EFF was founded on this day, exactly 28 years ago. Since that time, EFF’s logo has remained more or less unchanged. This helped us develop a consistent identity — people in the digital rights world instantly recognize our big red circle and the heavy black “E.” But the logo has some downsides. It’s hard to read, doesn’t say much about our organization, and looks a bit out of date.
Today, we are finally getting around to a new look for our organization thanks to the generosity of top branding organization Pentagram. We’ve launched a new logo nicknamed “Insider,” and it was created for us by Pentagram under the leadership of the amazing Michael Bierut.
To celebrate, we’re releasing our new EFF member shirt, featuring the new logo. It’s a simple black shirt with the logo in bright red and white. Join us or renew your membership and get a new shirt today!
There’s a good story behind how this new logo came about.
Last year, EFF defended Kate Wagner, the blogger behind McMansion Hell, a popular blog devoted to the many flaws and failures of so-called “McMansions,” those oversized suburban tract homes that many people love to hate. The online real estate database Zillow objected to Wagner's use of their photos, and threatened her with legal action.
EFF stepped in to defend Wagner. EFF sent a letter on the blogger’s behalf, explaining that her use of Zillow’s images was a textbook example of fair use. Zillow backed down, and her many supporters let out a collective cheer.
One of those supporters was Michael Bierut, who also happens to be one of the best logo designers on the planet. (You have probably seen some of his work: among his many recognizable works are logos for MIT’s Media Lab, MasterCard, and Hillary Clinton.) Bierut said he loved EFF's letter, recognized it as great legal writing, and also saw that EFF needed a new logo. He and his team at Pentagram offered to make us a new one, pro bono.
We were really touched and pleased by his offer. Over subsequent months, we worked with Bierut and his team to come up with something new. In describing what we were looking for, we told Pentagram that we wanted something simple, classic, and that matched the boldness of our vision for the Internet.
After several rounds and revisions, they came up with this new logo, Insider. One of the great things about this logo is that, in true Pentagram fashion, this logo is really a logo system. The logo can be reconfigured and adjusted in multiple ways, allowing us to adjust our look for many purposes. This logo will look as good on a formal legal letter as it does in an activist campaign. It also uses a great open source typeface called League Gothic!
You can access your own copies of this logo in various configurations and file formats from our logo page. Please feel free to use them for any legal purpose.
We hope you like the new logo as much as we do—and that when you see it, wear it, or display it, it continues to convey our history of working for your online rights, and our plan to keep up the fight long into the future.
Join EFF AND GET OUR NEW LOGO T-SHIRT
A happy ending, shared with Kate Wagner and Michael Bierut’s consent.
