New Logo and New Website

I am excited to see that INFORMS is getting a new logo!  The current logo dates back to the original formation of INFORMS, when the Operations Research Society of American (ORSA) and The Institute for the Management Sciences (TIMS) merged back in 1995.  Here is how we styled it back in 1996 when we started our website:

Eventually all the wordage dropped off, leaving just the current logo:

Twenty years is a long time for a logo, so it is not surprising that a new one was designed.  It was announced at the Members’ Meeting Saturday.  And here it is!

Laura McLay broke the news on twitter:

I introduced the new @informs website design & logo at the members meeting tonight #informs2016 #ComingAttractions pic.twitter.com/L1I87GPAOy

— Laura Albert McLay (@lauramclay) November 13, 2016

Here is a tweet from the INFORMS Director of Public Affairs and Marketing which has a cool animation on the replacement:

New @INFORMS logo unveiled today. New website next. Proud of our whole team. Great new way to tell the #ORMS #analytics stORy coming soon. pic.twitter.com/sGaEDNr0MP

— Jeff Cohen (@jmc068) November 13, 2016

Very sharp!  I hope one of the people involved writes more about the decisions that went into its design.

I am also interested in the new website design. I was the founding editor of INFORMS Online back in 1996. At that time, “web designers” hadn’t yet been invented, so the design was whatever a bunch of OR people decided it would be. The result is a little painful now, but was pretty darn hot for its time:

Note the use of a background image, colored text, and centering!  We were rockin’ it for our time!

Now, of course, the website looks a little different:

But you might be surprised that one aspect of the INFORMS Website has remained constant ever since 1996.  And it is something that I remember spending an afternoon laboriously working on 20+ years ago.  You can even see it in the graphic above.  If you want to know what it is, feel free to ask me at the “INFORMS Connect and Social Networking Reception” Sunday evening.

I suspect this aspect will not survive the new web design: real web designers would not approve of my choices in 1996.