When high-profile companies rebrand themselves with a new logo and a new attitude, sometimes the decisions are wise. Often, they are not. Facelifts don't create an original face; they just make the same old one look a little fresher.

When AT&T hired Saul Bass to design the mark that would become their famous Bell System logo in 1969, the company remained committed to the mark until its break-up in 1983. The freshness may have worn off, but over its fourteen-year run, Bass's Bell Telephone logo enjoyed a 93 percent recognition rate in the U.S.