General Motors Logo Screams Of A Time Long Gone

Driving along Montreal's highway 40 (part of the Trans-Canada) on a cold, dreary day the month of February excels at, I passed by a General Motors facility.

The once mighty and proud symbol of the American automobile industry was reduced to a climate metaphor. Its GM sign meekly erect, in its mundane mediocrity, in the backdrop of clouds reminding more of a nationalized enterprise in the Soviet Union or East Germany than a member of a dynamic capitalist class. It's depressing. I mean, look at it, it's the letters G and M in extremely boring font with a dash under it. Hello. 1986 wants its image back.

Logos and branding can be powerful things. Unfortunately, when I see GM I don't see excellence or innovation. I see a corporate ward of the state.  No one is asking for anything awesome but Lord me.

GM should consider, it seems to this consumer anyway, redesigning their logo. It's telling me they make Ladas. By contrast, Ford is coming to market with excellent cars and trucks.

And their original logo expresses it very well.

Even Jeep-Chrysler (now owned by Fiat) has avoided such a drop in status like GM has. Chrysler is clearly benefiting with its access to design ideas from Europe.

While both Ford and Chrysler offer consumers competitive and quality products, GM continues to fail to connect to customers and has failed to find or reinvent itself in the process.

Something its logo is telling us all too well.