(guest post by Leroy)
The most
read, translated and distributed magazine in the world has lived a long life.
It was born in 1879 before the water closet toilet was generally introduced. It
witnessed the invention of the radio, the telephone as we know it, the
lightbulb, the airplane, cars, cinema, TV, internet, etc. It survived two world
wars, countless economic recessions, and it survived pandemics like the yellow
fever, cholera, the Spanish flu, Ebola, among others.
Throughout
its history it has experimented with many internal changes, one of the most
visible being its cover design. Today we are going to review, one by one, every
cover logo the Watchtower magazine has had. We are including only magazine
cover logos. There are other “institutional” logos used in letters and other
documents, as well as in other publications; we are not including those in this
article, only the ones that appeared in the cover of the Watchtower magazine.
NOTE:
All logos included in this article had trademark registry in the past; however,
we have consulted with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(uspto.gov) to confirm that none of them has a currently active trademark. We
verified this because we don’t want to violate copyright laws nor the
organization policies regarding the use of current logos. All the current logos
that have active trademark registry can be found in the official website
(jw.org)
1879
Years on the cover: 12
Years on the cover: 12
In July
1879 the first number of “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald or Christ’s Presence”
magazine was published, and it used this logo. The design appears to be
inspired by the left side of the main gate of the Allegheny Cemetery, a very
familiar place for young CTR. In it you can see a tower and a wall almost
identical to the ones in the drawing that decorates the cover of the first
number of the magazine.
Here are
two photographs of the cemetery entrance, one seen from the front, and the
other from the left side for comparison purposes.
Main gate
of the Allegheny cemetery as seen from the left side.
1891
Years on
the cover: 4
In January
1891 the previous logo was moved to the first interior page of the magazine,
and they put this other logo on the cover. It includes for the first time the
cross and crown symbol. This symbol was quite common among Christians since the
XIX century, it was used by Baptists, Methodists, Adventists and other
Christian groups and was later adopted by the masons. The meaning is simple: it
makes reference to the fact that those who want to be kings with Christ (bear
the crown), but must first live a life of sacrifice like his (carry the cross).
In this logo they also changed the lettering for one much more adorned.
1895
Years on
the cover: 14
This is one
of the most identifiable logos of the Watchtower;
the main letters were put on top of a cloth banner. Two symbols were added at
the top, on the left the cross and crown symbol, and to the right a coat of
arms symbolizing the Christian armor. Even though this exact logo was active
for 14 years, this general idea remained until 1931, a total of 36 years.
1909 (January)
Years on
the cover: 0 (9 months)
The main
banner was redrawn and also the upper part symbols. The title “Zion’s Watch
Tower” was changed for “The Watch Tower”. The slogan letters were also redrawn.
1909 (October)
Years on
the cover: 9
In October 1909
they changed the lettering of the word “The” and they came back to the 1895
design of the letters, symbols and slogan style.
1911
Years on
the cover: 0 (3 numbers)
Some copies
of the number for August 15, 1911 featured a color cover. This same cover
appeared again in the January 1st issue of 1912, which was a special
edition. For this cover all the logo was redrawn, keeping the same idea, but in
full color. The same year, the April 15 issue featured the same color cover.
1918
Years on
the cover: 13
In March
1918 the logo was retouched again. The most notable change was the lettering
style of the slogan, this time a little more “square” like than the previous.
1931
Years on
the cover: 8
The Oct 15
issue featured a substantial change in the cover logo. The cross and crown and
coat of arms symbols were removed and the design of the main banner was
simplified, now looking more like parchment as opposed to cloth. The words
“Watch” and “Tower” were merged, changing the title to “The Watchtower” and the
slogan was placed in the left side of the composition.
1939 (January)
Years on
the cover: 0 (2 months)
The
lettering style of the word “Watchtower” was changed and the parchment banner
was redrawn. The slogan changed to “And Herald of Christ’s Kingdom” instead of
“And Herald of Christ’s Presence”.
1939 (March)
Years on
the cover: 11
The slogan
was changed to “Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom”. By this time the magazine cover
was printed in two inks.
1950
Years on
the cover: 24
Another
drastic change occurred in the August 15 issue of this year. The parchment was abandoned
and they used letters in perspective. The slogan combined two different styles
and it was moved to the right of the composition.
1974
Years on
the cover: 4
In January,
1974 appeared a new logo, the only changes being the word “The”, changed to a
cursive style, and the slogan typography. The slogan was also moved to the
bottom of the cover.
1978
Years on
the cover: 4
In this
year the logo was simplified, they used capital square shaped letters for the
title and they added for the first time the Watchtower shape over the letter W.
1982
Years on
the cover: 2
This year
the typography was changed for one in upper and lower case. The word “The” was
increased in size. The left line of the Watchtower shape was shortened, and the
slogan typography was changed for one with a bigger and slimmer style.
1984
Years on
the cover: 2
The logo is
the same as previously used but from this year onward the main title “The
Watchtower” appeared in color, and the rest of the composition in black.
1986
Years on
the cover: 1
This year
they used the same logo but it was used all in one color rather than black.
1987
Years on
the cover: 4
This year
the word “The” was made smaller, the tower shape was redesigned, making the
battlements shorter and it was relocated to be on top of the letters a, t and
c. The slogan style was changed for a bold font.
1992
Years on the
cover: 28 so far
The
typography was changed for one in upper caps with serif and the base of the
tower was made thinner. This is the cover logo up to this time of writing.
Because
this logo has active trademark protection we cannot show it here, but you can
find it on the official website jw.org
Which one
is your favorite?
Note from Jerome: This material was first published in Spanish on a long-running history blog and is reprinted here in English with permission. Even if you have to use the joys of Google Translate, it is well worth checking out at: www.tulees.blog
Addenda
It appears that the original 1879 Tower logo was used on foreign language versions of Zion's Watch Tower for some time. Below is a graphic of a Swedish language Watch Tower from 1904 which has been sent to Bruce.
1 comment:
Thank you for the interesting collection!
German Girl
Post a Comment