The logotype above is one of the most magnificent, perverse, and undeniably American things I’ve seen in my entire career. I love it. Like dirty love it. I have eight pieces of the company’s schwag around the studio (that I know of), including an old rusted-out weather vane a friend sent me.
Dekalb is a quintessentially midwestern company I discovered when I first moved to Illinois about fifteen years ago. On its surface, it’s a homey folksy affair, with thousands of Illinois teens detassling corn in their farms as summer work. Farmers downstate know their logo as a marker of a company that’s been helping them grow better corn for generations. A few years back, I called the company's HQ (in Dekalb, IL, naturally) to ask for a copy of the company's history. Just one of my weird random research sprees. The phone was answered by an actual person, the head of press relations, who was very kind, albeit a little confused why I cared. After i explained I was simply curious, they sent me a package containing a knit tombaggan with the logotype on it (!!), a white t-shirt (whose sleeves I promptly removed for that down-home aw-shucks feeling you can only get from a pair of old boots, a grubby t-shirt, and a pair of ancient 501’s), and a hand-xeroxed copy of their company history, with a very sweet letter. It was bizarre. Companies don't act like that!
Dekalb's celebrating their hundredth anniversary this year. The logo is awe-inspiring in its freakishness and its naive, homespun Americanness. The thing I love most is that it’s more a framework than a logo. There are countless variations on the forms (ear of corn, wings, DEKALB, done!) dating back a century, and I find versions I’ve not seen, homemade ones, in second-hand and eBay stores all the time. They’re a bona-fide throwabck to the middle of the twentieth century when a huge company could be thought of as helpful to the community.
It’s also connected to our freaky, over-complexified, over-technologized, earth-boiling present. Dekalb’s full name is Dekalb Genetics; they’re a subsidiary of Monsanto (a recent acquisition). Their chief business is developing new types of vegetable seeds to grow heartier plants with tastier and more bountiful yields. This includes, obviously, a lot of corn—which is now cross-pollinating with natural species, to unknown environmental effects.
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This is just a bad logo. Doesn't convey much more than that.
Patric, thanks for another interesting post. The logo reminds me of some of the imagery one sees in some of the rural farming areas of Pennsylvania.
Hillary, if a logo is recognizable and relates with the intended audience, represents something that is good for a community, and has become part of the local vernacular how can it be bad?
That being said, I recognize that it not well done by our modern standards and looks like it was done by the owners nephew. But that's not to say that it doesn't suit it's purpose just fine
Logo aside, the corn industry in this contry is criminal and I am certain Dekalb (and more likely Monsanto — by no means the farmers themselves) has much to do with it.
Amy, the corn and commodity crop business in this country could well be called criminal, with Monsanto and the rest of the agribusiness giants controlling production and contributing to the loss of the small family farm. But it hasn't always been that way, and Dekalb wasn't always part of Monsanto. They have a long and interesting history worth looking into. To me, the Dekalb logo is a brilliant piece of Americana. If you want to place blame, I'd suggest Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture under Nixon and Ford. His policies are largely responsible for the agribusiness we know today. His motto was "get big or get out" and he advocated planting from fencerow to fencerow. Most of those fencerows are now gone so a few more square feet of corn or soybeans could be squeezed in. It's frustrating and sad, sure, but don't take it out on a quirky logo. It was at one time called "The Mortgage Lifter," after all.
thats corny!
Michael Pollan raised the issue in one of his books (The Botany of Desire?): Is it humans who engineer the corn, or the corn that hornswoggles humans to help it live long and prosper?
"The corn industry is criminal?" Can an ear of corn hold criminal intent? In the U.S. legal system, is there such a thing as plant <a href="http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/s006.htm">scienter</a>?
My dad worked for DeKalb in the 1970's/early 80's. We had some serious drool worthy DeKalb gear at the house (green puffy vests with DeKalb patches, tee-shirts, the yellow mesh DeKalb hat)! Also, I was born in DeKalb.
Therfore, when I now see the DeKalb logo appreciated in a sort of strange way, it makes me snicker. I gotta find that puffy vest!!!!
Also, note that I was using DeKalb (as in the Illinois county/city spelling) instead of the company's DEKALB in above post. Although, after triple checking my error on the DEKALB web site, I think they need a web site audit b/c there is Dekalb, DEKALB, and a few random DeKalb's. Long live the flying ear of corn.