The World Trade Center has a new logo, designed by branding agency Landor Associates. The symbol’s five austere black bars have to encompass a lot of meaning, including a few dualities: past and future, presence and absence, sacred memories and profane retail outlets.
That’s a lot for any emblem to convey, especially one so ostensibly simple. Below, we unpack all the embedded symbolism, from the trident (the three-pronged beams at the Twin Towers’ base) to the pools of water at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, where the towers stood.
Scroll over the descriptions on the left to highlight the corresponding elements of the design:
