Over the years a lot of people have asked "what the heck is that squiggly thing anyway?" so I thought I'd take a swipe at it and let you all in on the back story. Way back in 2001, I was sitting in my original office as the only employee of a new company that had almost no revenue, and I was looking for a logo to go with the name, Apartment Therapy (which had originally been an inside joke name laid on me by a friend because my father is a psychiatrist).
As a budding designer I felt that logos were essential and having a visual image associated with what I was doing (interior design) was going to be important over time. I started sketching a few things on a piece of paper brought back from a hotel in Rome.
It wasn't working for me, so, the next day I asked my friend Vincenzo Amato, who is a great artist, to try a hand at it. This what he did.
There were great, but not quite right either. Everything was too literal.
Even my friend Brenda Bergen, who is a very talented graphic designer, took a shot at it.
I was looking outward for an answer and not finding anything.
Then, sitting at my desk again the following week, I realized that right behind me on the wall were a lot of simple form drawings that I'd been doing for awhile as a meditation/art project. On the spur of the moment, I pulled one off of the wall out of the dozen or so hanging there and scanned it. It was odd, but it was totally open, personal and meaningful, and it seemed right. In that instant the Apartment Therapy squiggle logo was born.
While it started in black, became orange and has been slightly smoothed out and corrected over the past eleven years, it's pretty much unchanged. Over the years many people have asked about it, and I've noticed how early confusion and displeasure has slowly transformed into appreciation and wonder. I think this just speaks to sticking with something that you believe in through thick and thin. :-)
What Are the Squiggles About Anyway?
The squiggle logo represents healthy, beautiful energy flow. It was drawn in 2001 and taken from my ongoing ink drawings series of which there have been hundreds over the years.
Based on the Waldorf educational practice of Form Drawing, each shape is drawn slowly in one continuous motion with ink and gouache on paper. Each is a visual record of the flow of energy occurring in that particular moment. Each one is unique. Lately, I've been filling them in as well.
Want to see more squiggles? Click here to go to a 2008 project I called, A Squiggle A Day.
Good energy flow always carries a strong meandering motion, is one of my central tenants in interior design and can be found fully explained at the start of my first book, The Eight-Step Home Cure as well as in this great book by Theodore Schwenk, Sensitive Chaos: The Creation of Flowing Forms in Water and Air. It can be experienced in nature and designed for throughout the home, garden or even public places.
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Digging a very smooth squiggle in the snow. Bondville, Vermont, 2008.
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interesting :)
nice to hear the story. i always figured it was a take on the alvar aalto vessel shapes.
LOVE this. And now...it seems soooo right. LOL.
Nice to hear the back story... I always wondered...
Very cool.
Like RedNeckModern, I interpreted it as a take on Aalto's Savoy vase.
However, I think that points out the brilliance of the logo: it's like a Rorshach test; you see what you want to see. Thus it fits in with the therapy/psychiatrist connection!
I thought it was part of a toy (kind of like lego)
Always liked it, but now that you've explained it, I wonder why I never even thought about its origin.
Meanwhile, the copy editor in me has to ask, did you mean "one of my central tenets" as opposed to tenants?
I always thought it looked like a 3-legged camel.
Tenant is the correct word choice when referring to residents of an apartment building. An interior design principle is a tenet. There's a difference in pronunciation as well.
I always thought it was aalto too!
You picked the right one thank God!
I've always wondered!!!! What a great story :) thanks for finally sharing!
Maxwell, I have been reading AT for at least five years and only this week began to wonder about the logo!
Thanks for reading my mind, answering my question, and most especially, for giving me so many rich hours of enjoyment, appreciation, contemplation, guidance, and affirmation, as well as so much inspiration and information.
You and Sarah Susanka (of the Not So Big House thinking) rank on the top of my Go To list...anytime of day of night!
Wow, love it! My father (parents are artists as am I and 3 sibs) has had a liking for ripped paper for as long as I can remember. He tears each piece slowly into a random shape, then paints the result.
I love that the AT logo is orange. Very warm and free. The first home with the heart is lovely as well.
Thanks for sharing the meaning behind what I always thought was a playful and energetic logo. I don't know how I never wondered about the logo, but I remember wondering about the ones pictured framed in your living room. I love hearing the philosophy behind the squiggle drawings and seeing the different ways you've executed them - even in snow!
And I can't help but love the embedded message that the most personal - the most open and meaningful - is the way to go, rather than the more slick and professional.
I have never actually wondered about the logo - it has always been just IS...and I am so happy to learn the origin of it - because I must have known inside that it had connections to Waldorf form drawing - I have been a fan of AT since the beginning - we have raised our children with a waldorf mindfullness (as much as one can here in nyc) -- all of what you do is great - and recently I returned from a trip to Turkey and have decided to go back with my family in 10 years for a sailing trip that you recommended!! beautiful and inspirational work always from AT...thanks...
Maxwell,
Didn't an artist friend (perhaps vincenzo) do the squiggles that were framed and hung in your apt? I thought I read about that on the old house tour or one of your old posts... My semi -photographic memory may be acting up (it gets creative sometimes), but I always imagined he had designed the logo for you. It's amazing the back stories we'll create out of limited info. :)
very cool.
Well, it was therapy and it was in your apartment (ok office but the office was in a building...).
So there I was reading the story and scrolling down, and down and come across this picture in the snow and stop short, holy cow, that's Stratton! Well in 2008 we had snow, you couldn't have made the squiggle this winter and I know just where this was taken.
Really enjoyed the story.
Such a lovely story! Nice to hear it again! (And a great logo and concept too).
Thank you.
Really enjoyed reading about it. *****
very unique story. love it!
Ah, so that's what they mean by 'off the wall' creativity.... ;)
Thank you!
This was a story I've been longing to hear for a long time - thank you for sharing it Maxwell!
Nice to know about it! I would like to take the opportunity to mention how much I love Apartment Therapy! I read it everyday and for me going through the pics, ideas, posts and so on, is as important as checking my everyday online mail, newspaper and FB!
And here I was thinking that the logo was a stylized 'M'. :-) Thanks for sharing this story!
Interesting story and while this has become iconic for you, it doesn't have much to do with your business whatsoever. I wouldn't call it a success for that reason.
But if you like it, more power to you.
I love this story. Now i want to try out meditation drawing!
I have to agree with designrgirl. As a graphic designer, I've heard many art school BS rationales, and I am rarely convinced. Why can't you just say "I like squiggles."?
the squiggles remind me of jean arp paintings
I love hearing your process! Your logo is like a clever, happy watermark while simultaneously being a fun stamp of approval! It makes feel good when I see it! We spent a long time coming up with our logo too. The upside-down chair with the bird on top creates a feeling of wanting more, but it also is something that imprints itself in your mind- much like your logo. Check it out if you have a second: www.DifferenceDesignLab.com
Thanks!!!!
My mind always sees a camel, too. :)
Thank you for making me laugh, acrossthepond. ;)
I love your story & I liked reading it even though I was one of the few who actually didn't wonder how it came to be or what it was about.
I disagree with designrgirl, as well. Art BS rationales....it absolutely has a DIRECT effect on the success of his business. For so many reasons. It comes from the same creative brain that makes this site--- the one so many people enjoy---rendering it a success. So while it may not seem like it applies in a literal sense to you (like a logo of an apartment or a house or a chair), it absolutely applies to the artist behind both the logo AND the site. Therefore, having everything "to do with his business."
I always liked your logo and appreciate it much more now.
I started reading AT in 2006 when one of my favorite blogs, the NYTimes' The Moment mentioned AT in their blogroll. You were what I woke up for over four years of a stressful job and three international moves. At that time I couldn't do decent laundry, couldn't cook, and had a mustard-colored sofa. Now I make my own sprinkles. Thank you.
Thank you. Oddly, not so oddly, this was one of the most interesting and loveliest post in AT's many years. And the happiest of endings - now we all know and love that logo.
Thanks for the story. My first take on the logo was that it reminded me very much of an Alvar Aalto Savoy vase- kind of a bird's eye view of it-looking down at it. Like that it is orange, my favorite color. I enjoy reading all your hard work.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful story. I have always loved AP's logo, because it is so organic and orange..my favourite elements in any art/design work.
I always thought it was some sort of silly bandz interpretation of an animal.
Interesting to hear the story behind it.
I loved reading this article. It made me smile.
I always thought it was some sort of puzzle piece. loved hearing the story too, this site is amazing and a wealth of knowledge. I learned so much from this site and everyone on it. Keep it up! You have so many people who enjoy this site. Thanks for all your hard work.
I love this story. The thing about branding is this: if you can connect an image to a brand, and the brand becomes successful, then the branding is successful. For every purposeful and over-researched brand design, there's Google. Few people know what a googolplex is and it wouldn't matter anyway. Google is silly and it sticks to your brain. AT's squiggle sticks to the brain. Love it or hate, we keep coming back because the content is good. Win!
thanks!!! love hearing about the process. it always makes an interesting story.
I always figured it was just a symbol that was mod and googie, sort of letting one know what you would expect to find here. And also a subliminal encouragement to stop thinking in terms of "square" or "round", but just go with the flow, no matter if it is unusual and indescribable.
But now we know.
And I am glad.
@designrgirl & alphabear - does Nike's swoosh really have anything to do with sneakers? I guess that's not a successful logo either? Poor Nike.
Interesting story! I always thought it was a play on those rorschach ink blot images that psychologists used in therapy sessions.
So now we just wait for walls of squiggle paintings to appear in house tours.... :)
Such a great story behind the logo and it's you. I like reading share's about Apartment Therapy's beginnings.
Nice work i think the logo in orange whit Apartment in blue and Therapy green,
also would look great
I think the logo fits the business perfectly and love hearing the story. Another thing that I like about it is that it is cyclical, in that it is never ending and always flowing. But unlike a plain circle to represent that - it is all over the place, with many ins and outs. Much more interesting. And much more like therapy! And most certainly representative of the ins and outs and never ending process of making a home.
I always thought it was something thrown on a wall, like spaghetti, to see if it will stick. It definitely stuck!
You beat me to it, Vix Vax. I was going to mention the McDonalds logo not resembling food. I guess that one's a failure as well.
I always see it as a camel too!
I totally thought your logo was inspired by the Aalto Vase!
@vix vax
Nike is the goddess of strength, speed, and victory. The "swoosh" mark represents that movement/momentum. For sneakers that are supposed to make you faster and better, that logo's not a fail.
@chaotic
McDonald's golden arches are an M for McDonald's, and are golden like their French fries. I don't see how that's a fail either.
Comparing those to AT's logo doesn't work because the squiggle doesn't directly have anything to do with AT itself, unlike the Nike or McDonald's logos. The AT's squiggle logo is kind of weird and doesn't directly relate to its "product" or company purpose, but for a design blog that doesn't matter so much.
@cakowalik: i totally read your comment as "camel toe". aak!
Glad I'm not the only one who always thought it was an ink blot/camel.
beautiful story ! that squiggle is going to make me smile even more when i see it now !
That couch made me think they skinned a Li'l Longhorn! www.softsidetoys.com . RIP but I think you did the right thing.
Love it even more now that I know the history. Thank you for your hard work at making a site that is informational, interesting, exciting and fun! I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013.