A few months ago, I was talking with a friend of mine, James "Vinnie" Harned, who drives for National Van Lines. He was stuck in traffic in Chicago and I was driving back from Indianapolis. "Vinnie" said, "Hey, you travel all the time. You ever notice the arrow in the FedEx logo?"
I said, "What?"
He said, "Yeah, there's an arrow in the FedEx logo. Once someone pointed it out to me a few weeks ago, I don't see anything other than the arrow in the logo."
Our company uses FedEx exclusively for our shipping and I have been getting FedEx freight and overnight packages delivered to our house for the last five plus years. So, I was sort of incredulous that I'd never seen an "arrow" in the FedEx logo before.
As we continued to talk on the phone, I suddenly came up on a FedEx Ground semi. I slowed down and pulled in behind the truck. I said, "OK, I'm right behind a FedEx trailer. I'm looking for the arrow."
Now, it took me a long time to be able to see the arrow in the FedEx logo, but suddenly I found it. Ever since then, when I see the FedEx logo, the first thing I notice is the arrow.
See it yet?
Now, it's sort of like one of those things that is right in front of your nose the whole time, but you never noticed it before. I was sitting around with some colleagues soon after that and I said, "You guys ever see the arrow in the FedEx logo?"
Everyone said, "There's no arrow in the FedEx logo." I had to find a FedEx overnight envelope and show them. Each of them were amazed they'd never noticed it before.
I worked a dealer show in Kansas City recently and some people from the dealership and some reps went out for drinks and appetizers afterward. We got to talking about things and I said, "You guys ever see the arrow in the FedEx logo?"
Once again, they were all incredulous. I said, "It's there. Just look at the logo the next time and see if you see it. If you don't see it at first, it's because you're lookin' too hard."
I got a call from one of my rep buddies the next day as I was driving home and he said, "I looked at a FedEx logo this morning and I finally realized where it was. You're right, if you look too hard, you won't see it."
It's sort of like these 3D illusion pictures they used to have in the comics section of the Sunday papers a few years ago. You sit and stare at it long enough and suddenly a hidden three-dimensional image pops out. Some people - like Cindy's son Eric - see if right away. Others, it takes a long time to see it. Sometimes they don't see it at all. Click on the above picture and see if you can spot the rose popping out at you. You have to get close to the screen and sort of "unfocus" your eyes, but you should eventually see a multi-colored rose coming out of the background.
See the arrow in the FedEx logo yet? I'm sure by now most of you have. But for those of you who haven't seen it, here it is. Feel sort of stupid? I certainly did at first. But like I say, I see a FedEx logo on trucks, envelopes, commercials, whatever and all I focus on is the arrow.
The logo was designed in 1994 by Lindon Leader, who was then a senior design artist with the San Francisco company of Landor and Associates. The design has won over 40 design awards worldwide and is one of the most recognizable logos in the world.
A company spokesman for FedEx said the arrow design was intentional as a secondary logo design element. FedEx said that if a person sees it, "it's a neat interesting visual bonus. If the viewer doesn't see it, that's OK. It's still a powerful logo."
FedEx said the arrow is intended to "communicate movement, speed and the dynamic nature of our company."
So, the next time you see a FedEx truck driving along, I'll bet you that you spot the arrow right off the bat. And like me, it will just jump out each time you see it.
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