Hail the Yellow Cab

New York City taxis have changed little since 1970, when all medallion cabs were required by law to be painted yellow (to distinguish them from gypsy cabs). But the recent redesign of the NYC Taxi logo is a sad example of the result of an unfortunate mishmash of city politics and tweaked by committee.

The goal was “To bring the taxi’s image into the 21st century, to appropriately celebrate its centennial and give a nod to the past while giving it a consistent, modern appearance,” said Allan Fromberg, a spokesman for the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The first logo by Smart Design was simply the capital letters NYC, followed by slightly higher capital letters spelling TAXI. Smart Design moved the fare information panel from the front door to the rear door, where passengers were more likely to see it, and added a pictogram showing a person hailing a cab. It moved the medallion number to the rear of the cab, and added a streaming trail of rectangles to recall the historical Checker.

But city officials wanted something more “flashy”. After the Taxi and Limousine Commission and NYC & Company (the official tourism organization for the city), went over the design it turned into what you see above.

I think the logo is a secondary element in the branding of the taxis — I imagine very few notice the logo but everyone knows what the yellow signifies. I also think that the Crown Vic is a more powerful brand identifier than the logo they had or adopted.