One of Avid’s big announcements at NAB 09 was that they have consolidated all of their many companies into one: Avid. So Digidesign, M-Audio, Pinnnacle and Sibelius are all Avid. With this new company focus comes a new logo, which has been getting generally favorable reviews. A number of people have asked me about this new logo. According to the press release Avid Unveils New Brand Identity:

The new logo forms a visual connection to iconic shapes that represent “volume up, volume down, play, pause, record and forward,” signaling a unification of the company’s core audio and video offerings.  The distinctive mark also spells out the company’s name in abstract letterforms.

But the logo should make sense to those who have just been familiar with Avid from a video editing standpoint as well. The first thing I thought of when I saw the logo was the add keyframe button for the A, the Step In key for the V (even though that is really an arrow) and of course the Step Forward 1 Frame key for the I and the D. But maybe it makes more sense that the A and V are volume up and volume down buttons and or just a variation on the Avid triangle that is used in so many keys on the Avid keyboard:

Either way it’s a brave move to so drastically change the logo but with the corporate shift that has happened in the last year it makes sense. Avid is a much different company after NAB 09 than it was just a few days before NAB 08. Now we just have to get that new logo on to the Media Composer application icon:

Logo changes aren’t that uncommon in business. Some time spent at Best Logos is like a trip down memory lane. Apple is famous for having updated their iconic rainbow logo to something more modern after Steve Jobs returned in the mid-90s. The company I work for, Filmworkers recently did the same thing:

Quite a bit more modern don’t you think?