Tony Spaeth

Otto Lucien Anton Spaeth Jr. (February 6, 1934 – January 13, 2021), better known as Tony Spaeth, was an American corporate identity planner, consultant, critic and teacher. His work developed the premise that institutional branding systems are best understood as tools of leadership – tools to establish directional clarity, motivate performance, and affect structural change as well as to revitalize market presence:

Early years Spaeth born in Saint Louis, Missouri on February 6, 1934. During his childhood, Spaeth's parents took in Anthony Bailey (then himself a child) as a war refugee; Bailey has since told the story of their shared childhood years in the books America, Lost & Found and England, First & Last.

Later work

From a base in Rye, New York, since 1990 Spaeth has provided identity planning and creative counsel to scores of clients in diverse categories. He is credited with such corporate brands as Dow Jones, Eastman Chemical, Celera Genomics, Flowserve, Commonfund, FIRST Robotics and Outward Bound USA.

From 1998, on his website Identityworks.com - a service of Tony Spaeth / Identity (now discontinued), Spaeth reviewed noteworthy new identities of strategic or creative interest, with appropriate credit to chief executives and designers alike. The site also provided a variety of analytic and planning tools for branding and design students worldwide, and contained Identity Forum, where a global panel of leading thinkers and practitioners addressed identity issues.

Spaeth's annual rebrandings overview in The Conference Board Review magazine provided a significant record covering more than two decades of Corporate Identity change:

Death Spaeth died at his home in Rye, New York, on January 13, 2021, at the age of 86.