I can’t imagine all religions would be so tolerant.
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Interestingly, though I was a regular reader of hifi mags through the 70s and 80s i remember none of the adverts featured, the only time I recall seeing any being on this forum. It makes me wonder if it is because their design more catches the eye of Naim devotees than those ‘outside the fold’. Unless that limitation of appeal was (oddly) intended, it would appear to have been a failing by the advert designers. Of course, it could simply be my general immunity to adverts… Except I do recall some Naim adverts, I think from the earliest days back in the mid 70s: What I have an image of in my mind is a fairly narrow advert, maybe 1/3 page width, black and white, and I particularly remember an ad showing the narrow width preamp without tone controls, novel at the time. No other image, and no gimmicky catchphrases. Now that/those made me read and take note, and I seem to recall sending off for more info (that of course being the days before the internet!) - and finding it was too expensive for me, though interesting.
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I don’t ever remember them in the mags, but possibly because I always mentally skipped over the ads and missed the Naim ones with the others. I do remember the framed ones on the walls of the Sound Org. Southwark, certainly they had the What’s in a Naim? and Naits in White Satin ones.
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Many of them were published in freebie calendars - Hifi Answers, I think. I have/had at least two of them. If I’m lucky they’re somewhere in my loft. if I’m not lucky they were in my mother’s…which was cleared out about 10 years ago.
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Who designed the original double circle logo?
There is a credit at the bottom.
Art credit is given to Liz Vereker.
So I assume his wife or sister?
She’s very talented.
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Hi Kuma,
Sorry, I don’t know who designed the double circle version. Before my ‘CD’ one, there were more than a few inconsistent variations of that design, that had different line weights (space /sizes) inside the N and A shapes.
When I got involved as a freelance designer for naim, there didn’t seem to be a good usable version, so created my own artwork as a new master, for use on the ‘square’ naim brochure which was my first piece of work for them. That one only has the word/logo ‘naim’ embossed on the front cover, and the double circle logo is used inside in a subtle ‘varnish’ in the background of the contents page. As you can see, I did use it for the 2 adverts I posted above. I actually did an ‘outline’ version too, which was used on other printed materials.
On the olive range the ‘circles’ are on the left, though when I made my masters I added them centrally above the ‘naim audio’ which I preferred for print.
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Thanks Geoff for your reply.
I find that old logo rather quaint and thought it was rather clever to mimic their large knobs. I don’t think many people noticed it’s actually ‘n’ and ‘a’. It added some cult-ish flavour.
I think your transition new logo is a very good one. Keeping the same Avant Garde? font to have some continuity and retaining a friendliness. I love the photo of 52! Wish I could get a poster of it.
What is a typeface used in those ads? It looks something from arts & crafts era.
Linn had that Madison Ave. look in their ads, but Naim had somewhat amateurish tongue-in-cheek style which was unique. ( it ain’t gonna fly now, tho )
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Hi Kuma
Thank you for your interest and kind words. The Font used in the ads was Melior, (designed by Hermann Zapf) and yes the lettering on my version was based on Avant Garde, though I adjusted it when I did the artwork - the inside of the ‘a’ has a short straight part rather than the usual curve, and line weight is consistent with no tapering.
Here is how it was constructed, and some logo artwork prints - photographically reduced from my originals, from my archive. Obviously, where there are two sets of ‘circle NA’s’ only one pair was used at a time ! The outline NA version was used on naim stationery.
Try Photoworks in Bournemouth for the 52 picture, they may be able to supply you with a print.
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I remember first seeing this ad in What Hifi? sometime in, I think, 1985. It might cause a bit of head scratching for anyone who wasn’t around in the UK during the late '70s and early '80s. It is, of course, a play on the British Rail campaign of “This Is The Age Of The Train”, which, thanks to its featured star (Jimmy Savile), is perhaps now a campaign that’s best forgotten.
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No excuse needed… Any chance of another visit, I wonder?
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There will be another forum visit planned in due course, however, it can’t happen until the demo room refurb is fully finished and acoustically treated.
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This also from Chris Harris,…Naim Facebook group.
Fantastic - I look forward to it - missed the last one
@TOBYJUG I haven’t ever seen that one, and it can’t be that recent as it uses the ‘bevelled edge’ logo which was a tweak to my design that I wasn’t involved with - and being honest I would never have done!
There was a trend many years ago to make lettering and shapes 3D or have a drop shadow because computers enabled people to add these effects, but ultimately they usually made no improvement to the design.
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