Otto Lucien Anton Spaeth Jr. (February 6, 1934 – January 13, 2021), better known as Tony Spaeth, was an American
corporate identity
A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public. The corporate identity is typically visualized by branding and with the use of trademarks, but it can also i ...
planner, consultant, critic and teacher. His work developed the premise that ''institutional branding systems'' are best understood as tools of ''leadership'' – tools to establish directional clarity, motivate performance, and affect structural change as well as to revitalize market presence:
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Early years
Spaeth born in
Saint Louis, Missouri
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
on February 6, 1934. During his childhood, Spaeth's parents took in
Anthony Bailey (then himself a child) as a war refugee; Bailey has since told the story of their shared childhood years in the books ''America, Lost & Found'' and ''England, First & Last''.
Later work
From a base in
Rye
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...
, New York, since 1990 Spaeth has provided identity planning and creative counsel to scores of clients in diverse categories. He is credited with such corporate brands as
Dow Jones Dow Jones is a combination of the names of business partners Charles Dow and Edward Jones.
Dow Jones & Company
Dow, Jones and Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones & Company in 1882. That company eventually became a subsidiary of News Corp, an ...
,
Eastman Chemical
Eastman Chemical Company is an American company primarily involved in the chemical industry. Once a subsidiary of Kodak, today it is an independent global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals an ...
,
Celera Genomics
Celera Corporation is a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics which focuses on genetic sequencing and related technologies. It was founded in 1998 as a business unit of Applera, spun off into an independent company in 2008, and finally acquired by Que ...
,
Flowserve
The Flowserve Corporation is an American multinational corporation and one of the largest suppliers of industrial and environmental machinery such as pumps, valves, end face mechanical seals, automation, and services to the power, oil, gas, ch ...
,
Commonfund
Based in Connecticut, Commonfund is an American asset management firm founded in 1971 with a seed grant from the Ford Foundation. As a private nonprofit organization, the firm manages customized investment programs for endowments, foundations, pub ...
,
FIRST
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
Robotics and
Outward Bound USA
Outward Bound USA (OBUSA) is a non-profit organization providing experiential education in the United States through a network of regional schools, especially in wilderness settings. Outward Bound counts among its desired outcomes the development ...
.
From 1998, on his website ''Identityworks.com - a service of Tony Spaeth / Identity'' (now discontinued), Spaeth reviewed noteworthy new identities of strategic or creative interest, with appropriate credit to chief executives and designers alike. The site also provided a variety of analytic and planning tools for branding and design students worldwide, and contained ''Identity Forum'', where a global panel of leading thinkers and practitioners addressed identity issues.
Spaeth's annual rebrandings overview in
The Conference Board
The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit business membership and research organization. It counts over 1,000 public and private corporations and other organizations as members, encompassing 60 countries.
Th ...
Review magazine provided a significant record covering more than two decades of
Corporate Identity
A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public. The corporate identity is typically visualized by branding and with the use of trademarks, but it can also i ...
change:
'
'
Death
Spaeth died at his home in
Rye, New York
Rye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, within the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. It received its charter as a city in 1942, making it the most recent such charter in the state. Its area of ...
on January 13, 2021, at the age of 86.
External links
Identity ForumCorporate Brand MatrixPrinceton Project 55Partners of '63
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spaeth, Tony
1934 births
2021 deaths
Brand management
Market researchers
Harvard Business School alumni
Princeton University School of Architecture alumni