AT&T was originally founded as the long-distance subsidiary of the Bell Telephone Company. In 1899, AT&T acquired the assets of the Bell Telephone Company, making it the parent company of the Bell System.
1889–1900[]
In 1889 Angus S. Hubbard, the general superintendent of the AT&T company in New York, submitted a design for use in advertising long distance service. His design consisted of a blue bell.
1900–1921[]
This is the first documented use of the "Bell System" branding.
1921–1939[]
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Local versions of the logo included the name of the local Bell operating company at the top of the ring, with the words "American Telephone & Telegraph Co." on the bottom.
1939–1964[]
1960–1964[]
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The words "American Telephone and Telegraph Co. and Associated Companies" were removed from the ring.
This is the final version of the bell logo, designed by Saul Bass. The text underneath is a modification of Helvetica, with a custom ampersand and modified spacing. The bell logo used here would continue to be used by the seven "baby bell" companies spun off of AT&T, as well as Western Electric Company.
This logo was originally designed for American Bell, the spun off equipment leasing arm of the Bell System. American Bell's primary logo contained twenty bars, with twelve- and eight-bar versions for low-visibility applications.[1][2] This twelve-bar version would become AT&T's official logo in 1984.
In 1999, a rework of the eight-stripe 1984 logo with a subtle shadow was launched. AT&T's official brand guidelines concerning this rebrand ordered designers to discontinue the 12-bar globe used since 1984,[3] although use of the 12-bar globe lingered on until at least 2001.
AT&T Inc.[]
2005–2016[]
Designer:
Interbrand
Typography:
Custom
Launched:
November 21, 2005
On November 21, 2005, AT&T received a major redesign to coincide with its merger with SBC. In advertisements of that time, the SBC logo and the previous logo came together to form this new logo, and thus, until February 2009, it was branded as "The New AT&T". The typeface was changed and was made lowercase. The globe got a glossy 3D effect, with the globe in white and the stripes in blue, rather than the other way around, and two stripes were removed, reducing it from eight to six. This rebrand was created by Interbrand, who were retained due to the success of their previous AT&T logo six years prior. In 2011, AT&T's trademark 4-note audio logo was added at the end of its commercials and tutorial videos.
In the wake of its then-recent acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T modified the 2005 logo on December 13, 2015, by having its colors switch places, making the stripes transparent and the circle blue for the second time (a motif similar to the 1984 "Death Star" logo); the wordmark was also changed as it reverted back to being in uppercase for the first time since 2005. The 4-note audio logo's was changed with its pitch being shifted 5 semitones up, and at a faster rate. Just like the previous logo, this rebrand effort was also created by Interbrand. In March 2016, The logo become a primary logo and officially rebranded.
