The logo is one of the most important elements in the external presentation of a company. Alexander Thamm GmbH is replacing its previous logo with a new one on 12 March 2020. In a double interview, Alexander Thamm (CEO) and Michaela Tiedemann (CMO) explain the reasons for this and the motives that guided the creation of the new logo. 

Why was the old logo replaced? 

Alexander Thamm: The previous logo dates back to our early days. At that time, we were 100 per cent concerned with business analytics and data science. We designed our logo accordingly. But while the logo has always remained the same and we have only changed the slogan from "Business Analytics Services" to "Data Science Services", our topics have evolved. That's why we now had to follow suit.  

Michaela Tiedemann: The logo is usually the first visual touchpoint with a company. We all know that the first impression is incredibly important. That's why it's crucial that the right associations are made right away with our logo. The statements of the old logo no longer coincided with our working reality. In addition, we are perceived as 'AT' from the outside, not only by our customers. We have taken this up directly in the new logo to strengthen our recognition value. 

What was special attention paid to when creating the new logo? 

Michaela: There were several points. On the one hand, Alexander Thamm GmbH is already known as a brand. It was important that the new logo could be immediately associated with us as a company. That's why we wanted to put the brand in the spotlight. On the other hand, the full company name "Alexander Thamm GmbH", is not sexy - especially for non-German speakers. We see that the simple abbreviation 'AT' is often used by our customers. We were happy to pick up on that.  

So the external perception was a decisive factor in the design? 

Alex: Yes, absolutely. Customers always come first for us. We want to help them get the most out of their data, making them fit for the future. We work with so many great and exciting companies that are sitting on a real treasure trove of data and accompany them in generating real added value from it.   

What statements are associated with the new logo? 

Alex: We are and will remain a data-driven company. That's what we were at the beginning and that won't change. Today, however, we no longer just implement individual data science use cases for our customers, but accompany them throughout the entire data journey. Starting with the data strategy, through the development of prototypes in the data lab, to the implementation and scaling of the finished data products. Finally, we operate and maintain our customers' platforms and machine learning algorithms in our Data Ops.  

Therefore, the slogan "Data Science Services" in our previous logo was no longer appropriate. Since we cannot yet say where our journey will take us in the next few years and how exactly our portfolio will develop, we have made a conscious decision to no longer include a slogan in our logo.   

Michaela: The logo now focuses on the abbreviation 'AT'. Next to it, we rely on a strong reference to AI. The abbreviation is framed by square brackets. These kinds of brackets are elementary symbols in programming. The second reference to AI is the chosen font. It is reminiscent of the typical look of the Python programming language.  

Were the employees at Alexander Thamm also included in the decision-making process? 

Alex: Yes. It is very important to me that our employees are involved in such decisions. That is an essential part of our corporate culture. We thrive on the active involvement of employees. 

Michaela: Jannes from our marketing team develops our entire corporate design. Over a longer period of time, he created various logo designs, which we discussed a lot internally. In the end, we had our employees vote on 2 logo variants. The version that received the majority of votes was refined in the next step. There was also another final vote. The winner is now our new logo.  

Alex: I'm really happy with the new logo and totally excited that we're now changing our entire brand presence to it. It feels really good.