John Vassos: Magic Brain of RCA

Greek American John Vassos was associated for more than 40 years with RCA and changed the face of the important media corporation, as I tell my students not familiar with the 20th century powerhouse, the Apple Company of its day.  In 1935 Vassos suggested to owner David Sarnoff that they change RCA's logo from the traditional one showing Edison's faithful dog responding to the sound of "his master's voice" via phonograph to something more fitting for the machine age. His  image of a stylized head with an electronic brain graphically combined the user-friendliness of RCA radios (and other products) with the fine mechanical circuitry giving listeners the excellent tuning and audio that RCA products promised. As a leading consultant designer to the company, Vassos shaped these user-friendly radios by adding easy to read tuning windows, large knobs and other elements. He came up with the idea for the Magic Brain advertising campaign which expanded to include a Magic Eye referring to tuning precision - when he observed the mechanical components of the radios. Although the conservative Sarnoff preferred the "Master's Voice" logo which persisted for many years and the so called "meatball" logo with the RCA letters underscored with a lightening bolt, the Magic Brain logo was employed from 1935-1940, a time when the cooperation moved to a top ranking among electronics firms.  The logo was such a powerful icon for the company, that J. Walter Thompson company decided to use it as their spring board for their adaptation advertising the 1975 RCA Colortrak system (see the ad above). When Vassos retired from the company, they referred to him a the magic brain of the company in a plaque presented to him at his retirement party.  You may not have heard of John Vassos since he did not have a big agency  like other industrial designer pioneers from the 1930s, but he had a signifiant role in shaping the iconography of the radio age as well as the radios and televisions themselves for the United State's largest electronics manufacturer, RCA. You can learn more about John Vassos in my book, the first biography of this important designer, John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life. 

---

Author

Danielle Shapiro