Net neutrality is making friends and influencing people these days: President Obama, plucky tech startups, 81 percent (PDF) of the U.S. public, even corporate giants far from Silicon Valley. Imagine how much more attractive the policy would be if it weren’t saddled with the vague and unlovable name “net neutrality.”
The term, coined by law professor Tim Wu, simply fails to generate much excitement, even as advocates and opponents have spent years fighting over it. Bloomberg Businessweek’s Brendan Greeley tried his hand at rebranding, although his preferred coinage—“tariff-free Internet”—improves on clarity without gaining charm.
If you’re in the confused camp, here’s a brief explanation: A net neutral system prevents Internet service providers such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Verizon (VZ) from treating different kinds of digital traffic differently. Without rules enforcing neutrality, companies in control of broadband could offer faster speeds to preferred partners who pay more, or offer slower speeds for services they don’t favor.
Sure, it’s complicated. But a new name might make net neutrality easier to debate as the Federal Communication Commission weighs new rules. We gave some of the country’s top design firms about 24 hours to come up with alternative identities for net neutrality. Here’s what they came up with.
A. Internet Is Ours
Wolff Olins imagines the slogan as an interactive feature allowing people to click on the phrase and add their own pixels. The new name, the designers say, is “a simple reminder that we all own the Internet.”
Designers: Anthony Galvin, technical director; Neil Cummings, creative director; Chris Moody, creative director
B. FAIR
Fair access to the Internet is cast as a basic human right in this entry from Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.
Designer: Sagi Haviv
C. Neutral Net
The designers at Landor shorten and reorder the movement’s already recognizable language. The identity uses an equal sign made up of both small and large pieces of data to symbolize that, regardless of size, all information would flow at the same speed.
Designers: Dale Doyle, executive creative director; Zack Mueller, designer
D. Bruce
The designers at Base drop the Internet from the logo altogether and present the hero, Bruce, “a guy with no affiliations or predispositions” other than “to make sure the playing field is level for everyone.”
E. Save Our Internet
Carbone Smolan Agency offers a circuit redrawn in the form of a bald eagle and as a tree whose growth should not be curtailed.
Designer: Sarah Morgan
F. We the Web
Borrowing from the preamble of the Constitution, this updated slogan from Siegel + Gale establishes “data democracy” as a pillar on which the U.S. is built. The designers modernize the look by using a contemporary system font to “carve out a clear and bold message of fairness, equality and liberty.”
Designers: Mike Preston and Mads Jakob Poulsen
G. Access Equality
This statement from Red Antler represents the issue in symbols and words that are already a part of the American lexicon: the computer hand signal and the idea of equal access.
