo

Perhaps most notable about what is known about the creative process that produced this design was that Quark, in contrast to its earlier new look, did the job entirely in-house. The early attempt was designed by SicolaMartin, an Austin, Texas creative firm specializing in advertisting and brand development.

Some conventional wisdom seems to hold that it was SicolaMartin’s responsiblilty to see to it that Quark’s branding was truly distinctive, and for whatever reason, they fell short in this task. This time, Quark brought the design process home, presumably reasoning that Quark would know best what what would work best for Quark. This turns out to have been a canny move.

Let the Debate Commence

In as much as the logo has just debuted, reaction has only begun to start. Many will love it, many will hate it; Quark still has a negative legacy to overcome, as many previous comments to previous articles has evidenced. But, compared to the first redesign, this “new new” look Quark logo is a positive evolution, and credit here goes to Quark to learning from its misstep.