(January 7, 2006) — Making another significant break with the past, Eastman Kodak Co. is liberating its corporate logo with a new design intended to help develop the company's identity as a trusted innovator.

The company on Friday unveiled a symbol that does away with the boxes that have contained the word "Kodak" for most of the last century. In its place, Kodak has created a simplified logo — the red letters "K-o-d-a-k" bounded by two yellow lines — that can be applied in marketing campaigns in new ways.

The change was introduced at the end of a provocative speech by Chairman and Chief Executive Antonio Perez at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In his address, Perez questioned whether digital cameras are, in fact, "dinosaurs" — expensive gadgets that simply use silicon to achieve the same ends as film. He also unveiled three futuristic focuses of Kodak research that involve ways to make images and imaging devices smarter.

Kodak's new logo, based on a customized typeface designed by a New York City firm, aims to provide a more contemporary look but still give off a warm and fuzzy feel. The company believed it needed to change as part of the accelerating shift from chemical to computerized imaging.

The logo is one part of Kodak's larger effort to redefine its brand-name identity, through advertising, public relations, supplier and partner relationships and other areas.

"We want to break out of the box, in a lot of ways," says Betty Noonan, director of brand management and marketing services at Kodak.

Kodak has essentially been using the same corporate symbol since 1971 — the letters "K-o-d-a-k" contained in a red, sideways pentagon inside a yellow box. The typography was tweaked in 1987 but the logo itself was unchanged.

Noonan said Kodak looked at replacement symbols for about eight months before finally deciding it preferred the flexibility of freeing its logo to be applied in unique ways.

Kodak today has a widely diverse portfolio of products — from digital cameras the size of a deck of cards to digital production printing presses the size of a minivan. The boxed logo was really confining the company in that context, Noonan said.

"Simplifying is a big deal. Things are smaller. But big symbols scream out," Noonan said. "We decided that didn't work on handheld devices."

The logo is supposed to continue to represent the same attributes Kodak has stood for over the years — the "science and the soul of imaging."

"That juxtaposition is what makes us unique," she said.

Kodak looked closely at the company's logo history as well as that of other companies, such as General Electric, IBM and UPS. Noonan would not say how much Kodak spent on the effort.

The changeover will take place gradually. Consumers can expect to start seeing the new mark in advertisements or other locations in about a month.

If CEO Perez has his way, the logo is destined for new and creative devices that move imaging beyond point-and-shoot.

He told an audience at CES during an "industry insider" address that digital photography has to become more useful. Perez called on the industry to form partnerships and to standardize technology to achieve the industry's potential.

"Digital products and services should not require our customers to be engineers, but rather, inspire them to be artists and publishers as they capture the moments of their lives," Perez said.

To that end, he said Kodak would be focusing on three major platforms — what he called "game changers": technology to correct automatically for common photographic flaws; technology to allow images to organize themselves automatically; and technology in which images can learn patterns of preferred organization.

A widely respected industry analyst applauded Perez's ideas and said the photo business should take note.

"I think there is an opportunity to move much faster and an urgency to move faster," said Alexis Gerard, founder of The Future Image Report in California.

BRAND@DemocratandChronicle.com