The National Association of Realtors unveiled its first logo redesign in 45 years Monday, part of a larger effort to position itself as a more modern organization approaching its 100th anniversary.

The new logo keeps NAR's stylized "R" but introduces a 3-D element that makes the design appear to pop off the page. The redesign is the only the latest change at NAR under CEO Bob Goldberg, who has retooled the association's organizational structure and introduced new programs since taking over in August 2017.

"We needed an optical representation of what that change looked like," Goldberg told CEO Update. "Candidly, we needed to show we were more contemporary, more modern."

The old NAR logo (left) next to the new logo.

NAR was founded in May 1908 as the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges. It is one of the largest associations in the U.S., with more than 1.3 million members in 2017 and reported $235 million in revenue that same year on its tax records.

"Some organizations rebrand themselves to get away from their past," Goldberg said. "In our case, we wanted to highlight our past and talk about what we are going to be doing in the future—so hence the reason we added a dimension to an existing look and feel as opposed to starting all over."

NAR hired the branding design firm Conran Design Group to come up with a logo redesign. The association budgeted $500,000 for the project but only spent about half that amount, Goldberg said. It has budgeted another $800,000 to provide all members a Realtor pin with the new logo. (Real estate professionals must be NAR members to call themselves Realtors.)

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