Can’t you see the arrow, Grandma?

Probably everyone knows this but me. Perhaps not.

The girls said over and over there is an arrow in FedEx. “See it, see it! Right there between the E and the x.” No, I did not see it, until Laura drew me a picture. And, there it is.

That is so neat; I looked it up at once. It’s a famous story, at least in the world of advertising. When the company was founded in the eighties, its name was Federal Express. My company used them; you could schedule a pick up almost any time of the day or night. I can remember saying goodbye to a marketing guy, waiting for Federal Express to pick up a prototype.

The company did such a good job its customers fondly referred to it as Fed Ex. The owner of the company decided to rebrand it as FedEx, and hired an advertising company whose owner was a bit on the edge. Actually, he was a big proponent of white space. 

There were hundreds of logo designs proposed, but the advertising company owner actually came up with the design. He tinkered with type fonts as well as white space, and made a winner when he stretched the E and the x to touch.

They showed the design and several others to FedEx’s global brand manager, who saw the arrow at once. He was sworn to secrecy until the FedEx executives saw the five finalist designs and picked one, and he still had to point it out after the design with the arrow was selected.

FedEx carries the brand, not the other way around. The arrow is a statement to find, or not. The story seems to be making the rounds again. And when Laura or Emily says, “It’s the arrow, Grandma,” I look around for a FedEx truck.