back to article What's Meg Whitman fussing over: The fate of HP ... or the font on a DISRUPTIVE new logo?

Meg Whitman, who will take the reins as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise later this year, has unveiled the branding system for the soon-to-be-created company, and it's just as bland and lifeless as anyone could have anticipated. Hewlett Packard Enterprise logo The new Hewlett Packard Enterprise logo is short on razzle- …

  1. I am the Walrus

    Green Rectangle

    I'm guessing there's a significance to the green which goes back a long time as it's also the colour they've used for all those plastic lock and mount bits inside their computers for decades.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Green Rectangle

      wow. such intent. very rect. wow.

    2. KrisMac

      Re: Green Rectangle

      The Green Rectangle is not only highly symbolic, but completely on-message and correct:

      We will all be boxed in to the same shit that we are feeling sick about right now.

      Flexibility will be limited to the infamous slide-ways slide to the point of collapse. Yes kids, you can test this at home with your very own open ended rectangular cardboard box - just place it on the floor with the open ends pointing sideways and place your hand on the top. Allow your hand to move in any direction left or right of the open sides and the box will collapse into a heap on the floor under its own weight. Just like this rebadged monster is likely to do..

      If your enterprise is boxed up inside that collapsing metaphor, you will probably be feeling just as green as the colour that Meg has chosen especially for you...

    3. CanadianMacFan

      Re: Green Rectangle

      I thought it was supposed to represent all of the dollar bills you are to hand over to them.

    4. Horridbloke

      Re: Green Rectangle

      The Brown Ring Of Quality was already taken.

    5. Bob Vistakin
      Facepalm

      Re: Green Rectangle

      The Green Rectangle looks like what you see in the status bar of a smartphone as its about to shut down because the battery is flat. And it told you so.

      How much did someone get paid to come up with this?

      1. BongoJoe

        Re: Green Rectangle

        That perhaps what exactly what it is.

        Bearded hipster designer dude spent too long getting his flappy frappe coffee from bearded barista before sending over a screenshot of his design masterpiece and all HP received was this.

    6. dan1980

      Re: Green Rectangle

      I like it.

      I like simple logos. Yes, there's still the whole "this means that" but there's less of "this" that has to mean anything.

  2. Crazy Operations Guy

    "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge..."

    To me it sounds like whoever came up with this held some kind of power over the CEO (poor relative with no job skills perhaps?) and so Meg didn't disagree and every other exec on the board was just as spineless as she was so they just nodded yes and proclaimed the artist a genius.

    Or maybe they were conned and are too proud to admit it.

    Those are the only two explanations I can think of for this pile of bull-shit that looks like somebody made in MS Paint in 5 minutes...

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge..."

      It was going to have more colours inside but the ink ran out and HP couldn't afford the cartridges

      1. Willie T

        Re: "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge..."

        "hp couldn't afford the ink cartridges"

        We have a winner!

      2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        Re: "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge..."

        Yes, the cartridges only had capacity for the head cleaning cycle, and then had to be replaced.

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge..."

      Crazy Operations Guy,

      We'll know all about how they got foisted with the logo in a couple of years time, when they go the FBI and Serious Fraud Office, plus sue the people who sold it to them, and their auditors for allowing them to sign up for it...

      Either that or it is a cousin with 17 fingers and no teeth or job prospects that's done it. And that person has now taken the paycheck home, and given a single downvote to every comment on this thread that's rude about the design or HP...

      P.S. Dear El Reg,

      Booooooo! Where's the Strategy Boutique or the mention of whalesong and joss sticks on this article?

  3. ecofeco Silver badge

    Resorting to stage tricks now?

    Old stage trick diversion. Nice try HP. How's the rest of the train wreck working?

  4. Mr Dogshit

    Blimey

    They only got round to getting the smurf blue circle logo put up on their Erskine building last year.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. ssharwood

    Well that'll set customers' minds to rests then

    I'm sure HP Enterprise customers are so happy their supplier has a new logo because - let's face it - that was the key issue that needed to be resolved in order to make the split a success. FFS ...

  6. mhoulden
    WTF?

    Presumably the empty minus sign is supposed to signify that there's nothing left when you remove the company's core business. It'll be interesting to see how they trademark it. I know the Bass logo of a red triangle is one of the oldest trademarks around, but these days they have to be a bit more distinctive.

  7. cosymart
    WTF?

    Joss Sticks

    Wonder how many packs of joss sticks they got through? Always sad when people believe their own bullshit, do they think that people actually care?

  8. skeptical i
    Paris Hilton

    I'd have called it teal, monitor must be flaky.

    The "joined t's means partnership" back-splanation seems more than a bit forced, but I've heard worse drivel and seen worse results come from many more dollars' and hours' work (I will assume few of either were invested here). Is she still considering a run for U.S. President? Maybe this can be part of her branding ("I'm not a square; I've got wide-view thinking so I must be a rectangle").

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: I'd have called it teal, monitor must be flaky.

      Yup. Anytime the "symbolism" needs to be explained then you know it's either failed or was invented afterwards because they needed sound bites for the PR announcements.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'd have called it teal, monitor must be flaky.

      I thought they just messed with the character spacing by mistake, and then it was too late to fix.

  9. Six_Degrees

    I infer an empty, hollowed out company from the empty, hollow rectangle. I infer it also from its CEO's attempt to claim there's any actual meaning, design, or worth behind this non-logo.

  10. FozzyBear

    Did

    Marketing pass out the small mirrors, razor blades along with small baggies of white powder before trying to sell this bullshit Seriously Meg you may have been suckered in by all that marketing bullshit. Don't demean your customers intelligence by thinking they will also.

  11. John Geek
    Facepalm

    I bet they paid some serious big $$$ to some branding gurus to come up with this silly thing and all the verbiage justifying it.

    the green box symbolizes the empty printer cartridges that cost arms and legs to replace.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    the "tt" in the name looks like PI, a small number that never repeats.

    Just like HP - a company of small minded people that will never repeat the success of the old HP

    What a shame.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good to see that HP are now concentrating on the important stuff

    It's these sort of long term strategic planning skills that make Meg's 19.6 million dollar a year package such good value. With ideas like this and Instant Ink HP are saved

  14. Captain DaFt

    This jiggled a memory cell...

    I seem to recall reading an article way back in school days that claimed one of the signs of incompetence in management was focusing on trivial minutia, while ignoring their actual duties that they were too under qualified to perform.

    1. CanadianMacFan

      Re: This jiggled a memory cell...

      You normally see it with the airlines. When they are circling the drain they roll out the new logo and repainted planes.

    2. John Styles

      Re: This jiggled a memory cell...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality

  15. CanadianMacFan

    They should hire that design team again

    But only to do the company sales because the sales job they did on the HP execs is amazing.

  16. Howard Hanek
    Windows

    Optical Illusion

    After staring at it for five or six hours yea, it's agile and transformative as a green rectangle with a name under can be. But I wouldn't suggest this technique be used by HP marketing or their advertising professionals less they be accused of witchcraft or something.

    Good thing they didn't use a pentangle instead of a rectangle.

  17. Jamie Jones Silver badge
    Facepalm

    ARRRRRGH!

    Look carefully at the name "Hewlett" in the first line. See how the crossbars on the two lowercase T's are stuck together? According to Whitman, this is the first time in HP history that this has been the case.

    Um... Ok.. So?

    "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge with our customers, partners, and our employees – what we will do together to help drive your business forward,"

    O...M...G... Check your Bingo cards!

    1. thomas k.

      thanks for that link

      I clicked, I lol'd, I came back to up-vote you

      1. Sprismoid
        Happy

        Re: thanks for that link

        I did too -.

        However could they not have provided a nice template for the Bingo card? seems like a lot of work to play - certainly more work than the average meeting demands.. :)

        Peter

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: thanks for that link

          "However could they not have provided a nice template for the Bingo card? seems like a lot of work to play"

          If you can't knock up a template in less than 30 seconds in a spreadsheet with cell borders or a table in a word processor than I'm afraid we'll have to ask for your El Reg membership to be rescinded.

          Or you could write a perl script to create a LaTeX document and export it as a .ps file to a printer and we might let you stay.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Devil

            Re: thanks for that link

            I can come up with a template for that. How about making the border of the bingo card green and the card white? This results in you holding a hollow green rectangle, which as everyone implicitly understands is symbolic of you holding a communal synergized cross-platform paradigm enabling entrepreneurial client focused solutions providing win-win value creation for cross-value chain stakeholders in your hands.

            (Now if you'll excuse me, after that I somehow feel dirty and in need of a shower .)

            1. Jamie Jones Silver badge
              Happy

              Re: thanks for that link

              Thanks for the upvotes and replies, guys and guyesses!

              I like to think that I write well thought out comments, touching on issues ranging from the social to the political, to the technological, and the philosophical.

              I involve myself in serious debate threads - fully listening to my opponent, and strategically planning my response.

              Yet, in all these years, the most upvotes I've received are on a post about bollocks, linking to more bollocks! That's what I love about El Reg! :-)

              As for the link, the site I linked to was just an old archive of an ascii-only mailing list, hence the sparseness.

              Here are 2 link to similar CGI generated random card creator. Fun for all the office!

              http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/bullshit/

              http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/buzzword/

              Googling 'buzzword bingo' brings up more!

            2. ChrisBedford

              Re: thanks for that link

              communal synergized cross-platform paradigm enabling entrepreneurial client focused solutions providing win-win value creation for cross-value chain stakeholders

              Still laughing. Many times in my career I have been told that to make more money I have to move into business analysis - but since it comes down to being able to talk like this with a straight face that option is not open to me!

        2. BongoJoe

          Re: thanks for that link

          I understand that Mangement Types are no longer permitted to use the phrase 'brain storm' as it may cause offence to those with seizures or something.

          And where, pray, is Low Hanging Fruit?

    2. Zoopy

      Re: ARRRRRGH!

      "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge with our customers, partners, and our employees – what we will do together to help drive your business forward,"

      So is she saying that in the past, they *didn't* do that as well as that should have? Even under her recent stint as CEO?

      Or have they always been doing that as well as they should have, in which case the new symbolism is mere jingoism?

  18. MondoMan
    Trollface

    You're all wrong!

    It's obviously a memristor.

    1. nijam Silver badge

      Re: You're all wrong!

      > It's obviously a memristor.

      Are you saying there's nothing in those either?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: You're all wrong! [=> memristors]

        "Are you saying there's nothing in [memristors] either?"

        Dunno.

        But it's been kinda quiet.

        Has anyone outside HP had anything significant to say on the subject? Ever?

  19. Schultz
    Facepalm

    Lacking detail

    I just see tens of thousands of black pixels and a few green ones. Do they worry about the color reproduction cost? They could at least have embossed little HPs in turqouise on the square to make it more entertaining (see: http://kuku-kube.com).

  20. Wensleydale Cheese

    I think I get it - it's a statement of intent

    The rectangle states quite clearly that this is not a company which deals with rounded corners

  21. James Anderson

    How long till....

    HP inc is rebranded to COMPAQ perhaps with a grey box to signify that they are makers of PCs in grey boxes and for the first time ever the letter O will be a circle.

    1. Stumpy

      Re: How long till....

      If they do, and then a fully-formed DEC can be spat out of that ... I'll be one of the happiest men alive...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How long till....

        "If they do, and then a fully-formed DEC can be spat out of that ... I'll be one of the happiest men alive..."

        That may seem like an almost infinitely improbable idea, but then two years ago so would the idea that HP would repeal the death sentence on VMS and instead hand over its future development to a new company who would (a) promptly recruit many former members of the VMS community at DEC (b) commit to a port of VMS to x86-64... and then it happened:

        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/31/openvms_spared/

        They've now built+released their first new Field Test of VMS (for those IA64 things, in the short term).

        The current commercial arrangements of the PDP11 stuff are less clear, but a Colorado company called xx2247 appears to have some involvement. LinkedIn has contact info.

        Yes there was other stuff too, but I know even less about the pre-PDP era.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Brainstorming session

    Right so you're splitting the company in two and your existing logo is HP written inside of a blue circle?

    Here is the words Hewlett Packard written outside of a green rectangle. That'll be two million pounds in consultancy and design fees please.

  23. Harry the Bastard

    what's that rumbling i hear...

    yep, it's the sound of bill and dave spinning in their graves

  24. wolfetone Silver badge

    I bet Meg Whitman did that herself in Paint.

  25. Phil Kingston

    However much she paid for that logo, I'll only charge her half it for these magic beans I got for sale.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well well, the corruption does on and up

    "crossbars on the two lowercase T's are stuck together? According to Whitman, this is the first time in HP history that this has been the case". of course it is the first time, its a new registered LOGO

    "That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge with our customers, partners, and our employees – no you couldn't register it as a logo without it being "novel" in some way from standard written text. Goes this "new CEO actually think we will buy this BS I think it just shows how bland unimaginative and inside the box her pilotship will be and how oblong they will become under regime.

  27. Jim 59

    Dear Reg

    Give me an official Logowatch article or it didn't happen. And two of those words better be "josticks" and "whalesong".

    1. maffski
      Thumb Up

      Re: Dear Reg

      'Give me an official Logowatch article or it didn't happen. And two of those words better be "josticks" and "whalesong".'

      +1

      And we need PLAYMOBIL reconstruction (part no. 7998 - Whale, song not included).

  28. asdf

    What would Peter Griffin say

    May I be the first (hopefully) to say, "Shut up Meg".

  29. Miss Lincolnshire

    The rectangle is in outline because it would cost too much in ink to fill it in.....

  30. Mystic Megabyte
    Linux

    Font

    Isn't that the Ubuntu font?

  31. Duffaboy
    Thumb Down

    An Empty Box Cost Millions I bet

    Nuff said

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: An Empty Box Cost Millions I bet

      HP have a track record for empty boxes. The Reg did an article some years ago about large empty boxes arriving at customer sites just to deliver a small manual. Unfortunately my search-fu has failed but IIRC HP were the winners.

      1. MrDamage Silver badge

        Re: An Empty Box Cost Millions I bet

        Here

        you

        go

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lordy...

    That's right up there with Consignia that is...

    Yes, it's going to be stacked with black rectangles in all the Powerpoints, it's a datacentre rack, we get it... I hope the booze, charlie and hookers bill was worth it boys and girls! You sure done a number there on them...

    Anon Coward since I work for a competitor and wouldn't sully my own views with theirs. I'm guessing that's where they've hired these muppets from.

  33. Justicesays
    Joke

    that company will be known simply as HP Inc

    At least it's clear where the money is coming from with that name!

  34. Archaon
    WTF?

    What the actual...

    Words fail me.

    Wonder how many millions this rubbish cost them?

  35. ilithium

    Seen this before...

    It's a bit "Microsofty" isn't it? Circa...ooh circa 1987...

  36. The Knit Server

    Marke'tt'ing

    Did they hire Perfect Curve from 2012 and W1A?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjY0784vHN8

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    2 T's, (white, one with, one without). Ta luv

    "This is the first time in our history that the two t’s in Hewlett connect."...

    Err, correct me if I am wrong, but this seems to be a logo with linked crossed t's?

    http://www.telecomworkers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/HP-hewlett-Packard-Logo.jpg

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 2 T's, (white, one with, one without). Ta luv

      Give her a break. If you do find linked 'T's, please bear in mind that its a known firmware issue with HP scanners, which re-evaluates and re-analyses the value-added benchmark and proactively synergises the end-result for client strategic needs and revisits the mindset in order to 'touch base' and focus on core client competencies for a truly results-driven formula that complies with industry best practices and leverages a customer empowering game plan for a win-win bottom line which ultimately benefits HP knowledge base and helps partners move forward, innovate, adapt, improve and succeed.

  38. Peter Simpson 1
    Happy

    Rings, not rectangles

    I once worked for a company that went for the rings...

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/08/logowatch_with_this_ring/

    ...also called the "missing link logo" by haters. Also..."3cow" if inverted.

    // went down the tubes before they could put in the giant version and the reflecting pool in front of the building.

  39. Knewbie

    HP Inc.

    "HP Ink."

    Here. Corrected that for you ;)

  40. ToddR

    Emperor Meg you are without clothes.

    Silly cow!

    1. jelabarre59

      > Emperor Meg you are without clothes.

      EWWWWW!!! That's nearly as offensive an visual image as Janet Reno being nude...

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The conversation the night before...

    I pictured it went something like this...

    Megs office...

    Meg: So Intern, did you get the fax from the designers with the new logo yet?

    Intern: Fax, erm... Do we still use fax? I didn't know we had a fax machine... Where is it?

    Meg: What the fuck do I pay you far Intern? Of course we have a fax, how else do you think we send out our communications! Christ, do I have to do everything around here!

    Intern: Emmm... I'm an unpaid Intern... Let me go ask the Marketing team if they have it....

    Marketing office:

    Intern: Hello, can someone help me, I'm looking for the new logo, Meg sent me down for the fax...

    Marketing Droid: Logo? What are you talking about? We're HP Inc, not HP Ent, get out Intern!

    Intern wanders corridor for 20 minutes looking for someone to help until he stumbles in on Dion playing jenga with the sales team.

    Intern: Excuse me Mr Weisler sir... Do you know where I can get the new logo for HP Ent... Meg sent me to find the fax... No one will help me sir.. (Breaks down crying like a 24 year old with a Masters)

    Dion: Ah, bugger! Stupid intern, you cause me to lose the jenga game! Here give me a jenga block some paper and that highlighter from the table... any one will do... the green one is fine... stupid bloody logo...

    10 seconds later...

    Dion: Here you go Intern, give this to her, tell her the designers call it the representation of the jengafied spirit of the company... there may be some holes but it keeps rising, she loves hearing that shit. Now put my highlighter back and fuck off.

    5 minutes and a quick Facebook check later...

    Intern: Hi Ms Whitman, I was given this as the new logo, it represents the jengafied spirit of the company... I have to go get my bus home now if that's ok...

    Meg: Yes, it's brilliant, it's like staring out a window into the future, the possibilities are endless, the green showing the harmony with the transient nature of our environment, ever changing with our growth of spiritualist Renaissance and endeavouring to strengthen the frailty of humanity...

    Intern: OK... Erm... If you say so... I really have to run... Tomorrow I'm with the packing men loading desks into trucks if you need me...

    Meg: Get out of my office intern...

  42. Why Not?

    Its to show they are outside box shifting.

    Forge partnerships??? Oh you mean despite being a large direct client giving all their resellers my number so they can ring me up weekly and ask why we don't buy HP?

    I smell jossticks

  43. Oninoshiko
    Meh

    It's not bad. It's just not good either.

  44. tiln
    Paris Hilton

    Pine Green Coffin?

    Perhaps, it's a hovering pine green coffin ?

    Paris, because she would have made it the shape of her lips.

    1. luis river

      Re: Pine Green Coffin?

      The logo of HP the 60's years was brilliant, to this he lacks creativity, spark, the green rectangle can suggest a pine green coffin

  45. The Godfather
    FAIL

    Jeeezz...

    If they paid someone for this, they've been robbed...

  46. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    That double T speaks to me...

    ...and what it says is "bad kerning". ( https://xkcd.com/1015/ )

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Logo re-design, the last stop before irrelevance

    Remember all the fanfare behind Microsoft's new amazing Window logo?

    And Yahoo's jaunty new angle for their purple exclamation mark?

    Invaluable details to get worked out before you start working on actual strategy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Logo re-design, the last stop before irrelevance

      Also keeps the less intelligent journalists and investors happy while you're working on that strategy.

  48. streaky

    Microsoft

    Looks like one of their old uns.

    1. Col_Panek

      Re: Microsoft

      Microsoft copied their logo from the old Simon game. Which I found one of in our cellar, and it still works; they made micros well back in those days.

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    I have respect for Meg Whitman...

    But she makes herself sound like a fool when she talks about things like the joined crossbar on the two t's in "Hewlett" being indicative of a commitment to partnership with customers.

    Well, its nice to see "Hewlett Packard" back in circulation, even if that name should really go to Agilent, since test & measurement was where Hewlett-Packard really started.

    1. Can I have a frothy?

      Re: I have respect for Meg Whitman...

      Not Agilent either, Test & Measurement is now with Keysight Technologies

  50. Florida1920
    Facepalm

    Messrs Hewlett and Packard

    must be spinning inside their boxes.

  51. zen1

    Reminds me of something....

    Kind of reminds me of when CSC rebranded to the "we cut corners" logo. HP's new logo just screams boring, bland and something utterly forgetable.

  52. John H Woods Silver badge

    Float

    Does it look to anybody else that the green rectangle (I eschew the word pine as I am r/g colourblind) should have been in the whitespace in the bottom right, but it has somehow ended up on the top of the picture?

  53. Adam Oellermann
    Stop

    Does this mean...

    ... that we now have to worry about intellectual property claims on squared corners, as well?

    Stop sign because maybe octagons are the safe route for industrial design, now.

  54. BongoJoe
    Coat

    "Freedom from external control or influence"

    It clearly symbolises the above.

    You know, as in 'Autonomy'.

  55. jelabarre59

    Next is IBM

    Perhaps IBM needs to replace their logo next too. *THIS* one seems to be a n appropriately indictifed representation of the new directionality and trenfdification of IBM....

    http://www.iconpng.com/icon/3555

  56. Palf

    I think the B Ark missed one

    The Golgafrinchans really could have used her to declare leaves the default currency and help with defoliating the forests. Or to have helped with topping up the bathwater.

    Waste of protein. Next!

    1. TheGriz

      If Some Advert Firm Charged Them Money For This...

      I spent 15 years in Graphic Design and Advertising before moving to an IT career. And let me just say, this is so "forgettable" and un-inspiring that I can only assume that Michael Dell setup a fake advertising agency and offered up a ridiculously low bid, to insure they would land the work, and then intentionally sold them on something so stupid as to instantly put more money in Dell's coffers. As a graphic designer I could have come up with something better than this in 15mins, i assure you. Wow this is just BAD! I would laugh my arse off if i saw how much they paid to have it designed.

      1. Palf

        Re: If Some Advert Firm Charged Them Money For This...

        I wonder what she'll do about curtains?

        For an empty box the colour of puke.

  57. tim 68

    Whitman's explanation is rubbish.

    The joined T's are to make the copy in the logo distinctive enough to actually be a trademark. That's why companies really do it; they come up with the joining-hands, kumbaya bullshit story later on.

    Same as the joined m's in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia logo, for instance.

  58. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    "stuck together"?

    All these comments, and no one's bashed either Whitman or McAllister for not using the perfectly good term "ligature"? I am truly disappointed in the quality of Reg pedantry here.

    (And, really, Neil - "crossbars"? There's a typographic term for those, too. I guess we're lucky you didn't describe Whitman as "top decider-person at HP".)

    1. ChrisBedford

      Re: "stuck together"?

      "crossbars"? There's a typographic term for those, too

      Umm, yeah, maybe, but it isn't "serif". You linked to an article explaining all about serifs which you didn't actually read?

      A serif is not a substantive part of the letter. It's a decoration added at one of the points of the letter. If you left off the "crossbars" of the letter "t" it wouldn't actually be a "t" any more.

  59. spiny norman

    Cheap shots

    In the entire history of corporate logo changes, has there ever been one that couldn't be ridiculed to some extent? I can't think of one. One the positive side, a new logo is a rich source of slightly cheap humour for just about everyone who wasn't involved in creating it.

    I'm no expert on branding, but, looked at seriously, this does seem to have some problems. One is that the green rectangle, by itself, isn't uniquely recognisable as HP. Many corporate logos incorporate a symbol along with the company name, but the symbol is usually capable of standing by itself.

    The other is using the name Hewlett Packard. We've been led to believe the new company will be called HP Enterprise; has that changed?

  60. armster

    And the other old HP

    Remember the HP Agilent split? Those poor guys are now running under the Keysight brand. And run what used to be the core business of HP: making great instrumentation.

  61. stupidbastard

    NOBULLSHIT

    As a FORMER - 16 year employee of Compaq/HP... I can only say: No surprises here. I believe it is about the poor bastard employees being boxed in. The now younger and dumber employees are being force fed the daily bullshit from upper management. I can tell you stories that would split your sides and make you cry at the same time. Perhaps the most telling quote everr spoke in a conference room amongst upper management HP assholes - after an HP employee survey:

    " John Doe, your team doesn't have a high opinion of upper management. It is your job to change their opinion". Yup no lie. 100% true. That manager left HP within 6 months and after explaining he could not work with those conditions.

    Another great one by perhaps the dumbest manager I ever had: And I quote " Do I need to setup an SLA between you and the salesman you are working with"? Salesman, previously from EMC, lasted 6 months and attempted to make me attend meetings 4 hours away with a single days notice, without regard for my existing appointments... And that manager is there today. But I am not.

    I could go on and on with very painful stories.... Like I said. No surprises... Glad I left when I did...

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