The 2018 logo, designed by Jim Parkinson.Ģ022: After living with the flat logo for four years, Gus Wenner (Jann’s son, and now CEO of the magazine) and Joe felt the visual identity had lost its signature audacity when the letterforms lost their depth. In the process of drawing this version, Jim modernized the underlying letterforms, prudently ironing some of the wrinkles out of their 1980s aesthetic. In 2018, he brought Jim back for a third time for a dramatic shift to a single-color version of the logo, which could be used consistently in print and on the web. The 1981 logo, designed by Jim Parkinson.Ģ018–2022: Creative director Joseph Hutchinson, who had art directed the magazine for over a decade, had tangoed with its temperamental logo for just as long. It lasted for 37 years and remains one of the most recognizable symbols of Americana.
This was a logo that commanded attention on the cover and demanded to be big. The 1977 logo, designed by Jim Parkinson.ġ981–2018: After several years, Jann Wenner tired of the new logo’s more sober appearance and asked Jim to revisit his work, adding swashes, ball terminals, a complex g, and bulked-up dimensionality. It showed that the magazine was serious-but not too serious-with a dimensional oblique serif style that Jim colorfully described as “ Nicholas Jenson on acid.” The 1975 logo, designed by John Pistilli (as digitized by Jon Valk).ġ977–1981: When Roger Black took over as the magazine’s art director, he commemorated its 10th anniversary by commissioning a fresh logo from Jim Parkinson, with a corresponding custom typeface. Striped and swashy, it reveled in the Summer of Love’s spirit of excess, pairing the exuberance of psychedelic lettering with the structure of Victorian-era typography. Jesse Ragan, XYZ Type A history of the Rolling Stone logoġ967–1977: For Rolling Stone’s first decade, it sported a logo concept originally sketched by San Francisco poster artist Rick Griffin and later refined by type designer John Pistilli. How could we make the logo look like it did in the past, without making it feel dated? My hope is that loyal readers will believe the old logo is back, but on closer inspection will be surprised to notice how much it has been modernized.