A crowning touch...and an explanation

Sep 1, 1997 12:00 PM, Larry Anderson

Alert readers noticed our new logo on the front cover. Less-than-alert readers are now frantically flipping back to look at it. (We'll wait until they catch up.)

Now that I have drawn everyone's attention to the new logo, I would like to offer a few comments and words of explanation.

We feel our new logo, designed by art director Maurice Thompson, is a crowning touch to improvements we have undertaken at the magazine in the last year. We hope all readers-the alert ones and those others-have noticed the changes. Some changes have been graphical; others have been journalistic. I strongly feel our monthly editorial package has improved substantially. I would like to publicly recognize the staff members who have been instrumental in the effort. Improvements in our "look" during the last year have been courtesy of our staff artists-Katja Papunen, David Ramares and the aforementioned Mr. Thompson. Editorial improvements have been achieved largely through the sweat of Kate Doherty and George Partington. Kudos all around for jobs well done. It is personally fulfilling to work with, and learn from, these talented individuals.

And so the new logo is a crowning touch (although we certainly will continue to improve). We like the look of the new logo, and its appearance is consistent with changes in the magazine as well as graphic improvements at our Internet Web site (www.securitysolutions.com). Perhaps most importantly, the new logo emphasizes important words in our name.

Heretofore, many people have known us as "Access Control," although our name changed officially in 1995 to "Access Control & Security Systems Integration." Even since the expansion of our name to its "mouthful-and-a-half" length, we ourselves have often been guilty of shortening it to "Access Control," while even in the same breath offering assurances that we are "not just access control."

Even less-than-alert observers of the security industry realize that access control is only a part of the total security picture. Certainly as a magazine that emphasizes a "systems" approach in its articles, we have long recognized that other products are just as important, and that how the products work together to serve a security need is most important of all.

You could argue-come to think of it, I think I will-that our magazine has always been about "security systems integration," even dating back to the time when those words were not a part of our name. Those words describe our long-standing editorial orientation, and they certainly spell out our approach to writing about this market in the years to come. Access control is a part of security systems integration-certainly an important part, but not the only part. The words "security systems" are bigger in our new logo because they sum up succinctly what our magazine is about-now and in the future.

So why keep the "Access Control" part at all? One reason is continuity-what the marketers call brand equity. The other reason is that we're just a little sentimental. If "Security Systems Integration" represents our future, "Access Control" represents our roots, our heritage. You will continue to see the words "Access Control" in our name-at least for now. We hope they offer assurance that, even though we are undergoing some changes, we are still an old friend.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue