History can be rewritten, and done so in a manner that gets the attention of old and young, hip and square. Perhaps the only ones who will not find the musical Hamilton entertaining and informative will be those bloodless professor emeriti of history who insist that the story of Alexander Hamilton’s America be as bloodless and boring as they. History, art, and advertising have successfully collaborated to design a logo that captures the passion and power, precariousness and possibility surrounding the tempestuous relationships between Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and others of the time. The image that represents the musical has a history of its own. It’s the Hamilton logo.

What Is the Hamilton Musical About?

Hamilton is a two-act, rap and hip-hop musical based on the book by Ron Chernow, but conceived, gestated, and delivered by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The setting is the late 1700s, and the turmoil is between the sitting Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr, and the former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Act I focuses on Alexander Hamilton’s early life and follows along the parallel of events occurring at this time. Act I ends when Hamilton becomes Secretary of the Treasury, appointed by President Washington.

Act II widens the focus on the path Hamilton is taking. The intrigue in his personal life is just as complicated a web as the events of the time, including the election of Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr. Love, loss, infidelity, and jealousy all combine to put pressure on Alexander Hamilton, and the long-standing differences and public arguments he and Aaron Burr share cause them to end up on the dueling field. Alexander Hamilton fires a wild shot and Aaron Burr’s bullet hits the intended target, killing Hamilton. Aaron Burr is then ruined for life.

Hamilton brilliantly tells the history through exhilarating, heart-pounding dance and song, with lyrics firing through the mind like Fourth of July sparklers. The true brilliance of Hamilton is revealed through underlying currents of race, gender, slavery and, above all, the consequence of having second thoughts. Alexander Hamilton’s rise from obscurity to powerful politician and finally to his last moment of realization—that he indeed has enough and won’t back down from a challenge—is captured in the Hamilton logo.

What Does the Hamilton Logo Design Represent?

​Image via Pixabay

At face value, the Hamilton logo shows a black, five-pointed star. The top point is replaced by the shadow image of Alexander Hamilton rotated towards the right, legs at a bipedal base, posture erect, and left arm pointed straight up towards the sky with a pistol in hand. Alexander Hamilton represents the top point of the star and he is standing on the surface of the two side points, all supported by the bottom two points to make a complete star. This Hamilton logo summarizes the last moments of Alexander Hamilton’s life.

Threaded through the fabric of the play is the declaration that Alexander Hamilton does not intend to “throw away his shot.” Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had been having ongoing public fights and name-calling, and in those days a man had to defend his honor and could do so through the waning practice of dueling. There is a second meaning to that phrase, however, and that is that the determined, willful, and hard-charging statesman that was Alexander Hamilton would do anything he had to do—fight any fight he had to fight—in order to achieve his goals. That Alexander Hamilton would take full advantage of every opportunity that came his way is represented in the Hamilton logo.

The musical Hamilton provides an additional richness of depth in its content, with the second meaning to the theme that Alexander Hamilton would not “throw away his shot.” One etiquette of the dueling ritual was that if the first to shoot threw away his shot by aiming and firing towards the ground or sky, then the opponent was expected to understand this meant that the first to fire changed his mind and did not want to go through with the deadly act of shooting at another human being. The notion here is that Alexander Hamilton, at the last moment, realized that the reason for which the dual was arranged was in fact not reason enough to die. Alexander Hamilton was willing to back down from the challenge, but the story ended with the death of Hamilton and the end of Aaron Burr’s career and reputation.

That is the history of the dual according to the musical. Historians will watch Hamilton and volunteer fact checking. Two shots were indeed fired, according to the Seconds present. Neither man fired their one-shot at the ground or straight up in the air to signify the end of the dual and the end of male posturing and face-saving.

Alexander Hamilton fired first, sending his bullet into a tree just above and behind Aaron Burr’s position; Burr returned fire and killed Hamilton. That Alexander Hamilton did not fire directly into the ground created the doubt that lives on in the ivory towers of academia. Technically, he did not throw away his shot, but did he waste his one opportunity? Whether he accidentally fired or was bending the rules of etiquette by firing above his opponent as opposed to the ground, will remain a matter of opinion; the musical proposes that Hamilton did indeed throw away his shot.

What Is the History and Evolution Behind the Hamilton Logo?

Spotco, the advertising company that has designed logos for multiple Broadway hits, won the bragging rights to this cultural icon—the Hamilton logo. Almost 30 has-beens were designed over eight weeks; eight were considered favorites by the designers. Graphics, fonts, color and design were the determinants of the final product. Historical relevance, of course, took center stage for every design.

The Exclamation Point

The Exclamation Point looks like the attempt to cram as many catchphrases superimposed on a large red exclamation point as possible. Serving as the bottom point of the punctuation mark is the title of the musical superimposed on an almost unintelligible figure of what might be Alexander Hamilton.

The Pose

The Pose looks too much like the cover of a Stephen King novel. An eerie blue light glows behind the shadowy figure with arms outstretched. The messages ‘Life, Liberty, Legacy, Hamilton’ are right on point in terms of relevance, but the white wispy font makes it look like a ghostly entity or a message from a Ouija board imposed onto a screen.

Minimalist Efforts

The evolution of the Hamilton logo continued on with two attempts to return to minimalism. The Old School ‘H’ gives one the sensation that they are about to watch a Western such as The Wild West or Maverick. That was way too 60s and 70s. The Dusty ‘H’ is just that—a musty, dusty History Channel documentary on the ancient walls of Jericho. It was too dry.

Time Travel

Further shaping the Hamilton logo are two efforts that bounce between a hard rock concert and a college campus protest. ‘The Spray Paint’ and ‘The Hand and Quill’ simply do not convey the spirit and passion of the musical. The sensorium covertly travels through a time warp from the 1770s to the 1960s.

Return to the Revolution

‘The Quill’ and the ‘The Ink Stain Round 2′ are two attempts to convey the colonial-revolutionary context of the play, but again, observers are left feeling as patriotic and enthusiastic about the theme as they would be if they were looking at a handful of United States coins. The ‘Ink Stain Round 1′ is a collage of revolutionary war era images with a profile of Alexander Hamilton in the center thinking the words “rise up”; this logo is so busy that admission should be charged for the time it takes to study every component.

A Star Is Born

Eureka and at last. A star is born in the Hamilton logo. The figure of Alexander Hamilton is rotated towards his right, legs as a bipedal base, torso erect and arm held up high, creating the sensation of the dancing that is elemental to the musical. His arm is held up in defiance signifying the controversial nature of Alexander Hamilton. The pistol in his hand represents not just the dual, but the finality of the decisions Alexander Hamilton made and didn’t make.

That a star is used sums up the patriotic, Stars & Stripes flavor of the undercurrent of the play. The patriotic undertone is represented in the base of the star that Hamilton stands on and is a metaphor for the environment in which the play takes place. The antique gold, parchment feel of the background again is metaphorical for the environment in which the play takes place. The lighting on the background coming from above and to the left lends a perfect three-dimensional quality to the Hamilton logo.

Conclusion

image via: Hamiltonmusical

The musical Hamilton has stimulated a collective internal stirring of emotion, making it an astonishing success, and has given the Hamilton logo an iconic status. Although the evolution of the logo does not seem painful—the runners-up were not so far off the mark—the winning Hamilton logo is picture-perfect in the conveyance of multiple themes. Simplicity, color, font and design summarize the musical in one image. History, art and advertising have successfully collaborated to design a logo that captures the passion and power, precariousness and possibility surrounding the tempestuous relationships between Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and others of the time. The image that represents the musical has a history of its own—the Hamilton logo.

The process of creating and maintaining a logo for a company is essential for the success of a business. The image must be unique as the company name; it must be one that “brands” the company and associates it with its product instantly. Marketing campaigns focus on establishing both the name and image in the public’s mind by saturating various media outlets via advertising campaigns featuring their image, colors and slogans. In 2016, Robert Kalin, one of the co-founders of the company, created the Etsy logo from scratch.

The former painter/carpenter chose the word “etsi” after discovering its meaning when translated from Italian. Etsy (“oh, yes”) is a good example of how to brand and market a business by using an unfamiliar word without any known associations to the public. Today, the Etsy logo is synonymous with its trademark and/or brand. Etsy’s branding methods have been effective in establishing the company’s presence and helped make it a successful online buying and selling venue with a loyal customer base.

Featured Image Source: Wikimedia.org

​The Post Office

The significance of the early postal service to the economic and political stability of the young nation was highlighted by the appointment of Benjamin Franklin, already a prominent figure, as the first postmaster general by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, several years before the Constitution even would be ratified. Beyond helping to hold together the disparate political strains of the young republic, during the 1800s the ever-growing U.S. mail service was instrumental to the nation’s westward expansion. Long before the telegraph and the railroad, the U.S. mail was the premiere, if not only, reliable means of communication across the vast undeveloped regions of the American West. In its pursuit of ever-expanding routes and ever-faster means of covering them, the Post Office was instrumental in pioneering new forms of transportation and expanding upon existing ones, using horses, steamboats, trains, and airplanes to forge and then maintain lines of communications with far-flung, distant outposts.

With the USPS  spun off as an independent agency in the 1970s, and with the rise of commercial competition from private shipping companies like the United Parcel Service (UPS) and FedEx, the USPS increasingly has had to deal with the reality of market forces, including the loss of its onetime monopoly on many mail-delivery routes. Accordingly, greater attention has been paid of late to the USPS as a brand, represented most prominently by the USPS logo, which represents not only on the long, distinguished history of the postal service specifically but also of America more broadly.

About The USPS Logo

​Image by Corey Ryan Hanson from Pixabay

​Today’s “sonic eagle” USPS logo replaced the original “standing eagle” design in 1993 as part of an effort to modernize not only the USPS itself but also the public’s perception of it. This more contemporary design has proven even more enduring than the original USPS logo, as it continues to be in widespread use some 25 years later, eclipsing the standing eagle’s 23 years of service.Before the Postal Reorganization Act reestablished the old Post Office Department as an independent agency known as the United States Postal Service (USPS) in 1970, the mail service had been represented for some 130 years by the image of a speeding rider on horseback, reminiscent of the old Pony Express days so many of us grew up reading about in our history books. In 1970, the newly formed USPS adopted the so-called “standing eagle” as its official seal, and, even following the introduction of the “sonic eagle” as the corporate USPS logo in 1993, the standing eagle remains the official seal of the USPS.

The History And Evolution Of The USPS Logo

Early Logos

Prior to the Postal Reorganization Act in 1970, the United States Postal Service (USPS) was known simply as the Post Office Department. In line with the influence of classical western thought on the nation’s founders, in the department’s earliest days its official seal depicted Mercury, the wing-footed messenger of the Ancient Roman gods. In 1837, the Post Office Department revised its seal to reflect a more contemporary (for its time) image: that of a rider atop a horse in full stride, surrounded by the words “Post Office Department” and “United States of America”. Though it reflected an actual (and prominent) means of postal delivery at the time of its inception, this rider-on-a-horse logo would persist as the Post Office Department’s official seal for more than a century: well after the horse had been supplanted by the train, airplane, and automobile as a primary means of mail delivery. By the time that the Post Office Department became the United States Postal Service (USPS) in 1970, this rider-on-a-horse logo had evolved from a contemporary image representing speed, mobility, and geographic range into a historical reference to the mail service’s legendary legacy and, presumably, the kind of spirit that still persisted in the organization even to that day, long after the intrepid rider traversing the American plains had been replaced by a truck driver crossing the country with the ease and regularity of a daily commute. 

​Modern Logos

​Image by F. Muhammad from Pixabay

​With the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act in 1970, what previously had the Post Office Department became the United States Postal Service (USPS), as it continues to be known today. With this reorganization as a new, independent agency, the USPS set about creating a brand for itself, adopting as its official seal the so-called “standing eagle” design that many still recognize today.Although it left behind both the style and imagery of the long-standing Post Office Department horse-and-rider seal, the USPS’s original “standing eagle” design continued to strongly, if symbolically, represent its associations with the United States government. Like an American flag adorned with a gold-fringe, the standing-eagle USPS logo featured bold red, white, and blue colors framed with gold lettering that states, “United States Postal Service” along with nine gold stars which line the bottom edge.Within this gold frame is the profile of a bald eagle, one of the most prominent and lasting symbols of the United States, perched atop a solid red stripe which is followed underneath by a white band with the words “U.S. MAIL” featured prominently in black all-caps font. This lettering itself sits atop a blue stripe that rounds out the patriotic design and trifecta of national colors.In 1993, the “standing eagle” USPS logo was updated to the sleeker, more contemporary “sonic eagle” design which continues to adorn millions of USPS packages, trucks, signs, and uniforms to this day. Like the standing eagle, the sonic eagle features a forward gaze that is meant to symbolize the organization’s eye toward and role in creating the future, while the contours of the design give the viewer a sense that the eagle is in motion.Unlike the standing-eagle design, the sonic eagle features a closeup image that contains the eagle’s head only, with the wings and the rest of the body merely implied. The sonic-eagle USPS logo’s sense of speed and rapid movement is emphasized by the forward-leaning italics of the all-caps blue text, which also is tilting in the direction of the eagle’s gaze.Similarly, the eagle’s profile is framed within a parallelogram that also leans to the right: in the same direction as the italicized font and the eagle’s eyes. This seemingly simple choice of placing the eagle’s head within a forward-leaning parallelogram rather than in a rectangle lends a great deal to the logo’s depiction of speed, forward progress, and rapidity of movement, all of which the USPS wants its logo to express.Unlike the older standing-eagle USPS logo, which included a total of 5 colors (red, white, blue, black, and gold), the newer sonic-eagle design reduces this number to three (red, white, and blue, including the white background). This more limited color pallette contributes to the greater simplicity, and sleekness, of the current USPS logo, while also lowering costs of reproduction, another reflection of the USPS increasing need to operate under traditional commercial considerations.

​Conclusion

​Image from usps

​An examination of the history and evolution of the USPS logo demonstrates how our cultural imagery can shape, and be shaped by, the society in which it exists. Whereas the rider-on-horse seal of the old Post Office Department was a contemporary depiction of speed and perseverance at the time of its creation, still in use more than a century later, it had come to represent the agency’s proud historical legacy and its significant role in shaping the modern America.Alternatively, the current sonic-eagle design of the USPS logo, with its sleek lines and contemporary minimalism, seeks to cultivate a sense of forward-looking, cutting-edge innovation while using the conventional, historically based imagery of the eagle (if in a decidedly modern depiction) to harken back to a long history of patriotic service to the nation.In the unique case of a seal or logo that persists across centuries as the USPS logo has, we are able to see the manner in which the symbolism evolves, becoming as much if not more of a reflection of the society in which it is based than anything intrinsic to the imagery itself. Much as the popular interpretations of Shakespearean plays vary from generation to generation based on the cultural stylings and influences of the age, corporate imagery in the form of logos and the like are highly dependent on the society in which they exist to provide the cultural subtext to their symbol-based shorthand.In the instance of the Post Office Department and its rider-on-horse seal, the evolution was smooth and advantageous to the image the postal service strove to cultivate of itself, not only to its clientele but to its own employees. However, such luck is not guaranteed, and one must always remain aware of shifting cultural norms, lest an aging logo be interpreted in a negative way by an ever-evolving audience.