Fast Company is a business media brand with an editorial focus on innovation in technology, leadership, world changing ideas, creativity, and design. Launched in November 1995 by Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, two former Harvard Business Review editors, the magazine is published by Mansueto Ventures. [1]
Design and History
When Webber and Taylor launched Fast Company in 1995, their goal was to marry Harvard Business Review’s insights with Rolling Stone’s energy. They commissioned magazine logo designer Jim Parkinson, whose resume includes Esquire, the Wall Street Journal, and Rolling Stone, to design the brand. Parkinson crafted a classic serif logo for Fast Company, giving it personality through a quirky small cap “A” and “O.” [2]
In 2018, as the brand approached its 25th year, Fast Company launched a new design with its November print edition. Creative director Mike Schnaidt led the redesign, which was tackled over a four-month period and included a new logo, rebranded franchises, and an updated visual identity. [3] Schnaidt noted that the landscape of business, and how Fast Company covers it, had changed dramatically since the previous redesign five years earlier. [3]
For the new logo, Schnaidt chose to work with Portuguese type designer Rui Abreu. The goal was to create a logo that felt more mature than the previous iteration while maintaining its playfulness. [2] The updated logo kept the playful small-cap “A” and “O” letters in the name, which date back to 1995, but the contrast between heavy and thin lines became more pronounced. [4]
Schnaidt described the small “A” and “O” as “undeniable parts of the Fast Company DNA.” He set the logo in Grifito, the more condensed version of the Grifo type family, with the small cap “A” and “O” set in the wider Grifo. He then asked for adjustments to harken back to the old Fast Company logo, and Abreu modified all of the letterforms to be more harmonious. [3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The 2018 redesign was driven by a shift in editorial focus. Schnaidt explained that in 2018, culture had adjusted to technology being intertwined in daily life, and the focus of Fast Company’s journalism had turned back to the people driving change in areas like diversity and inclusion. He wanted the new visual design to better understand the end user and create a stronger emotional bond with them. [2]
Schnaidt defined the redesign’s design direction as “sophisticated,” “playful,” and “gender-neutral,” based on research into Fast Company’s audience. These adjectives informed decisions from color choices to photography, illustration, and new typefaces. [3] He also noted that the redesign aimed to convey a friendlier and more gender-neutral appearance, with the magazine employing a friendlier aesthetic over a futuristic one. [4]
Typography and Design
The 2018 logo was created using the Grifo type family. Schnaidt described his choice: “I love how it’s thin areas feel sophisticated, yet it’s serifs are daring.” [3] The new logo was modernized through sharp triangular terminals on the letters, which was what the original Fast Company logo was modeled after. [5] The backbone of the new suite of typefaces was Grifo, which was also used to create the new logo. [5]
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