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| The new SPR logo |
Eagle-eyed followers of the Society for Psychical
Research’s Facebook page and Twitter feed will have spotted that the logo
adorning the top of each has changed, though not by much. The previously shaded psi symbol is now
entirely black and sporting a broader foot, the typeface used for the name is slightly
thinner and upper case, and the ‘SPR’ abbreviation at the bottom of the ring has been replaced
by Est. 1882, an improvement as the initials are redundant and the date
reinforces the longevity of the Society. These are fairly cosmetic changes, but it was decided
the logo needed to be refreshed as the old version was looking dated. The replacement will be rolled out on the
website and print publications in due course.
The old one had been in use since 1990, when I
co-designed it with Bernard Carr. The
then SPR Publicity Committee, which Bernard chaired, held a competition among
the membership to choose a logo. This was
announced in the SPR Newsletter, No.
30, July 1989, p. 20.* The judging
process was protracted, and the winner was not announced until the October 1990
issue, No. 35, p. 29. Bernard introduced
the design by saying the Committee had received nearly 40 entries (some half-a-dozen
of which must have been mine) and that ten had been selected as a shortlist for
a Council decision. One of these was my
double ring with lettering, to which Bernard had added the psi symbol.
Once a single design had been selected, on which
there was ‘surprising agreement’ as Bernard put it, a number of variants were
drawn up, with the chosen version looking similar but not identical to the one that
has been in use for many years – the original had sans serif lettering of slightly different dimensions, and the shading
was not quite the same. Bernard
continued by saying, somewhat disparagingly, ‘It is obviously very traditional –
and not as modern or as imaginative as some of the other suggestions – but its
conservatism is perhaps a fair reflection of the nature of the society and it
does at least convey the essential message!’
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| The old SPR logo |
He concluded: ‘The closest approximation to the
final logo was suggested by Tom Ruffles.
Rather embarrassingly, he is also on the Publicity Committee, which
adjudicated the competition. We
therefore decided to award the prize (a book token) to Maurice Grosse, who
besides making several suggestions of his own, also helped by drawing up proper
versions of the short-listed entries.’
On the whole the logo has served the Society well as
part of its image, and it seems popular; so much that the Dutch SPR use it on
their Twitter feed as well. Whether the
new version will generate the same degree of affection, or adoption by other
organisations, remains to be seen. The
new psi symbol could be considered as rather heavy, even stodgy, whereas the
old ‘3D’ one had a lightness chiming with the image of psychical research, but shading
does seem dated and the new version will soon become familiar. For all its ‘conservatism’ I’m pleased that what
is essentially the same logo has been in use for over a quarter of a century,
with a few more years in front of it, which in this fast-moving image-conscious
world is no mean feat.
*The old Newsletter,
which preceded first The Psi Researcher
and then the Paranormal Review, ran
from February 1981 to January 1991, edited for nearly all that period by Dr
Susan Blackmore. For some reason while
the later two publications are in the Lexscien
online library of SPR publications, the SPR
Newsletter isn’t.
